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  • St. Urban does it again

    Ohio State's Urban Meyer makes himself look worse by taking to Twitter to 'correct' record
    Nancy Armour, USA TODAY Published 1:22 p.m. ET Aug. 31, 2018 | Updated 4:28 p.m. ET Aug. 31, 2018


    SportsPulse: Urban Meyer’s suspension can be debated, one thing cannot: Ohio State and Meyer botched their reaction and explanation of the decision. USA TODAY Sports


    Urban Meyer’s breathtakingly bad judgment goes beyond his personnel decisions, media appearances and phone settings.

    A day before his Ohio State team kicks off the season, Meyer took to Twitter on Friday morning to cherry-pick his way through the investigative findings that led to his three-game suspension. He said he wasn’t suspended because he knew about or condoned domestic abuse. He said he didn’t lie at Big Ten media day. He said his only misdeed was trying too hard to help a misguided soul who was struggling at work.

    Hogwash.

    More than a month after Meyer was forced to fire Zach Smith when his history of domestic violence came to light, it’s clear the coach still doesn’t have a clue what this whole fiasco is about. A woman was beaten by her husband, with photographs, text messages and police reports that support her allegations, and Meyer enabled him.

    Meyer pins his defense on investigators saying they believed he would have fired Zach Smith on the spot if he “came to learn or believe” he’d abused his wife. But there’s a problem with that: Meyer had learned Smith had abused his wife, back in 2009.

    Smith was arrested then, and the report by the Gainesville police labels him as the aggressor. Yet Meyer acknowledges, even now, that he doesn’t think abuse occurred. That it was, as he termed it at Big Ten media days, a “he said, she said” story.

    That, however, is not Meyer’s determination to make.

    The legion of Meyer and Ohio State fans who have delighted in trashing Courtney Smith point to the lack of any charges against Zach Smith, which is true. But if you know anything about domestic violence, you know how little that means.

    Domestic abuse cases are notoriously hard to prosecute, and victims opt not to press charges for myriad of reasons. The absence of charges does not equal absence of abuse. If Meyer had as much “respect for women” as he claims, he’d know this.

    Or at least have bothered to try and educate himself after 2009, rather than anointing himself as the Smiths’ marriage counselor.

    More: Ohio State 'spineless,' says former assistant coach Zach Smith

    More: Ohio State trustee says he resigned because Urban Meyer's suspension was too light

    Besides, Meyer’s own behavior betrays him.

    On Aug. 1, Brett McMurphy reported that there were text messages between Courtney Smith and Meyer’s wife, Shelley, in 2015, discussing the latest episode of abuse. That same morning, Meyer just happened to ask Brian Voltolini, director of football operations, if there was any way the media could get ahold of his phone and if settings could be changed so text messages older than a year would be deleted.

    Now why in the world would he ask all that? On that, of all days? Had he suddenly become consumed with Fortnite and wanted to free up space on his phone?

    Or could it have been that Shelley Meyer, so tied to her husband’s programs they’re often billed as a packaged deal, had forwarded the text messages from Courtney Smith to her husband or told her husband about the abuse?

    “Often, although not always, such reactions evidence consciousness of guilt,” investigators wrote.

    Sure enough, when investigators did get Meyer’s phone, all his old texts had magically disappeared.

    The texts are key because they would have exposed Meyer’s many conflicting statements at Big Ten media day for what they were: Lies.

    Investigators bent themselves into a pretzel to say Meyer didn’t “deliberately lie,” which Meyer presents as an absolution. But their other statements show that begs logic as much as trying to parse the definition of “is.”

    The investigators “cannot logically square” Meyers denials of any knowledge of the 2015 incident with a group text exchange that day and the day before discussing that very thing. They found he “misstated his lack of knowledge of all relevant events.”

    Even Ohio State president Michael Drake, whom Meyer cites to defend himself, said the coach “was not as complete and accurate at Media Days and did not uphold the high standards and values of the university that day.”

    Meyer enabled an abuser, lied about it and got caught. His petulant attempt to “correct” the record shows that his only remorse is being held to account.

    Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour
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