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      Urban Meyer’s Renewal in Jacksonville

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      They filed into the first few rows of TIAA Bank Field, 120 staffers from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ business side, sitting there like so many college boosters and alumni Urban Meyer had addressed over the years. He gathered them there on a sunny afternoon in early March, nearly two months after being hired to revive one of the N.F.L.’s more forlorn franchises, to deliver a speech similar in spirit and substance to ones he’d given as the coach at college behemoths like Ohio State and Florida.After retiring from coaching in 2018, Meyer, 56, had a cushy television gig and a secure legacy as one of the best, and most polarizing, coaches in recent college football history. But he was still unfulfilled. He wanted to coach again, and despite the N.F.L.’s history of conquering celebrated college coaches trying to recreate their glory in the pros, Meyer determined his best fit was with the worst team of the last decade.Tabbed to try to reorient this wayward organization, Meyer conjured his past as an ace recruiter. Wearing white shorts and a gray Jaguars pullover, he urged the assembled employees to “own it,” a call to action he also used at the Jan. 15 news conference introducing him as Jacksonville’s new coach. He implored them to take pride in every facet of the organization, right down to the team logo.“This, right now, is not the most respected logo in the N.F.L. — it’s not,” Meyer said that day. “If in three years it still doesn’t mean much, then you’re probably looking for a new coach and we’ve not been very successful. That’s how personally I’m taking it.”Meyer’s rah-rah message underscored that his competitive drive to own anything and everything about a program, a compulsion that produced three national titles — two at Florida and one at Ohio State — remained fierce, even after a two-year layoff.That self-imposed time away from coaching came after a string of scandals and stress- and health-related issues helped cause him to resign or retire three times in his career. Meyer’s college teams were 187-32 (.854) while, at Florida, there were 31 arrests of players during his tenure, and, at Ohio State, he protected a longtime assistant with a history of domestic abuse.As he weighed whether to re-enter a culture that glorifies workaholics, Meyer did not choose any of the more visible (and venerable) franchises that also wanted him. Instead he pursued the top job in one of the N.F.L.’s smallest markets with a team that perennially has to quell speculation that it will move to London.Jacksonville is poised on Thursday to select Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, one of the best quarterback prospects in decades, with the first overall pick in the N.F.L. draft. After years of disarray, the Jaguars, as desperate for an identity as they are for victories, have arrived at the most critical juncture since their inception in 1995, an inflection point that the team owner Shahid Khan called “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in football.” The union between Meyer and Khan is meant to make good on it.“Now, we get a fresh start,” Khan said in an interview in mid-April. “Everybody gets that this isn’t rebuilding. I mean, we need to win now.”Jaguars fans at a Bold City Brigade tailgate during the 2019 season. The 2020 season, the worst in franchise history, yielded its most promising moment: the right to draft Trevor Lawrence. Dustin HegedusSince Khan’s first season as owner in 2012, no team has a worse record than the Jaguars (39-105), who until last year’s 1-15 debacle somehow never managed to be quite putrid enough to earn the No. 1 draft pick. They have outspent every other team in free agency over that period, but recorded only one winning season, in 2017, during which they lost the A.F.C. title game at New England. Since that apex, Jacksonville is 12-36.John Caputo, the president of Bold City Brigade, a Jaguars supporters club with chapters around the country and overseas, likes to say that fair-weather Jacksonville fans cannot exist. For years, they have endured taunts about their team, their city, their own perceived apathy, and still they fork over discretionary income to watch bad football in person.The darkness lifted in December when the worst season in franchise history yielded its most promising moment: The winless Jets beat the Los Angeles Rams in Week 15, vaulting one-win Jacksonville ahead on tiebreakers for the right to draft Lawrence. “The last month of the season was the most fun we’ve had since 2017 even though we were setting a franchise record for being terrible,” Caputo said. “Because of the Trevor watch.”As the Jets edged Los Angeles, Caputo sat, riveted, at a bar near his home in Jacksonville Beach. Patrons chanted, “J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!” Afraid the Jets would lose if he left, Caputo stayed until the end.“For the last 10 years all we want is for the Jaguars to win, but they lose,” Caputo said in a video call. “And so now we’re actually cheering for them to lose, which was kind of liberating.”His friend Pat Donnell, the Brigade’s vice president, chimed in: “And they didn’t let us down.”In light of the team’s rebuilding fortune, fans are rallying to newfound ambitions. Since Meyer arrived, deposits for season tickets have poured in so fast — and from so many new customers — that the Jaguars hired 20 new sales representatives. Traffic on the team’s website and social media accounts has soared, with much of it coming from locations outside Florida, including the Midwest, where Meyer last coached.Coach Urban Meyer, far right, watched Trevor Lawrence, foreground, work out at Clemson’s pro day in February.David Platt/Clemson Athletics, via USA Today Sports, via ReutersA bonanza of fan-designed apparel has cropped up. “Urban Renewal” merchandise is for sale along with T-shirts blaring “Hope,” beneath Lawrence’s photo, a nod to the popular Shepard Fairey-designed poster for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.Scores of Jaguars fans contributed $9.04, a homage to Jacksonville’s area code, and bought Lawrence and his new wife, Marissa, a $299.95 toaster from their wedding registry. The fans’ gifts, combined with $20,000 Lawrence said he’d chip in and other donations, added up to more than $54,000 that will be given to charities. “Thanks again, we hope to be a part of your community soon,” Lawrence responded on Twitter.Lawrence’s pending arrival has reinvigorated a franchise that has tried and failed to find a quarterback to outshine Mark Brunell, who started eight playoff games for Jacksonville in the late 1990s. But Meyer’s hiring has given the Jaguars immediate credibility as a team that might also responsibly manage a talented star’s rise.Khan and Meyer had chatted at a few functions over the years, but it wasn’t until Khan bumped into Meyer at an invitation-only N.F.L. party before the Super Bowl in February 2020 in Miami Gardens, Fla., that they shared an extended conversation. As they discussed each other’s backgrounds, Khan found that Meyer’s leadership traits were similar to those he’d acquired immigrating to the United States from Pakistan at age 16 and becoming a global auto parts magnate: relentless ambition, a hands-on temperament, trust in his staff.Though Meyer fielded interest from other teams, he was drawn in by Khan’s offer to remake the franchise in his image. If he succeeds, Meyer can become only the fourth coach to win both a national college championship and a Super Bowl, after Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer and Pete Carroll.