The Jaguars Finally Won Something: How Jacksonville Proved Even a Disaster Can Teach You How to Run an Organization

You know what? I've been watching football for a long, long time, and I've seen a lot of things go sideways in this league. I've seen coaches who couldn't manage a team, quarterbacks who couldn't handle the pressure, front offices that made decisions that made you shake your head and wonder if anybody actually knew what they were doing. But you don't see very often a situation where everything goes so wrong that it ends up in arbitration, and then when it's all said and done, the team actually comes out on top. That's exactly what just happened with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Urban Meyer, and you know what? This might be the smartest thing the Jaguars organization has done in quite some time.

Let me tell you something about this whole situation. Urban Meyer came to Jacksonville as the new head coach after winning three national championships at Florida. The man could coach football. He knew the game. He understood how to build a program, how to get players to play hard, how to put together schemes that worked. But here's the thing about coaching in the NFL that a lot of college coaches don't understand when they first get here: it's different. It's a different animal altogether. The players are bigger, faster, meaner, and they've already made their millions. You can't motivate them the way you motivate 20-year-old kids who are trying to earn a scholarship. You can't coach college ball and just transfer that directly to the pros. Some guys figure that out. Some guys don't. Urban Meyer didn't figure that out, and Jacksonville paid the price.

When Meyer got fired, he wasn't going quietly into that good night. He decided to take the Jaguars to arbitration, claiming that his firing wasn't for cause and therefore the organization owed him the rest of his contract money. That's a lot of money we're talking about here. Thirty million dollars. Now, that might not sound like much in the context of how much money teams throw around these days, but thirty million dollars is thirty million dollars. It matters. It matters to the cap, it matters to the owners, and it matters to the whole organization. Meyer's argument was essentially that the team had broken the agreement they made with him when they hired him. He was saying that what happened didn't rise to the level of a firing for cause.

Here's where it gets interesting, though, and here's where the Jaguars organization showed some spine. They went into that arbitration hearing, and they made their case. They laid out everything that went wrong. They explained how Meyer's conduct and his decisions didn't meet the standard of what an NFL head coach should be. They had the evidence. They had the documentation. They had witnesses who could speak to what actually happened during that season and after. When you've got that kind of ammunition, you've got to use it, and the Jaguars' legal team and front office did exactly that.

This whole thing reminds me of something. You know, in football, sometimes the most important plays aren't the ones that get you in the end zone. Sometimes the most important plays are the ones where you make a decision, you stick with it, and you see it through even when it gets difficult. This was one of those situations. The Jaguars could have just cut a check and moved on. A lot of teams might have done that. They might have said, "You know what? It's thirty million dollars, but it's easier than going through all this." But the Jaguars didn't do that. They said, "No. We're going to fight this, and we're going to prove that we were right to fire you." That takes guts. That takes an organization that's willing to say, "We made the right decision, and we're going to stand by it."

Now, I want to be clear about something here. I'm not saying Urban Meyer is a bad man. I'm not saying he's not a great football coach in certain situations. What I am saying is that the situation in Jacksonville didn't work out, and when it didn't work out, the organization had to make a decision about how to handle it. They made that decision, and they followed through on it. They didn't fold under pressure when Meyer's representatives came at them with legal threats. They said, "We believe we're right, and we're going to prove it in arbitration." And guess what? They did prove it. The arbitrator agreed with them.

This matters for a lot of reasons, and I think it's important to understand why. First of all, it sends a message to the coaching staff, the players, and everybody else in that organization that standards matter. Conduct matters. The way you show up to work every day matters. If you're going to be the head coach of an NFL team, especially in this modern era where every single thing you do is scrutinized and analyzed and dissected, you've got to understand that your behavior is a reflection of the entire organization. When Meyer's tenure in Jacksonville turned into a distraction rather than a source of leadership, that was a problem. The Jaguars recognized it was a problem, and they dealt with it. Now, they've proven in a court of law, so to speak, that they were right to do so.

There's also something to be said here about organizational stability and respect. When you let somebody go for cause, you're making a serious statement. You're saying that this person violated the fundamental agreement you made with them. You're saying that they didn't hold up their end of the bargain. When Meyer fought that characterization, the Jaguars had to be willing to stand in front of an arbitrator and explain exactly why they believed that was the case. They did that. They won. Now, every potential employee of that organization knows that the Jaguars don't just throw words around. When they say something, they mean it. When they make a decision, they're willing to back it up.

I've got to tell you, there's also something refreshing about an organization in this league actually winning a legal battle like this. We've seen so many situations where teams get taken to the cleaners by agents and players and coaches who have good lawyers and deep pockets. We've seen situations where it seems like the team always loses because they don't want to deal with the headache. But Jacksonville stepped up. They said, "We believe we're right, and we're willing to prove it." They assembled the evidence. They presented their case. And the arbitrator looked at everything and said, "Yeah, you were right. This was a for cause firing, and you don't owe him the money." That's a win. That's a real win.

Now, does this fix everything that went wrong in Jacksonville? No, it doesn't. The Jaguars still have to build a football team. They still have to find a head coach who can actually manage in the NFL. They still have to figure out how to develop Trevor Lawrence into a franchise quarterback. They still have to make smart decisions in the draft and free agency. All of that is still ahead of them. But what this arbitration victory does is it gives them a clean break. It says that they handled the Meyer situation correctly, legally and decisively. They didn't let it linger. They didn't let it drag on. They made the call, they followed through, and they made it stick.

There's also a larger lesson here for any organization in any business, really. Sometimes you've got to be willing to go to war for your principles. You've got to be willing to say, "We're not just going to roll over and accept what somebody is telling us we owe them. We're going to make our case, and we're going to let the facts speak for themselves." The Jaguars did that, and it paid off. They saved thirty million dollars that they can now invest in building a better football team. That's real money that they can use to improve their roster, to bring in better players, to create more opportunities for success.

For the fans in Jacksonville, this is something to hang your hat on. Your organization stood up and made a decision, and when that decision was challenged, they defended it. They won. In a world where it sometimes feels like money and fancy lawyers can buy you out of anything, it's nice to see an organization stand firm and prove that they were right all along. The Jaguars are still building something. They've still got a long way to go. But at least now they know that when they make a call, when they make a decision about the direction of the franchise, they're willing to fight for it. That's the kind of organization you want to play for. That's the kind of organization you want to root for. And that, my friends, is worth a whole lot more than thirty million dollars.