Before you drag Urban’s name through the mud, before you gripe and complain that he’s leaving your beloved U for greener pastures and warmer winters, consider what he is.
Before you condemn Meyer for not fulfilling his promises or his contract, and before you take him to task for using the U as his personal pole vault to success, remember that he is nothing more than a model American capitalist.
Sure his decision is selfish, but isn’t that what capitalism is all about? There’s no loyalty involved, there’s no patience, and there’s certainly no thought for anyone’s condition but his own. It’s all about money and stature, and whoever presents the best package combining the two is going to be the new boss.
Enter Florida. The Gators offered the most money, the best chance to win a national title in the shortest amount of time, and the best shot at fulfilling Meyer’s dreams and his ego. What else is there to say?
So if you think these practices are detestable, then perhaps a sharper eye should be turned toward the system that spawned him, and the prevailing attitude of all capitalists. If you find yourself complaining about how Meyer used the Utes for two seasons of vainglorious personal promotion, then ditched them for a better gig, just remind yourself that he’s only being an American.
You might be tempted to point out that Meyer constantly appeased the Utes and their fans with repetitive, hollow rhetoric like, “I want to coach here for a long time,” and “my wife loves it here,” and let’s not forget “I don’t want to move my kids all over again.”
While Meyer’s wee-ones might be at fragile stages in their respective developments, I don’t think Meyer was thinking about the psychological effects of Gainsville’s private grade schools when he signed for $14 million over seven years.
This type of rhetoric shouldn’t come as a surprise, however. This is just a small-scale repetition of the same moral vapidity exercised daily on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Wall Street. Although it is significantly paler in importance, it’s the same kind of logic being exercised.
Money comes first and everything else is second.
If there was ever any doubt that Urban’s decision was going to be about money and stature, all doubts were dispelled when he snubbed his “dream job” at Notre Dame for the less prestigious Gators’ job.
When you’re an Irish Catholic raised on Notre Dame football, when you’ve coached there in the past, when you have a clause put into your contract so you can acquire the job when it opens, and when the fates conspire to put you in the driver’s seat to take the job once it opens, you take the job.
Unless you’re a capitalist, then you simply take the job that offers you the most money, and that’s what Urban did. Plain and simple.
Did he upset his wife, who had become comfortable in the community? Will his kids become cannon fodder of the upwardly mobile football coaching lifestyle? Will the U’s football program fall from its lofty heights and return to mediocrity? Why should Urban care, he’s going to be making millions.
Even if he does care, he obviously feels comfortable with these casualties, otherwise he would be wearing red next year instead of blue.
If you feel like Urban cheated you, or if you feel like he acted immorally, ask yourself what you would have done in his shoes. Then ask yourself what the model American capitalist would have done and you might begin to understand why Urban’s popularity in the eyes of Ute fans is similar in shade to America’s popularity in the eyes of the world.