“If you know Urban, I mean, he doesn’t do much on quick decisions or on a whim,” said Florida Coach Dan Mullen, a close friend and former assistant of Meyer’s. “Everything he does is extremely well thought out with a very detailed plan of why he would do it.”Prepping for coaching interviews, Meyer had canvassed his former players in the N.F.L. and contacted, among others, Johnson to learn how he rebuilt the Dallas Cowboys three decades ago after leaving the University of Miami.The conversations with Khan moved swiftly, and Meyer called his decision to accept the job — and the bounty of benefits that accompanied it, from the weather to the lack of state income tax to Jacksonville’s swell of Florida Gators fans — an easy one.“They got the first pick, a chance to start fresh, start with some salary-cap advantages,” Meyer said in an interview. “Really, if you look at the team, there’s some very good core players here.”Khan, after having experimented (and failed) with various front office power-sharing models, reworked the organizational hierarchy to give Meyer maximum leeway and a big role in the general manager search.“This, right now, is not the most respected logo in the N.F.L. — it’s not,” Meyer said in an address to team personnel, vowing to change that.Jacksonville JaguarsN.F.L. owners have long been fascinated with innovative or triumphant college coaches, and although some flourished at the pro level, many, including Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier, struggled to adapt. In the N.F.L., recruiting prowess is neutralized. Motivational tactics that might work with 19- and 20-year-olds might not work on grown men. Roster limitations and the salary cap, intended to foster parity, wrest control from control freaks. So can injuries and meddlesome owners.Spurrier was 56, same as Meyer now, when he — regrettably, he says — rushed into accepting a head coaching job in Washington, where he came to learn that the owner, Daniel Snyder, would be rather involved in personnel matters. In their first year together, in 2002, Snyder pushed Spurrier against his objections to play the rookie quarterback Patrick Ramsey, and the next year released the second-stringer Danny Wuerffel, who played for Spurrier at Florida. Unable to pick even his backup, Spurrier later told his wife, Jerri, that he’d be done after that season.“I was offered a bunch of money, and I did not use an agent, and I wasn’t probably as careful as getting things in writing as I should have,” Spurrier said. “I did a poor job also, and I’ll admit to that. But the situation ran me out.”Neither Spurrier nor Saban — nor any of their college brethren, really — inherited a situation quite as favorable as Meyer’s in Jacksonville, where he can develop a franchise quarterback while continuing to stockpile talent with four other 2021 draft selections in the top 65.Khan’s words might teem with optimism, but the Jaguars are still going to lose — more often, perhaps, than Meyer, whose worst season as a college head coach was 8-5, ever has. Meyer’s ability to cope with defeat may determine his longevity in the N.F.L.“That’s the first thing I talked to him about when he took the job,” Mullen said. “I mean, ‘How are you going to handle that?’ Ten-and-six is a great year, and I don’t know if he would ever view 10-6 as a great year.”Meyer had far more success than the last two N.F.L. hires plucked from the college ranks, Matt Rhule (hired by the Panthers) and Kliff Kingsbury (Cardinals), but he recognizes that he must adapt on a number of fronts.Already he seemed to misjudge the extent of the backlash generated by the hiring of a strength coach, Chris Doyle, who left Iowa’s staff after several current and former players said he had promoted a culture of bullying and racism. Within hours of the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s condemning the decision, calling it “simply unacceptable,” Doyle resigned.Recruiting players is one of Meyer’s strengths, but unlike in college, where he often had several face-to-face conversations with potential players, he didn’t speak with any prospective free agents until after they signed. The Jaguars signed more than a dozen free agents, including several veterans who played for Meyer and his coaches, like running back Carlos Hyde, who said it was a “no-brainer” to rejoin him.“We’ve been lucky,” Meyer said. “A lot of guys are here training. But we haven’t had a team meeting yet. In college, you probably would have had 50 by now.”But as he is fast learning, Meyer is not in college anymore. More

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      After Trevor Lawrence, Pick Another Quarterback

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      With no shortage of teams looking for a passer to build around, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, Trey Lance and Mac Jones figure to shape the draft’s top 10 picks.There is no drama as to who will be the No. 1 pick in this year’s N.F.L. draft. The only question had been which team would get the chance to draft Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. The Jacksonville Jaguars secured that honor by way of the Jets’ seemingly not understanding that they were supposed to keep losing.So with the knowledge that Lawrence, a Peyton Manning-like sure thing of a quarterback prospect, is going to Jacksonville to be paired with Coach Urban Meyer in a college-meets-pros marriage, here is a look at the other four quarterbacks likely to go in the top 10 of this year’s draft, which will begin on Thursday with the first round held in Cleveland.Zach Wilson: The GunslingerZach Wilson’s devil-may-care attitude and prolific numbers endeared him to college fans and to the Jets, which pick second in Thursday’s N.F.L. draft.Steve Conner/Associated PressCollege: Brigham Young (two-plus seasons as a starter)Size: 6 feet 2 inches, 214 pounds2020 Passing: 3,692 yards, 33 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, 196.4 rating2020 Rushing: 254 yards, 10 touchdownsThe reason Wilson is considered the consensus No. 2 pick: Aaron Rodgers. The reason the Jets, who hold the selection, might want to show at least a little caution: Johnny Manziel. Wilson has a strong and accurate arm, improvises well outside the pocket and has off-the-charts confidence — all the charisma and competitiveness that Rodgers and Manziel have in common.But that approach yielded different outcomes for those two gunslingers in the pros, where Rodgers’s size and off-field steadiness were among the traits that made him more successful. Wilson’s daring did not work all that well against top competition in college, where he went 2-4 against top-25 teams, and it’s an open question whether it will work against disciplined N.F.L. defenses.Wilson, 21, missed games in 2019 for surgeries on his shoulder and thumb, but if his 2020 season was a true reflection of his skill, the team drafting Wilson is getting a truly special quarterback.Outlook: The Jets traded Sam Darnold to the Carolina Panthers in early April and it is considered nearly certain that they are set on Wilson as his replacement.Justin Fields: The Dual ThreatJustin Fields led Ohio State’s romp over Clemson in the Sugar Bowl. He and Alabama’s Mac Jones are both rumored to be the target of the San Francisco 49ers, which traded up to the No. 3 pick.