Chris Rainey Reinstated, What Happened to Urban Meyer Wanting His Players to Respect Women?

Meyer has perpetuated an ethos since he became Gators coach. Florida is the school of Tebow. They don’t just recruit talent. They recruit for character. This is Meyer from a profile by Stewart Mandel in 2006.

"“I always like to ask a female at the school — a secretary, or someone coming down the hall,” said Meyer. “It’s important a kid has respect for women. And they [the women] will tell you the truth.” “We won’t offer a kid unless we’re sure he’s a good kid,” said Meyer."

Meyer has had 30 of his Florida players arrested since those statements. That number is only the players who were caught. Either these comments were complete bullshit or Urban Meyer is sanctioning such an outlandish den of iniquity it is corrupting every fresh-faced innocent who arrives there. Either way, Meyer comes off poorly.

There are youthful indiscretions and there are malicious acts. You don’t learn from the latter. They are obviously wrong to anyone with a moral barometer. Urban Meyer isn’t teaching Rainey a lesson.  He’s keeping him out long enough to satisfy the media. With their second SEC loss, the cost of keeping Chris Rainey off the field outweighed the PR benefit.

The sad thing is Meyer’s cynicism is the appropriate attitude in college football. No one besides Gregg Doyel cares how Florida wins as long as they win.  That goes for any school.

Football players aren’t necessarily bad guys, but bad guys who play college football get away with it. Urban Meyer will be ripped for playing Rainey, but far less than if he lost to Mississippi State.  His crime is pretending to have values.

[Photo via Getty]