Shad Khan Sounds Off on Urban Meyer, Asks ‘How Can You Work With Someone Like That?’

For Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, there are few things more valued and important than truth, trust and transparency.

It is the result of a failure in each of these areas that Khan fired former head coach Urban Meyer after 13 games, which came on the tail of Khan giving two separate coaches four-year tenures.

As Khan explained in a scathing interview with USA TODAY Sports, it was far more than the Jaguars' 2-11 record and lack of competitiveness that led to Meyer's firing. Instead, it was Meyer coming up consistently short when it came to the truth, trust and transparency.

“When you lose the respect, the trust and an issue of truthfulness, how can you work with someone like that?” Khan said via USA TODAY Sports. “It’s not possible.”

“It was not about wins and losses,” Khan said.

"I think when you know someone is not truthful, how can you be around someone, OK? We had Doug Marrone here four years. We had Gus Bradley here four years. I have nothing but the utmost respect and friendship with them. That’s why they got the time, because it wasn’t a matter about respect or truth. It was a matter of wins and losses over four years. This is much bigger than that.”

Khan has delivered similar sentiments about Meyer in the past. When hosting local media members during a celebration of his 10 years as owner just days before Meyer's firing, Khan didn't give a vote of confidence and instead made it clear he planned to cut ties with Meyer, who he hired last January, sooner than later.

“What concerns me is obviously wins and losses. But hey, we’re sitting here, we haven’t had a lot of wins, OK. What’s different about this thing is you have losses and you have drama," Khan said before firing Meyer. "In the past, it was like, you were, quote, it’s like the lowly Jaguars and everyone left you alone. Now, the scrutiny we have is really something different. So how much of that is we’re bringing it upon ourselves, or how much of that is deserved, or how much of that is.

Khan has not spoken directly about Meyer since firing the disgraced coach. Meyer brought a number of controversies to the Jaguars' organization, including but not limited to the Chris Doyle fiasco, dancing with a young woman at a Columbus bar just nights after a heartbreaking loss to the Bengals, and even allegedly kicking ex-kicker Josh Lambo.

But Khan's comments and actions since Meyer's firing have said it all. Khan has said time and time again how impressed he is by his new leadership duo of Doug Pedersen and general manager Trent Baalke, frequently pointing to their character as upgrades over what he previously had in the building. Khan also had strong praise for his new head coach following the team's draft last week, which seemed to be much higher praise than he ever gave Meyer following his hiring.

"That was one of the things, really one of the first things with [Head Coach] Doug [Pederson] and [General Manager] Trent [Baalke] that let’s be honest with ourselves. Our record has not been good drafting especially in the early rounds and how do we get better," Khan said after the draft last week. "And really the answer is basically two words: collaboration and transparency. So, this has been a very intensive process with really the coaches with the scouts viewing film together, a very grueling process where there’s integrity in the evaluation. There isn’t ‘I have a bias’, and just skipping the data to convince myself or other people which led to really how the draft board shook out.

"Then I obviously sat down with Trent and Doug and some of the coaches and went over that really to kind of validate that this is something. Obviously, time will tell, but definitely you can’t be doing the same thing over again expecting different results. We are doing something very different, and it started from day one. I can tell you, I feel fabulous, and I think we’ve had a really great last couple of days I think as an organization.”

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