Urban Meyer’s impact at Ohio State is beyond mere wins and championships. Sure, he snagged a national championship, piled up Big Ten titles, and owned Michigan for seven straight years. But what really sets him apart? He went to bat for his players, tackling the dark side of addiction head-on. And in a world where athletes are often one injury away from a prescription bottle, that’s a big deal.
In a world rife with addiction-fueled tragedies, Alabama’s former strength coach Scott Cochran shared his own personal incident. Migraines led to Vicodin, then OxyContin, and before he knew it, he was downing ten pills a day. Blood thinners, beta-blockers—nothing helped, and the pills took over. It’s a slippery slope, and Meyer saw it happening way too close to home.
On the “Triple Option” podcast, Urban Meyer responded to Cochran’s story. He revealed a previously unknown chapter of his time at Ohio State: his fight against addiction within the program. He wasn’t about to let painkillers turn his locker room into a pharmacy. This stance wasn’t arbitrary but stemmed from his own family’s experiences, particularly his daughter’s health condition.
He explained, “My daughter, this is years ago, one day she had ankle surgery, and I get home and I started hearing it because Oxy and what’s the other one, Vicodin? I just didn’t hear much about it, and then it became like an everyday you know? And so I remember I came home, and I asked Shelley, I said, ‘You know what?’ And they gave her a bottle of 40 pills, and I grabbed those pills. I was like, ‘Wait a minute.’” This incident served as Meyer’s breaking point, prompting immediate action.
The sports world grapples with athletes’ addiction to opioid painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin, often due to accumulated injuries. When Meyer discovered excessive prescription refills, he took action. “And I went into—I don’t want to get because I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus—but I went into—I’ll be—I went into Ohio State, and I went to our training staff, and I said, ‘So when our guys have surgery, what happens?’ And they get these, and it’s you know, what it says on it; back then it said two refills, so you’re getting this massive.’”
Unlike many coaches, he banned excessive prescriptions. “I’m saying 40 more than you need; it might have been 30; it should be one, and so I’m not a doctor, but I jumped right in the middle of that, and I said, ‘We are not doing that. We’re not. If they want to keep coming to you, give them a couple of times,’” he added.
Despite potential pushback, Meyer was ready to risk his job for his players’ health. “And I remember someone saying, ‘You can’t do that because of, I don’t know, privacy or HIPAA or whatever that.’ I said, ‘No, no, I fire me, then we’re doing it. We are not having these massive bottles with refills.’” He wasn’t about to let bureaucracy get in the way of his players’ well-being. It was a line in the sand, and he wasn’t budging. This was more than just coaching; it was a fight he understood all too well.
Urban Meyer’s fight against addiction
Meyer’s successful Ohio State tenure followed a turbulent period at Florida. After leading the Gators to a national championship in 2006, he believed coaching would always be enjoyable. “Probably the most incorrect statement to come out of a human being’s mouth,” he later admitted. Winning became an expectation, consuming him.
Following Florida’s 2009 national championship, he isolated himself, messaging recruits, “Anything less than winning a national title and you’re a failure.” The pressure took a toll. “Nothing was good enough in ‘09. We would win a game by 14 points and I’d be so angry at our team because I thought we should’ve beat them by 30 points.” He lost weight, developed anxiety, and struggled with insomnia. “I started to lose weight, and I became addicted to Ambien. I couldn’t sleep, so I’d take an Ambien, and then that was not working. So it got to the point where I’d drink two Ambien and drink a beer on top of it just to get four hours of sleep.”
After an undefeated season, Florida’s loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship prompted his initial retirement announcement. He later reconsidered but ultimately retired after an 8-5 season in 2010. He returned to coaching at Ohio State in 2012, securing a College Football Playoff victory in 2014. And those personal struggles made his fight against addiction in his program more than just a coaching decision; it was a mission.
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