Get Up reacts to Urban Meyer being placed on paid administrative leave | Get Up! | ESPN

The Get Up crew discusses the news that Ohio State Buckeyes football head coach Urban Meyer was placed on paid administrative leave following assertions that he might have known about a domestic violence allegation against since-fired assistant coach Zach Smith in 2015.

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[werocktheplanet]

Thank you so much for treating this PUBLIC SAFETY issue so seriously. Great journalism. Very Proud of you!

[dibsports]

Meyer knew. Coaches are a tight fraternity. They are family. How the hell do you not know?Title 9 forces coaches to be held accountable and report any abuse. Read the law. Meyer broke it.

[JoshMitchell]

The commentators nailed the issue when they said people who witness sexual abuse whether as victims or insiders should never prioritize protecting a program or a reputation over protecting people.

[iana.dickson]

This has became a DAMN CYCLE and TREND that has evolved in this world...

[michaelhogg]

IMO, I think that this will cost Urban Meyer his job at Ohio St! What I don't understand is why did they wait so long?

[_r.i.t.z._]

People who think he should be fired are just ridiculous. THE POLICE didn’t think there was enough to arrest and prosecute the man why should Urban. Urban gets paid to coach a football team not investigate a potential crime. People are furious at him and literally nobody is talking about the people who should be blamed and that’s Zach Smith and the police involved nice job society smh.

[Gwolf]

If this is accurate and he did nothing then he deserves to be removed position head coaching duties and the university is not an innocent because we're talking about a human being that is a victim of abuse and that's the number one priority in this

[GisherJohn]

I'm a Michigan fan and this is ridiculous. Fake news

[johneric]

What's pathetic is Espn refuses to address the laws in the state of Ohio. Zack wouldve been arrested, the victim doesnt press charges in DV cases here. The state does period and u fight it out in court. She lied about not being able to get a restraining order in 2015. Then got one in 2018 for him dropping his kid off in the driveway

[keithwilliams]

I'm trying to understand how your job is responsible for your personal relationship. The police needed to investigate the allegations

[MacMittens]

Seems like issues like these always come up during the off season in sports. I Guess all that aggression in sports needs to be channeled somewhere, it really is a shame people can't deal with issues maturely.

[ntbsak]

He wasn't wrong when he said Shelly Smith near the end. She too at this point has gathered more data than most on this subject..

[stevenredman]

All of this debate over Urban Meyer's coaching future is certainly weeding out which ESPN shows are worth watching and which ones should be skipped over. I like Greeny's position that there is a lot more to the story than what was "uncovered" by Brett McMurphy. After all, McMurphy didn't gain access to the Powell Police Department or apparently to anyone else involved in this fiasco other than Courtney Smith. Shelly Meyer obviously didn't know that Urban already knew when she said that she "needs to tell Urban". And the university already knew. The Powell Police Department informed the school that one of its "high profile" employees was being investigated in a domestic abuse case. So now what legal counsel thinks the university or anyone else should have contacted Courtney Smith regarding those allegations and risk interfering with an official police investigation? So when the Powell PD and Delaware County prosecutor both declined to pursue charges against Zack Smith, citing lack of evidence, what would make Urban Meyer think there was "anything to it" when asked about it three years later at the Big10 Media Day event? And why would the university publicize the allegations and subsequent non action as a result of the police investigation that turned up nothing? Meyer later admitted that he could have responded better to the question when asked. And going on paid administrative leave was just a means to not distract from the team during its ongoing training camp, not knowing what sort of media scrutiny might ensue. So why was Smith fired? During the 2015 sit-down with Coach Meyer, AD Gene Smith, the compliance office, and others, Zack Smith was probably told that his name being linked to ANY further claims of domestic abuse or violence would be grounds for immediate dismissal. McMurphy's half-baked and less investigated story naming Zack Smith was probably the trigger.

[localone]

I guess I don't get it? Why is this an employer responsible and not the police? Video says she contact the police and they didn't charge him? I'm not taking up for him, because I couldn't care less about him. But it seems more like go after the school because they have deep pockets. If this happened to anyone of us and we got fired from a job but police found nothing to charge you on, you would sue that employer. If this really happened then the police are responsible for doing nothing.

[DestroJJ]

She has a more professional attitude, Beatle be acting stank.

[omgbygollywow]

Everyone has a comment, but we don't know the whole story. Bottom line is we don't know what Meyer knew and how much he knew.

[lamontlane]

Why no criminal charges, or criminal investigations? Why do we hold Ohio St and its representatives to such a high regard in these matters, when the justice system can get away with my criminalizing these domestic violence crimes. We don't take domestic violence seriously as a nation because the justice system considers it to be a misdemeanor offense, or petty crime. Urban Meyer took this matter as seriously as the justice system did.... What's wrong with that now all of a sudden?

[cliffeck]

Well stated Greenberg, but you sure poured on the pessimism. Will you now have the guts to admit you over reacted.?

[fconzo]

If Ohio State officials knew and fired Smith Urban had to know.

I respect Urban a ton but he has to go under these circumstances.

He used bad judgment before at Florida and an investigation in this

current matter will likely not clear him on this issue.

OSU is looking at a settlement and the contractual terms

of his contract as much as they are investigating the facts

surrounding this matter. We likely have another 7 year ache in

the mode of Penn State coming to da shoe-

players will leave before seasons end.

[jeffreyrusselljr]

This may not even be true. How would you like to be accused of something and be fired before you are even investigated.