Urban Meyer's brief time with the Jacksonville Jaguars was seemingly marked by PR disaster after PR disaster, but that was certainly not the first time he had been in a controversial situation as a head coach.
As pointed out by The New York Times, at least 31 Florida Gators players were arrested during Meyer's six seasons coaching the team from 2005 to 2010. While many of the arrests were related to your typical college-kid misadventures, e.g. underage drinking, some players were accused of far more serious things, such as burglary, aggravated assault, credit card fraud, and domestic violence. Many of the charges were eventually dropped or pleaded down, and publications such as the Orlando Sentinel criticized Meyer for allegedly looking the other way whenever one of his players would get arrested and giving the more talented ones second chances they might not have deserved.
Perhaps the most prominent of the Meyer-era Gators who got in trouble with the law during their time as student-athletes in Florida was Aaron Hernandez, who, while playing for the New England Patriots in 2013, was arrested and charged for the murder of Odin Lloyd, thus reigniting conversations about whether or not Meyer was too lenient as the Gators' coach. Initially, he declined to comment on his former tight end's arrest, though Shelley Meyer defended her husband on Twitter, writing, "When will we start holding individuals accountable for their own decisions/actions and stop blaming any/everyone else?"
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