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesCollege: Ohio State, transferred from Georgia (two seasons as a full-time starter)Size: 6-2, 228 pounds2020 Passing: 2,100 yards, 22 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, 175.6 rating2020 Rushing: 383 yards, 5 touchdownsFields grew up a few towns over from Lawrence in Georgia and has been in his shadow at each step along the way, especially after Lawrence won the national championship as a freshman. Fields transferred from Georgia to Ohio State for his sophomore season in 2019 and was a Heisman Trophy finalist (Lawrence didn’t make the cut). Lawrence and Clemson beat Fields and Ohio State in that season’s College Football Playoff semifinal, but Fields got his revenge the next season as the Buckeyes trounced the Tigers in another semifinal matchup.Now Fields’s easiest comparison is to the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, another big-bodied pocket passer who can surprise with his running if there’s an opening. There is no question that Fields regressed in 2020 compared to his breakout 2019 season, when he threw for 3,273 yards with 41 touchdowns against three interceptions. His labored release and tendency to hold onto the ball resulted in his taking sacks, but his arm strength and versatility, along with his strong effort against Clemson in a pressure-packed game, have turned the volume down on any questions. So did his head-on handling of publicly detailing his epilepsy diagnosis, which he has managed since his childhood.Outlook: While not in the mix for the top two picks, Fields is the overwhelming favorite to be the third quarterback drafted Thursday, as his accuracy, his arm strength and his ability to run all make him an ideal fit for Coach Kyle Shanahan’s system in San Francisco.Trey Lance: The Unproven StarAfter a breakout sophomore season, North Dakota State’s Trey Lance played in only one game in 2020.Bruce Kluckhohn/Associated PressCollege: North Dakota State (one season as a full-time starter)Size: 6-4, 226 pounds2019 Passing: 2,786 yards, 28 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 180.6 rating2019 Rushing: 1,100 yards, 14 touchdownsLance hasn’t lost a football game since Nov. 10, 2017, when his Marshall (Minn.) Tigers were topped by the South St. Paul Packers in Minnesota’s high school state quarterfinals. He hasn’t thrown an interception in a game since Oct. 13, 2017. After throwing only one pass at North Dakota State in his freshman year, he won the Walter Payton Award as the top player in the Football Championship Subdivision and led North Dakota State to an undefeated championship season in his lone year as a starter.N.D.S.U. played its only fall game on Oct. 3, 2020, before Lance declared for the draft, meaning six months have gone by since anyone has seen him throw a competitive pass. Little matter for the right team. Lance is known as a film room addict with atypical passing mechanics abetted by a quick-enough release. His array of devastating play fakes, combined with his speed and power as a runner, give Lance a skill set that should translate at the pro level.Outlook: Seemingly assured of being a top-10 pick, Lance is the fourth quarterback off the board in most mock drafts. His back story of people doubting his ability to handle the quarterback position is reminiscent of Lamar Jackson, his style of play is a little closer to Josh Allen, and Carson Wentz has proved that a player from N.D.S.U.’s program can succeed in the N.F.L. That is good company to keep.Mac Jones: The Question MarkMac Jones quarterbacked Alabama to a 13-0 record and the national championship with an offense that boasted an embarrassment of riches at every position.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesCollege: Alabama (one season as a full-time starter)Size: 6-3, 217 pounds2020 Passing: 4,500 yards, 41 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, 203.1 rating2020 Rushing: 14 yards, 1 touchdownsHaving come to Alabama in the same recruiting class as Tua Tagovailoa, and with Jalen Hurts entrenched at starter upon his arrival, it took a while before Jones got onto the field. It didn’t take Jones long to prove himself. As a fill-in starter in the 2019 season he led the Crimson Tide to a 2020 Citrus Bowl win, and in his lone season as the full-time starter he set a Football Bowl Subdivision single-season record for completion percentage with an eye-popping 77.4 percent.Jones’s accuracy, his strong-enough arm and his ability to move around in the pocket (even if he almost never runs) make him an attractive prospect. There are questions, though, about the frantic nature of his play, his slow release, how he will improvise when his first option isn’t available and how much of his success was a result of his team having been comically loaded at every position on offense.Outlook: Jones, 22, has been linked in some reports to San Francisco, which traded up to the No. 3 pick in late March. Shanahan watched his second pro day workout, as did New England’s Bill Belichick. The Patriots (who have the No. 15 pick) would have to trade into the top 10 to grab Jones before the quarterback-coveting Panthers (No. 8) and Broncos (No. 9) are on the clock. More

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      C.T.E. May Not Fully Explain Phillip Adams's Shooting Spree

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      A finding of C.T.E. can help explain violence and erratic behavior by former football players, but it will not give a clear picture of why Phillip Adams fatally shot seven people, including himself.It has become a grim but familiar pattern: Soon after an N.F.L. player dies, his family must decide whether to donate his brain to be tested for signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease associated with repeated hits to the head.That was the choice facing the relatives of Phillip Adams, who fatally shot six people and then himself in his hometown, Rock Hill, S.C., this month. The family asked that his brain be sent to the C.T.E. Center at Boston University, the leading site for research on the disease, which has been found in hundreds of football players and other athletes but can be diagnosed only after death.If investigators request an expedited diagnosis — and thus far they have not — the researchers at Boston University would still need about four months to produce a definitive answer.While it has become common for N.F.L. families to question whether, and how deeply, C.T.E. affected a player, the sudden and atypical nature of Adams’s violent outburst, plus the pressures in the football-mad community where he lived, figures to cloud the answers that brain testing might provide.