Jaguars Win $30M Contract Dispute Against Urban Meyer

More than four years after the Jaguars fired Urban Meyer, a determination has been made in the former head coach’s grievance against the franchise.

According to On3’s Brett McMurphy, an independent arbitrator has ruled in favor of the Jaguars after Meyer challenged that the team was justified in firing him for cause when it terminated his contract midway through his first season as Jacksonville’s head coach.

As a result of the ruling, the Jaguars won’t be required to pay the three-time college football national champion head coach the remainder of the reported four-year, $36 million contract that the NFL club signed him to when they hired him in 2021. Per McMurphy, the Jaguars saved more than $30 million by winning the grievance. Jacksonville fired Meyer after just 13 games amid a 2021 season in which his conduct generated negative headlines for the franchise.

Perhaps most memorably, Meyer was captured in a viral video with a woman who wasn’t his wife dancing near his lap at a Columbus, Ohio, restaurant. Jaguars owner Shahid Khan referred to Meyer’s behavior, which came just a day after the Jaguars lost to the Bengals to fall to 0-4, as “inexcusable” at the time.

Although Khan referenced the incident while announcing Meyer’s firing nearly three months later, the arbitration process appeared to focus on former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo’s claim that the head coach kicked him while he was warming up during a preseason practice session. According to McMurphy, the independent arbitrator interviewed Meyer, as well as several former Jaguars players, coaches, and executives, including Lambo, long snapper Ross Matiscik, punter Logan Cooke, and former general manager Trent Baalke.

Lambo first made his claims against Meyer in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, and the Jaguars fired the head coach hours after the interview was published. The team insisted at the time that the firing wasn’t prompted by Lambo’s allegation, which the Jaguars’ legal counsel was made aware of at the time the altercation occurred. Jacksonville was 2-11 at the time of Meyer’s firing.

The veteran kicker later sued the Jaguars over the incident, claiming that Meyer had inflicted “extreme emotional and mental distress” on him. A Florida judge ultimately dismissed the lawsuit. 

As for Meyer, the 61-year-old has served as an analyst on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff college football pregame show since 2022. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame last year.

The Jaguars didn’t respond to a request for comment.