Urban Meyer Tells Gumble He Thought He Was Dying

CrimsonSEC said:

The problem is...I can't really believe much of anything than comes out of Urban Meyer's mouth.

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Same here. To me he is a sociopath almost like Petrino. He has not done anything nearly as ridiculous as Petrino but he is a very mean and spiteful man. In my opinion he had some other disorder besides depression.. I think it's called ... Tebowisgoneihavenoonetoreplacehim disorder.

Two points:

First - The pressure to win in the B1G does not even approach the pressure to win in the SEC - even if you are talking about the top tier programs from each conference. There is a very real difference. We lost a game already this year and the fans have moved on. No lamenting, and no discussion of a hot seat. Tressel won a championship and it didn't add to the pressure at OSU. If anything, it made him an icon and allowed him to relax if he had so chosen.

Second - If he really lost 37 pounds during the 2009 season, his breakdown had nothing to do with his loss to Alabama. It had to have started long before that game, and they were undefeated until the SECCG.

All that said, I also don't completely trust him. Maybe I am gun shy because of Tressel, but I see deception in Meyer when he speaks. He is a great coach, but I am not sold on his integrity at this point.

I thought this was the case when the story began to unfold early on. I've been there and I know several who have. It's not serious in the sense that lung cancer is but it is real. A friend of mine who is an ER doc says that it's not uncommon at all for people to come in thinking they are having a heart attack when it is really just anxiety.
I would venture to say that it was not so much about his stressful job as it was his stress management. Maybe some of it was the pressure of not being the top dog in the SEC anymore but it was probably also a lack of sleep, a lack of hobbies, maybe marital struggles or severed friendships.

GreatDanish said:

I thought this was the case when the story began to unfold early on. I've been there and I know several who have. It's not serious in the sense that lung cancer is but it is real. A friend of mine who is an ER doc says that it's not uncommon at all for people to come in thinking they are having a heart attack when it is really just anxiety.
I would venture to say that it was not so much about his stressful job as it was his stress management. Maybe some of it was the pressure of not being the top dog in the SEC anymore but it was probably also a lack of sleep, a lack of hobbies, maybe marital struggles or severed friendships.

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If he is telling the truth, he was still the top dog in the SEC when it started. In fact, he was top dog in the entire college football world.

davefrat said:

my point is really that these coaches are under immense pressure...pressure of the sort that most people can't imagine it.
.

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I disagree.
Immense pressure is being in a jungle or desert somewhere, outnumbered by people who hate you and are trying to kill you or flying a dying jet full of passengers into NY harbor or climbing a burning building to save someone.

Coaching football is a self-imposed pressure CHOICE. Nobody forces anyone to coach football but the rewards and glory are probably worth the risk for those who are talented enough, tough enough and lucky enough to make it to an elite level.

Meyer has the talent and the luck but he was not tough enough to coach in the SEC. He proved it by folding his tent in failure and pitching it at a school with similar wealth and glory but one that currently requires a lower performance standard. The Big Whatever was once a major power conference and will probably be again someday but for now, Meyer can get 9 or 10 wins, make excuses for a couple of games each year and get by as long as he wants to coach as long as he gets to Pasadena every few years or so and beats Michigan or Notre Dame. I don't mean this to dis Ohio State (B1G ; they are just down right now. We know what that is like.

All that is fine, his choice, but in the process, he gutted a major SEC power and cost the conference, including Alabama, money and stature. If he wanted to simply reduce the pressure, he should have gone to some Div 2 school "for the love of coaching". I put him in the "somebody threw a brick through my window" club.

A family member had a nervous breakdown some 35 years ago. He owned a business and had a family. He had to stop working for a while. After receiving help, he resumed the life he knew.

A colleague had an issue with pills. It started when he was having trouble sleeping because his wife had cancer. He feared for his family and his business and got hooked on the pills. He received help, his wife got better, and he went back to the life he knew.

I can think of many other examples. I choose to give a man the benefit of the doubt when he plays the health card. UM may be lying, but I don't have enough evidence to publicly condemn him.

I think a big source of his anxiety was probably knowing what sort of characters he had on his team to get him to where he was. Tebow was the ultimate front for cover for that team. But in hindsight it is pretty apparent that there were several key players that we just outright criminals that he and Tebow were covering up for. Ironically I think Jimbo is in a similar position. Just how much are you going to sell out and look the other way for your own self-advancement. Any job or anything you do where you are making choice that run deeply counter to your character will always create a tremendous amount of anxiety.

Some of you guys are scoffing that the notion a Head Football Coach "is a self imposed choice", but that doesn't make the pressure any less real. I'd bet a lot of you work a normal job, and have no idea of the amount of hours these guys put in. When you're sitting on the couch after a bad day at work drinking a beer, these guys are being raked over the coals by fans, media, students, students, and God knows who else. Their bad day at work is usually on National TV for the world to see. They are spending countless hours preparing for the next opponent, practically begging HS schools to come play for them, and hoping their 100+ 18-22 players don't do anything stupid.

I'm no Urban Meyer fan, but if think his profession is not HIGHLY stressful, I don't know what to tell you.