“Having the disease can make it more likely for you to be depressed and even kill someone or yourself, but we’ll never know if it was the only or the main cause of this tragic outcome,” said Adam M. Finkel, a quantitative risk assessor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “But the inability to prove that the disease caused any particular outcome should not be used to cast doubt on the broader point, that exposure to repeated head hits is strongly associated with a disease that increases various bad outcomes.”Even if Adams, whose six-year N.F.L. career ended after the 2015 season, is found to have had C.T.E., that may provide only one clue as to why he killed himself and six others. The disease has been linked to a host of symptoms, including aggressive, impulsive behavior and even suicidal thoughts. In many cases, families and friends of players found to have had C.T.E. say that the symptoms were uncharacteristic of the person they knew and that they became more pronounced over time.In this case, Adams’s sister, Lauren Adams, told USA Today that her brother, who was 32, had recently become unusually aggressive.“His mental health degraded fast and terribly bad,” she said. “There was unusual behavior.” The disease has also been tied to memory lapses, loss of focus and problems following directions and handling everyday chores. But researchers have found only associations, not causal links, between the disease and the many apparent symptoms.It remains difficult and perhaps impossible to determine a motive after a suicide because so many factors can play a role, including persistent mental distress and drug use. Adams does not appear to have left a note that tried to explain his motives, and such messages are often considered unreliable.While aggression is common in players who are ultimately found to have had C.T.E., rarely have they resorted to murder or suicide. Junior Seau and Dave Duerson are perhaps the best-known football players who killed themselves and were found to have had C.T.E. A far smaller group — including Jovan Belcher, a Kansas City Chiefs linebacker — has killed others before dying by suicide. Still, C.T.E. has grown in prominence as more former players are found to have had the disease, leading to vociferous debate about its role in their deaths.Much is still publicly unknown about what kind of medical treatment Adams may have received, or what relationship Adams had with Dr. Robert Lesslie, one of the six people who were murdered. Lesslie was a prominent local physician who specialized in emergency and occupational medicine.Representative Ralph Norman, Republican of South Carolina, told WBTV in Charlotte, N.C., last week that he had learned from law enforcement officials that Dr. Lesslie had seen Adams as a patient. The Sheriff’s Office for York County, S.C., has not confirmed the relationship.In 2017, Adams tried to apply for so-called line-of-duty benefits for injuries he obtained while in the N.F.L., but he had some trouble getting the necessary paperwork from his former teams, according to a disability adviser who worked with Adams. It is unclear how many of Adams’s six former teams provided injury records.A member of the York County Sheriff’s Office guarded the entrance to the home in Rock Hill, S.C., where Dr. Robert Lesslie; his wife, Barbara Lesslie; their two grandchildren; and two other men were fatally shot by Adams before he killed himself.Sam Wolfe/ReutersThose closest to Adams described him as not having come to terms with the end of his N.F.L. career and as someone who had a caretaker role in his family. He was very close to his mother, Phyllis Adams, and had been spending more time in his childhood home with her in recent months, neighbors said. His former agent, Scott Casterline, said Adams had turned down a job offer from him because he did not want to relocate to Texas, where he would be separated from his young son.Adams grew up in Rock Hill, which has given rise to so many N.F.L. players that it is known as Football City U.S.A.Casterline and some of Adams’s friends said Adams held himself to a high standard and never quite got over how his professional career had fizzled because of injuries and other factors.Like some other players, Adams focused so much of his early years honing his craft to get to the N.F.L. that he may have been at a loss over what to do next.“It always starts and ends with expectations,” said Seth Abrutyn, a sociologist at the University of British Columbia who studies the intersection of youth suicide and mental health. “If you are the main caretaker, or at least believe you are, the expectations you face can intensify. They are invisible pressures that exert real force on us.”Adams’s access to guns could have also been a factor in the tragedy. States with higher suicide rates tend to have higher gun ownership rates, research has shown. The average gun ownership rate in South Carolina was 43 percent in 2016, according to a recent Rand Corporation study, well above the average of 32 percent for all states.Police said Adams used two guns in the shootings last week, a .45-caliber and a 9 mm. He was arrested in 2016 in North Carolina and charged with carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor.“What drives the overall suicide rate in the U.S. is gun ownership in the home,” said Matthew Miller, a professor of health sciences and epidemiology at Northeastern University, who has studied the intersection of guns and suicide. “It’s much easier to die when you can reach for a gun than when you can’t.”This and other factors may have fueled Adams’s fatal actions, Abrutyn said. Untangling them to find a clear pattern of behavior may never be possible.“It’s easy to have a monocausal explanation because it allows us to sleep better at night,” he said. “When we look our own lives, we know that that’s not true.” More

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      Howard Schnellenberger, College Coach Who Built Winners, Dies at 87

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      After assembling the formidable offense for the unbeaten 1972 Miami Dolphins, he breathed new life into football programs at two universities.Howard Schnellenberger, who built the offense for the 1972 Miami Dolphins’ unbeaten Super Bowl champions, then revived downtrodden football programs as head coach at the Universities of Miami and Louisville, died on Saturday. He was 87.His death was announced by Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, whose football program he had created. The university did not say where he died or give the cause.Brash and supremely confident and a distinctive figure on the sidelines, usually wearing a sports jacket and tie and sporting a bushy mustache, Schnellenberger was eager to defy the odds.And he was very much the taskmaster.