Urban Meyer responds to Marcus Williamson’s shocking viral claims

Urban Meyer denied the stunning allegations made by former Ohio State player Marcus Williamson.

During the Ohio State Buckeyes’ win over the Utah Utes in the Rose Bowl, former player Marcus Williamson took to Twitter to share his thoughts and details about his time with the program. One piece of information that Williamson shared was a “no hoods” in the building rule by head coach Urban Meyer. The rule was shared in a PowerPoint presentation during a team meeting, which used a photo of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old fatally shot by George Zimmerman back in 2012.

Meyer responded to the claims made by Williamson this past Sunday, denying that they used the photo of Martin. The quote below comes courtesy of Ohio State reporter Jeff Snook, who asked Meyer about the allegations.

Urban Meyer denies claims made by ex-Ohio State player Marcus Williamson

"“Our team rule was no hats or hoodies or sunglasses of any kind but only in team meetings, just so we could see their eyes and make sure they were paying attention and not asleep,” said Meyer. “We did not, and never would show a picture of Trayvon Martin. My gosh, no. That is absolutely false and you can check with any other player on my teams during that time to confirm what I am saying. Other players know what he is saying is false. I would never do that. He is crossing the line here. It seems people are just piling on now. But that never happened.”"

Meyer clarified that the rule in question also applied to hats and sunglasses, and that the rule was enforced during team meetings.

Former Ohio State players came to Meyer’s defense, such as Joshua Perry and Tyvis Powell, who said that they never saw a photo of Martin on the PowerPoint presentation in question.

Meyer is just coming off a disastrous NFL tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He was brought in to build the team into contenders, but that failed to transpire in his 13 games under contract. Meyer had a variety of controversies during his time in Jacksonville.

Such incidents with the Jaguars included not flying back with the team following a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, calling his assistant coaches “losers,” and kicking his kicker, Josh Lambo, during the preseason.

The Jaguars opted to fire Meyer with cause after going 2-11 with the team.

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