JACKSONVILLE, Fla. The Fritz Pollard Alliance has blown up Jacksonville Jaguars and head coach Urban Meyer for appointing Chris Doyle, a former power coach at the University of Iowa, who is accused of making racist remarks and belittling and bullying players around the to be team. director of sports performance.
Fritz Pollard Alliance executive director Rod Graves issued a statement Friday stating that Doyle’s hiring was unacceptable and that Meyer’s defense of the lease was an example of the problems facing minority coaches in the NFL.
“At a time when the NFL has not been able to solve its problem with racial hiring practices, it is simply unacceptable to welcome Chris Doyle into the ranks of NFL coaches,” Graves said in a statement. “Doyle’s departure from the University of Iowa reflects a term of office with poor judgment and abuse of black players. His behavior should disqualify for the NFL just as much as for the University of Iowa.
“Urban Meyer’s statement, ‘I have known Chris for almost 20 years’, reflects the good network for young boys which is precisely the reason why there is such a difference in jobs for black coaches.”
The Fritz Pollard Alliance is an organization that strives to promote diversity in the NFL. It consists of scouts, coaches and staff in the NFL as well as other sports professionals.
Doyle’s appointment immediately fell back on Thursday when the team announced the move as part of Meyer’s full coaching staff. Doyle was Iowa’s director of power and conditioning from 1999 until last summer, when he and the school reached a severance agreement after numerous former Iowa players spoke out about abuse in the Iowa program.
A number of the allegations come from black players and dealt with the way Doyle treated them and his use of racist language. Meyer said he researched Doyle, had some intense conversations with him and is confident that there will be no problems in the future.
“I vet everyone in our staff and like I said, the relationship stretches back almost 20 years and a lot of hard questions have been asked, and there have been a lot of investigations involved with all of our staff,” Meyer said. “We did a very good job judging this one.
‘… I met our staff and I will be very transparent with all the players like me with everything. I will listen and learn well, and there will also need to be confidence in their head coach. that we will give them the best of the best, and time will tell. … The allegations that have taken place, I will say [to the players] I watched him. I have known the person for almost 20 years and I can assure them that there will be nothing of any kind in the Jaguar plant. ‘
Some of the issues raised by the many former Iowa players who spoke out on social media last year were: black and white players were held to different standards; Black players were abused; Doyle and other assistants made racist remarks; and black players felt they had to conform to specific ways of dressing and behaving. Their complaints prompted the university to appoint a law firm in Kansas City to conduct an external investigation into the football program.
The issues were not strictly related to race.
Former Iowa linebacker Jack Kallenberger said on Twitter last June that he retired from football in January 2019 after becoming discouraged due to what he described as bullying related to a learning disability. Doyle was among the coaches he named who harassed him.
The university placed Doyle on June 6 with administrative leave following these allegations. One day later, Doyle defended himself in a statement posted on Twitter: ‘I have never crossed the line of unethical behavior or racial prejudice. I make no racist comments and I do not tolerate it. people who do it. ‘
On June 14, it was announced that Doyle was in Iowa. Doyle, who was $ 800,000 the highest paid strength coach annually, received 15 months’ salary (about $ 1.1 million) and he and his family received benefits from Iowa for 15 months, or until he got a job elsewhere, what he did. this month with the Jaguars.