“Football is the last place, outside of the military, where we have an opportunity to develop the proposition that the team is more important than the individual,” he told Sports Illustrated after putting his 1995 Oklahoma Sooners — the third of four college teams he coached — through a grueling spring workout.Schnellenberger was the offensive coordinator under Coach Don Shula for the 17-0 Dolphins of 1972, assembling a unit featuring Bob Griese and Earl Morrall at quarterback, Larry Csonka at fullback, Mercury Morris at running back and Paul Warfield at wide receiver.He embarked on his collegiate head-coaching career in January 1979, when the Miami Hurricanes hired him to take over a football program that was in disarray. Two weeks earlier, Lou Saban, the latest of several head coaches Miami had gone through in the 1970s, had suddenly departed for Army.Schnellenberger watching his Florida Atlantic University team run drills in 2008. He coached Florida Atlantic to a bowl game in his fourth season there.J. Pat Carter/Associated PressIn his five seasons with the Hurricanes, Schnellenberger focused on recruiting players from Florida high schools, proclaiming that “the State of Miami,” delineated by an imaginary line that ran from Tampa eastward, would be the northern boundary of his prime recruiting territory. And he installed professional-type offensive and defensive schemes.The rebuilding program reached its pinnacle when quarterback Bernie Kosar (who was from Ohio) led the Hurricanes to an 11-1 record and a No. 1 ranking for the 1983 season, capped by a 31-30 victory over the previously undefeated Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.After posting a 41-16 record at Miami, Schnellenberger left in 1984 for a prospective head-coaching post in the short-lived United States Football League. But that deal collapsed, and in 1985 he returned to Louisville, where he had grown up, to coach the Cardinals.He said he was unfazed by the challenge of reviving a football program that had long been in the shadow of the school’s basketball squads.“We’re on a collision course with the national championship,” he said at his introductory news conference. “The only variable is time.”He coached Louisville to a pair of bowl victories, most notably a 34-7 rout of Alabama in the 1991 New Year’s Day Fiesta Bowl, the climax of a 10-1-1 season.Schnellenberger became the head coach at Oklahoma in 1995. But the Sooners went only 5-5-1, and he resigned.He retired after that, but Florida Atlantic University hired him in 1998 to raise funds for the creation of a football program. He began recruiting players as the head coach a year later, and his first team took the field in 2001, in Division 1-AA. Florida Atlantic transitioned to the higher Division 1-A in 2004 and won the 2007 New Orleans Bowl and the 2008 Motor City Bowl at that level.Howard Leslie Schnellenberger was born on March 16, 1934, in Saint Meinrad, Ind. He was of German-American descent. His father was a truck driver, and his mother worked in a munitions plant during World War II. He played for Kentucky under Bear Bryant and Blanton Collier, as an end, and was named a first-team All-American by The Associated Press in 1955. He was an assistant coach under Collier at Kentucky in 1959 and 1960 and under Bryant at Alabama from 1961 through 1965. Schnellenberger’s wife, Beverlee, bronzed a pair of shoes that she said he had worn during every game he coached from 1959 to 1972.Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesSchnellenberger recruited Joe Namath and Ken Stabler for the Crimson Tide. When he went to Beaver Falls, Pa., to induce Namath to play for Bryant, he once told The Sun Sentinel of South Florida, “a three-day recruiting trip turned into 10 days,” since Namath and his family took some persuading.“I was out of money and had to buy him a plane ticket to return with me,” he recalled. “I wrote a bad check to Eastern Airlines to get both of us to Alabama.”When Stabler asked Schnellenberger to bring a small gift for his mother when he was wooing Stabler for Bryant, Schnellenberger recalled, “I took his mom a fifth of bourbon.”Schnellenberger was an offensive coach on Bryant’s national championship Alabama teams of 1961, ’64 and ’65. He became the receivers coach for George Allen’s Los Angeles Rams in 1966, then was hired by Shula as the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator in 1970.Coming off the Dolphins’ unbeaten season, he was named the Baltimore Colts’ head coach in 1973. But after the Colts went 4-10 and then got off to an 0-3 start the next season, he was fired. He was the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator again from 1975 to 1978.Schnellenberger with the Peach Bowl trophy after Miami beat Virginia Tech in 1981.Joe Sebo/Associated PressSchnellenberger had a career record of 158-151-3 as a collegiate head coach. He was 6-0 in bowl games, coaching Miami, Louisville and Florida Atlantic to two bowl triumphs apiece. He retired a second and final time after Florida Atlantic’s 2011 season.He is survived by his wife, Beverlee; his sons Stuart and Timothy; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His son Stephen died in 2008.Miami and Florida Atlantic met for the first time in August 2013. The Hurricanes won, 34-6, with Schnellenberger and players from his 1983 Miami team on hand to mark the 30th anniversary of their national championship season. Schnellenberger was both a winner and a loser at that 2013 matchup: He was the honorary captain for both teams. More

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      Tim Tebow Retires From Baseball

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAt the End of a Winding Path, Tim Tebow Retires From BaseballThe Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback turned Mets minor leaguer has ended his unlikely run at being a two-sport athlete.Tim Tebow never found the same success professionally that he did in college football. But he drew attention at every stop.Credit…Vera Nieuwenhuis/Associated PressFeb. 17, 2021, 8:57 p.m. ETEnding one of the more surprising — and unlikely — attempts at a two-sport career, Tim Tebow, the superstar college quarterback turned N.F.L. curiosity turned minor-league baseball player, announced his retirement from professional sports on Wednesday.“I loved every minute of the journey, but at this time I feel called in other directions,” Tebow said in a statement released by the Mets, who signed him to a minor-league deal in 2016. “I never want to be partially in on anything. I always want to be 100 percent in on whatever I choose.”While Tebow never went beyond Class AAA in baseball, he drew a great deal of attention, because of both his exploits on the football field and his charitable endeavors. He is the author of several books and has done missionary work around the world. He was often polarizing, though, with fans of both sports regularly disagreeing about his value and potential, as well as his outspokenness as a Christian. But wherever he went, Tebow drew a crowd.I never want to be partially in on anything. I always want to be 100% in on whatever I choose. Thank you again for everyone’s support of this awesome journey in baseball, I’ll always cherish my time as a Met! #LGM— Tim Tebow (@TimTebow) February 18, 2021