I may a little sensitive about this, but I work a regular job and I also own a steadily growing business of my own. My "side business" has grown into basically another full time job. I also do this by choice, but I do it for the betterment of my life and my family. I have guys at work that have made cute comments about some of our financial situation and some of the things we have bought. I get the "We see who has all the money!" , "You can't hide money!", and "I wish I had your money", etc. They get off at 4:00 and go home sit on the couch. I bust my butt, and I make no apologies for what I have earned. That comes with a price, though. I have to deal with my Boss at my regular job, and another 100+ Bosses that we do work for. When I'm not actually doing the jobs - I'm on my phone all the time - quoting jobs, answering questions about the work we've done, and placing orders. I do this all while raising 3 kids under 12 years old and trying to make it to as many ballgames, church functions, and spending as much time with them as I possibly can.

My situation is also a "self imposed choice", but that doesn't make it any less stressful, and there's a reason most people don't/won't/can't do it. The same is true with Coaches, and many other professions...

TideFan in AU said:

My situation is also a "self imposed choice", but that doesn't make it any less stressful, and there's a reason most people don't/won't/can't do it. The same is true with Coaches, and many other professions...

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I don't mean to suggest your situation is not extremely stressful, apologize if that is how I expressed myself and applaud your drive as well as anyone that puts in as many hours as humanly possible to make their lives better. No argument at all. There is nothing bad and no contempt for self imposed choice in any way. I am sure Meyer had real and heavy anxiety and agree it drove him to the brink. I do find fault in his subsequent string of reactions to that stress and refuse to give him a pass when his stress is based on choices for money and/or glory vs life or death. He barks like a big dog ... under the porch. That is all I am trying to say.

NationalTitles15 said:

It's silly to think of mental illness as a "choice". It's no more a "choice" than breast cancer, stroke, heart attack, pancreatitis, and so on.

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That is a straw man and was never stated or intimated. Coaching football is a choice. Mental disorder is one possible and unforeseeable outcome ... unless it happened the last time you coached. Then it would be viewed as one potential outcome, likely to recur.

B1GTide said:

All that said, I also don't completely trust him. Maybe I am gun shy because of Tressel, but I see deception in Meyer when he speaks. He is a great coach, but I am not sold on his integrity at this point.

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Urban is the type guy I would not want to share a foxhole with. I'm sure he feels all this overwhelming pressure to win, not disappoint his fans, keep his big paycheck coming in, and maintain his position as a top football coach. It must be tough. It's my opinion when one of life's real challenges comes along, he will likely fold like a cheap suit.

NationalTitles15 said:

It's silly to think of mental illness as a "choice". It's no more a "choice" than breast cancer, stroke, heart attack, pancreatitis, and so on. Now, are there multiple factors involved, some of which you can control and others you can't? Sure, but ultimately it isn't a "choice" to have depression and anxiety. And in a world where mental illness still obviously has a stigma and is often seen as weakness, I actually have a newfound respect for Myers for putting it out in the open. There are others suffering through the same thing across multiple levels of the sport. Many are afraid and unwilling to admit to it for the reasons above.

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Mental illness? I must have missed something. I thought we were talking about hypertension caused by stress. I don't know where you got the idea that I said mental illness was a choice.

teamplayer said:

Mental illness? I must have missed something. I thought we were talking about hypertension caused by stress. I don't know where you got the idea that I said mental illness was a choice.

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Maybe NT15 is familiar with the situation. It really sounds to me like anxiety and depression instead of just "job stress." Meyer even specifically mentioned depression. And from what he described, that's exactly what it sounds like. The whole, "not being able to enjoy" the championship... That's textbook depression - not finding enjoyment in anything.
So, it sounds like he has had the depression treated and he has hopefully found some good stress management techniques to help him manage at OSU. I'm no Urban Meyer fan, but I never wish the worst for another human. I hope his depression and stress are being managed.

GreatDanish said:

Maybe NT15 is familiar with the situation. It really sounds to me like anxiety and depression instead of just "job stress." Meyer even specifically mentioned depression. And from what he described, that's exactly what it sounds like. The whole, "not being able to enjoy" the championship... That's textbook depression - not finding enjoyment in anything.
So, it sounds like he has had the depression treated and he has hopefully found some good stress management techniques to help him manage at OSU. I'm no Urban Meyer fan, but I never wish the worst for another human. I hope his depression and stress are being managed.

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Meyer was told by his doctors to stay away from football. That is why he is at OlieO state.

GreatDanish said:

Maybe NT15 is familiar with the situation. It really sounds to me like anxiety and depression instead of just "job stress." Meyer even specifically mentioned depression. And from what he described, that's exactly what it sounds like. The whole, "not being able to enjoy" the championship... That's textbook depression - not finding enjoyment in anything.
So, it sounds like he has had the depression treated and he has hopefully found some good stress management techniques to help him manage at OSU. I'm no Urban Meyer fan, but I never wish the worst for another human. I hope his depression and stress are being managed.

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All good points. You are right and I am certainly not marginalizing Meyer's clinical condition or wishing illness for him, regardless of the diagnosis. I had not considered that he may have made a miraculous and nearly instantaneous recovery through stress management techniques; anything is possible right? Regardless I want him to stay healthy so that his team can play Florida someday and they beat him 110-0 ... but that's football.

Urban Meyer invented the slogan,"If I'm lyin I'm die'n".

Crimson1967 said:

Why did Ray Rice's girlfriend marry him after he hit her?
Why do alcoholics keep drinking?
Why do people with a hacking cough have "just one more cigarette"?

The same reason Meyer keeps coaching.

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Because he's an idiot?