Coach Chris Doyle has resigned from the Jaguars a day after new head coach Urban Meyer made the controversial decision to hire the former college assistant for his staff.
Meyer, who was hired last month for his first job in the NFL, announced Friday night that Doyle had resigned from his position as athletic performance director following the reaction created by his hiring. Diversity group Fritz Pollard Alliance had strongly criticized Jacksonville for hiring Doyle.
Doyle was the head coach of conditioning and conditioning at the University of Iowa until 2020, when he and the school agreed to separate after being accused of making racist comments and intimidating players.
“Chris Doyle has come to us this evening to present his resignation and we have accepted,” Meyer said in a statement Friday. “Chris didn’t want to distract what we’re building in Jacksonville. We are responsible for all aspects of our program and, in retrospect, we should have been more mindful of how their appointment may have affected everyone involved. We wish him the best as he progresses in his career.
Some Iowa black players accused Doyle of telling them he would “return them to the ghetto” if they did not meet his standards, among other comments, according to USA Today. An external review of the situation concluded that “a small group of coaches” degraded the players and “the rules of the program perpetuated racial or cultural biases and diminished the value of cultural diversity.”
Doyle, in a statement last June, defended himself by saying, “I don’t make racist comments (sic) and I don’t tolerate people doing it.”
Meyer initially defended the hiring at a news conference Thursday, saying he was “very confident” there would be no problems with Doyle, 52.
“I’ve known Chris for about 20 years,” Meyer said, noting that his “relationship” with Doyle began when the two were together at the University of Utah. The only problem Meyer remembers is that Doyle worked in Utah in 1998 and was already a strength and condition coach in Iowa when Meyer began his two-year career as Utah head coach in 2003.
“Really, I was doing sports performance before sports performance became a priority in college sports,” Meyer said. “So I met him, I studied him, we had a relationship. I examined it thoroughly, along with our CEO [Trent Baalke] and owner [Shahid Khan]”.
Many had trouble hiring Doyle, including Rod Graves, executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance. The organization, named after the NFL’s first African-American coach, is made up of coaches, scouts and front office staff committed to equal opportunities in professional sports.
“At a time when the NFL has not solved its problem with racial recruitment practices, it is simply unacceptable to welcome Chris Doyle into the ranks of NFL coaches,” Graves, a former Jets executive, said Friday. “Doyle’s departure from the University of Iowa reflected a mandate full of bad judgment and mistreatment of black players. His behavior should be as disqualifying for the NFL as it is for the University of Iowa.
“Urban Meyer’s statement: ‘I’ve known Chris for almost 20 years’ reflects the network of good guys which is precisely why there is a disparity in black coaching job opportunities.”