      “It has been a pleasure to have Tim in our organization, as he’s been a consummate professional during his four years with the Mets,” said Sandy Alderson, the president of the Mets. “By reaching the Triple-A level in 2019, he far exceeded expectations when he first entered the system in 2016, and he should be very proud of his accomplishments.”Tebow, 33, showed tremendous athleticism at every stop of his journey, but after a standout career at Florida, during which he won the 2007 Heisman Trophy and two national championships, he never found the right fit professionally.A first-round pick of the Denver Broncos in 2010, he struggled to make his run-heavy approach to playing quarterback work in the N.F.L., but he did manage a surprising close to the 2011 season. After going 7-4 as a starter, he shocked the sport by leading the Broncos to an upset of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round of the playoffs.Tebow’s peak as a professional athlete came after the 2011 N.F.L. season when he led the Denver Broncos to an upset of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round of the playoffs.Credit…Aaron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post, via Associated PressThat success was short-lived, however, as he was traded to the Jets before the next season. After arriving to much fanfare, he threw just eight passes for the Jets over the course of two games and was released. Attempts to catch on with the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles went nowhere.A year after his release from the Eagles in 2015, Tebow, who had not played organized baseball since his junior year in high school, was signed by the Mets.“This decision was strictly driven by baseball,” Alderson insisted at the time of the signing. “This was not something that was driven by marketing considerations or anything of the sort.”Tebow homered in his first professional at-bat, but over all he hit .223 in four seasons, with 18 home runs. In 2019, he hit .163 with four homers for Class AAA Syracuse.In announcing his retirement, he acknowledged the Mets fans who had pulled for him in his quest to join the ranks of Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, athletes who reached the pinnacle in both football and baseball.“Thank you again for everyone’s support of this awesome journey in baseball,” he said. “I’ll always cherish my time as a Met.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Jordan McNair's Family Reaches $3.5 Million Settlement With University of Maryland

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFamily Reaches $3.5 Million Settlement in Death of Maryland Football PlayerJordan McNair, a University of Maryland offensive lineman, collapsed from heatstroke during a practice in 2018 and died two weeks later.Jordan McNair in 2016, when he was in high school. He died in 2018 after sustaining heatstroke during a University of Maryland football practice.Credit…Barbara Haddock Taylor/The Baltimore Sun, via Associated PressJan. 17, 2021Updated 8:30 p.m. ETThe University of Maryland has reached a $3.5 million settlement agreement with the family of a football player who collapsed from heatstroke during a practice in May 2018 and died two weeks later.The details of the settlement were reported by ESPN and appeared in an agenda item for a meeting of the Maryland Board of Public Works, which will vote on it on Jan. 27. The settlement was reached more than two years after the death of the football player, Jordan McNair, a 19-year-old offensive lineman.Mr. McNair’s parents, Marty McNair and Tonya Wilson, could not immediately be reached for comment. “This has been a long and painful fight, but we will attempt to find closure even though this is a wound that will never, ever fully heal,” they said in a statement to ESPN.Their son’s death spurred two investigations and an ESPN report that described a “toxic culture” of bullying and humiliation in the university’s football program. The team’s head coach and two trainers were fired, and the team’s conditioning coach resigned.Mr. McNair collapsed in the heat during a practice on May 29, 2018, when he ran a 106-degree fever. An independent report commissioned by the university found that Mr. McNair was not properly cared for after he showed symptoms of heatstroke. Cold-water immersion, a standard treatment, was not performed, the report said, and it was more than an hour before anyone dialed 911.The head football coach, D.J. Durkin, and the athletic director, Damon Evans, were placed on administrative leave while the university investigated the claims that were raised in the ESPN report. The investigation found that the program did not have a “toxic culture,” but acknowledged that “too many players feared speaking out.” It suggested that Mr. Durkin had made errors but was not to blame for many of the program’s issues.One day after the university’s Board of Regents said Mr. Durkin would be reinstated, citing the investigation, Wallace D. Loh, the university’s president at the time, overruled the board and fired him.Soon after, the two athletic trainers who had attended to Mr. McNair were also fired, and Rick Court, the strength and conditioning coach who supervised the practice where Mr. McNair collapsed, resigned.The University of Maryland on Sunday declined to comment about the settlement agreement. It said an independent review panel made 41 recommendations in the aftermath of Mr. McNair’s death, all of which have been implemented.“The most notable was the transition to an autonomous healthcare model, where all team physicians are employees of our university health center,” it said. The law firm representing Mr. McNair’s parents said the McNairs were “relieved that this fight is over and to put this behind them as they continue to mourn Jordan’s death.”Mr. McNair’s death prompted criticism of universities and the National Collegiate Athletic Association for not adequately monitoring conditioning workouts, especially in the off-season.From 2000 to 2018, 31 N.C.A.A. football players died during off-season or preseason workouts from heatstroke, cardiac issues, asthma and other causes, according to Scott Anderson, the head athletic trainer at the University of Oklahoma, who keeps a database of athletic fatalities.Mr. Anderson said in an email that he was aware of eight severe cases of heatstroke involving N.C.A.A. football players, three of whom died.Mr. McNair’s parents founded the Jordan McNair Foundation shortly after their son’s death to educate student athletes and parents about how to recognize the symptoms of heatstroke. In their statement to ESPN, they said they wanted to honor “Jordan’s legacy so that his death was not in vain.”“No parent,” they said, “should have to wait this long for closure where their child has been treated unfairly or unjustly.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Floyd Little, Star Running Back for Syracuse and Broncos, Dies at 78

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFloyd Little, Star Running Back for Syracuse and Broncos, Dies at 78Gen. Douglas MacArthur urged him to attend West Point, but he became an Orangeman to honor a promise to Ernie Davis.Floyd Little, right, avoiding a tackle in a game against the Jets in 1969. A three-time all-American, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.Credit…Associated PressJan. 3, 2021, 4:12 p.m. ETFloyd Little, who followed Jim Brown and Ernie Davis in an extraordinary line of all-American running backs at Syracuse University, each wearing No. 44, and who donned it again when he forged a Hall of Fame career with the Denver Broncos, died on Friday at his home in Henderson, Nev., near Las Vegas. He was 78.His death was confirmed by the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He received a diagnosis of cancer last year and had been in hospice care.Little was only 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds, but he was strong enough to burst through defensive lines and agile in the open field, playing for the Broncos from 1967 to 1975.Playing for Syracuse from 1964 to 1966, Little ran for 2,704 yards, had 46 touchdowns and was an outstanding kick returner. He was a three-time all-American and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 2010 after he had already lost hope that he would be selected.Little was chosen by the American Football League’s Broncos as the No. 6 pick of the pro football draft in 1967, three years before the N.F.L. absorbed the A.F.L. teams. The Broncos had never had a winning record since the A.F.L.’s 1960 inaugural season, but Little became known as “the franchise” for giving their fans some hope, though the team continued to struggle during his time in Denver.Little in 2010 speaking during halftime at a Broncos game. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who met Little when they both attended Syracuse University, said, “He was full of character, decency and integrity.”Credit…Jack Dempsey/Associated Press“I know when I got there the talk was about the team moving to Chicago or Birmingham,” Little told The Associated Press in 2009. “So I supposedly saved the franchise.”Little led the N.F.L. in rushing yards with 1,133 in 1971 and in rushing touchdowns with 12 in 1973, and was named to five Pro Bowl games. He scored 43 career rushing touchdowns as well as nine on receptions and two on punt returns and ran for 6,323 yards, averaging 3.9 yards per carry.“Floyd Little and I were students at Syracuse University together,” President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. said in a statement on Saturday. “I was in law school and he was a star halfback on the football team. I watched him play in Archbold Stadium, his No. 44 flashing by defenders who had no chance, running as if he was chasing the spirit of his dear friend and fellow 44 legend, Ernie Davis.”“In the years that followed, I got to know Floyd as the man behind the number,” Mr. Biden said. “He was full of character, decency and integrity.”Floyd Douglas Little was born on July 4, 1942, in Waterbury, Conn. His father, Frederick Douglas, named for the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, died of cancer when he was 6. His mother, Lula Douglas, worked several jobs to support Floyd and his five siblings. When he was in his early teens, the family moved to New Haven.Little played football for Hillhouse High School in New Haven for two seasons, then for another two at Bordentown Military Institute in New Jersey, seeking to improve his grades so that he could be accepted to college. “The only thing I had was a dream,” the Broncos quoted Little as saying on a visit to New Haven in 1988. “I had no money, no promises and no guarantees.”Little had considered applying to West Point, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur sought to recruit him while he was at Bordentown.“General MacArthur shook my hand and talked to me about the value of education, about being a leader,” Little recalled in his memoir “Promises to Keep” (2012), written with Tom Mackie. “I was told that if I went to Army, I could become the first Black general.”But in December 1962, while he was on winter break from Bordentown, Little was visited by Davis, who in 1961 had became the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy as college football’s most outstanding player.Little, who had close to 50 scholarship offers, told Davis he would go to Syracuse. But he still had thoughts of attending West Point. When he heard that Davis died of leukemia in May 1963 after being selected by the Cleveland Browns as the No. 1 pick in the 1962 N.F.L. draft, he decided to fulfill his promise to him.Jim Brown, the first of three spectacular No. 44s at Syracuse, playing for the Orangemen from 1954 to 1956, became one of the greatest fullbacks in pro football history, playing for the Browns from 1957 to 1965.Little obtained a master’s degree in legal administration from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in 1975 and owned auto dealerships after retiring from football.His survivors include his wife, DeBorah; his son, Marc; his daughters Christy and Kyra; and several grandchildren.When Little was named as a special assistant to the athletic director at Syracuse in 2011, a post he held until 2016, he thought once more of Ernie Davis.“Coming to Syracuse, I’ve tried to emulate what Ernie was and what he would be,” ESPN quoted him as saying. “My life has been tied to Ernie’s life because I wanted to be the Ernie Davis that he couldn’t be.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      College Football Changes Thanksgiving Traditions Amid Pandemic

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      At Colorado, the Thanksgiving meal for football players, a ritual since at least the mid-1990s, will not happen. Ohio State’s seniors will miss out on a tradition of Thanksgiving practice. At Virginia, any players who attend a large Thanksgiving gathering could have to quarantine.College football players across the country are accustomed to playing and practicing through Thanksgiving. But as with everything else during this season like no other, the coronavirus pandemic is forcing some teams to make changes large and small to their well-honed routines.Public officials are warning this holiday that a potentially lethal combination of widespread travel and large indoor gatherings will rapidly increase the already surging spread of the virus. University administrators are scrambling to offer guidance to students.John Thrasher, the president of Florida State University, is asking students not to return to campus if they leave for the holiday.“Students, if you go home for the Thanksgiving break, please stay there until the start of the spring semester,” he wrote in a campuswide email last week. Florida State has two weeks remaining in the semester after Thanksgiving — two weeks Thrasher would prefer those students complete from home.But his email does not apply to the Seminoles, Florida State’s 2-6 football team, who postponed last weekend’s game against Clemson over virus-related concerns. They face Virginia on Saturday.“Our team will stay here in Tallahassee and practice before traveling on Friday,” a Florida State spokesman, Robert Wilson, said in an email.Practicing during Thanksgiving week is typically one of the nuisances of being a college football player, a sacrifice made each autumn often in service of rivalry games. This season, however, skipping past Thanksgiving might be a saving grace for college football, which has already had more than 90 games canceled or postponed because of the coronavirus.The New York Times contacted all 65 football programs in the Power 5 conferences — the Atlantic Coast (which includes Notre Dame this fall), the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Pac-12 and the Southeastern — to ask how they were handling Thanksgiving this season. Among the 47 that responded, the answers were quite similar: They are mostly treating this week like any other coronavirus-inflected week.The University of Illinois doesn’t have classes during Thanksgiving week, but it is an otherwise normal week for the Fighting Illini, who will host the third-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday. Players will be tested for the virus between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Thursday, practice at 8 a.m. and have a team Thanksgiving meal at 11 a.m., according to Kent Brown, an associate athletic director.“The schedule isn’t much different than past seasons, although players were able to leave campus to gather for Thanksgiving at a local team member or coach’s house for Thanksgiving before reporting back Friday morning,” Brown said. “But in the past, players never had to test for Covid every morning.”Colorado has had a game the weekend after Thanksgiving every year since 1996, when the Big 8 became the Big 12. There is traditionally a Thanksgiving meal for players and staff members, but it will be scrapped this year, said David Plati, an associate athletic director at Colorado. The team has dispensed with all communal meals this year.“The team hasn’t even eaten a meal together — everything has been grab-and-go, even on the one road trip,” Plati said. Active players also have not been allowed to go home since training camp began on Oct. 9.At Ohio State, adapting to the pandemic means postponing a beloved Thanksgiving rite.The Buckeyes typically have their final regular-season practice on the morning of the holiday. After that weekend’s game, at least in an ordinary year, the only games left are the Big Ten championship (if they qualify, which they have in each of the last three seasons) and at least one bowl game. The Thanksgiving practice usually concludes with Senior Tackle, when each senior addresses the team and then hits a blocking sled or tackling dummy one final time.Afterward, players who live in or near Columbus can take some teammates home for Thanksgiving, while others have their own families in town or go to a coach’s house.“This year, however, no one will be going home for Thanksgiving and the team will dine together on Thursday,” Jerry Emig, an associate athletic director, wrote in an email. “Senior Tackle won’t take place until later. We fly to Illinois Friday afternoon.”.css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-vadvcb{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:0.875rem;line-height:1.25rem;color:#333 !important;}.css-rqynmc{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:1.25rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-rqynmc{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-rqynmc strong{font-weight:600;}.css-rqynmc em{font-style:italic;}.css-2q573h{margin-bottom:15px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.875rem;line-height:1.5625rem;color:#333;}.css-1dvfdxo{margin:10px auto 0px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.5625rem;color:#121212;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1dvfdxo{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}.css-121grtr{margin:0 auto 10px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-1k4ccaz{background-color:white;margin:30px 0;padding:0 20px;max-width:510px;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1k4ccaz{padding:0;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin-right:auto;margin-left:auto;}.css-1k4ccaz strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1k4ccaz em{font-style:italic;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1k4ccaz{margin:40px auto;}}.css-1k4ccaz:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}.css-1k4ccaz a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:2px solid #ccd9e3;}.css-1k4ccaz a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:2px solid #ddd;}.css-1k4ccaz a:hover{border-bottom:none;}.css-1k4ccaz[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-1k4ccaz[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-1k4ccaz[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-1k4ccaz[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1nbniso{border-top:5px solid #121212;border-bottom:2px solid #121212;margin:0 auto;padding:5px 0 0;overflow:hidden;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1nbniso{border-top:2px solid #121212;border-bottom:none;}Schools During Coronavirus ›Back to SchoolUpdated Nov. 23, 2020The latest on how the pandemic is reshaping education.After a “covid semester,” the University of Michigan is drastically shifting its approach to virus control.When New York City public schools reopen, about 700,000 students won’t be there.How risky are indoor youth sports like basketball and hockey? Parents are agonizing over whether to enroll their kids.As winter looms, outdoor schools face tough decisions.Most schools said they did not give their players any specific guidance for Thanksgiving, relying on the messages they have conveyed for months. That message, as John Bianco, an associate athletic director at Texas, put it: “They’re constantly reminded by our team medical personnel and coaches to always wear a mask, wash hands, stay at a safe distance and to not be in any large crowds.”One of the few schools that did give players Thanksgiving travel guidance was Virginia, which updated the travel policy sent to all athletes in October, said Jim Daves, an assistant athletic director.If a player has a Thanksgiving meal in a hotel with family members without social distancing? He will have to quarantine. If the gathering is small, with mask wearing and social distancing? No quarantining necessary. If a player visits home for just a day and social distancing is followed? No quarantine. But if he somehow finds enough time to go home for more than one day? Quarantine.Travel- and family-related peril has been ever-present this season. With shorter schedules because of fewer, or no, nonconference games and some leagues starting the season late, as well as unexpected open weekends after games were postponed or canceled, athletic departments have fretted over off-days all season long.“Quite frankly, it was more of a concern a few weeks ago when we had an open week and the players had several days off,” said Steve Fink, an assistant athletic director at South Carolina.The coronavirus will threaten the season right until the end. The number of cases is spiking nationwide, and the virus has already killed more than 257,000 people in the United States. If the worst fears of public health officials are borne out, those numbers will only accelerate in December, when players are practicing for the extremely lucrative bowl games but also have unusual amounts of free time.“Who knows what will happen with any type of bowl game events?” said Steve Roe, an assistant athletic director at Iowa.Some bowl games have already been canceled. But on Tuesday night, the College Football Playoff’s selection committee released its first rankings of the season. Its semifinal matchups are scheduled for Jan. 1, and the national championship game is planned for Jan. 11. More