← All episodes

038 - Contrasting Manhood - McCain Vs. Meyer

August 30, 2018 32m 16s Full transcript available
038 - Contrasting Manhood - McCain Vs. Meyer
0:00 / 32m 16s
In this episode, we contrast the lives of John McCain and Urban Meyer, two men in the news for vastly different reasons. McCain's legacy as a war hero and politician stands in stark contrast to Meyer's questionable decisions surrounding domestic violence, highlighting the importance of integrity and moral courage in manhood.
Transcript
374 segments
0:00 Are your ad campaigns lighting up the dashboard, but not the pipeline?
0:04 That's bullspend, and marketers are calling it out in dashboard confessions.
0:09 My boss asked for results, so I opened my dashboard for the only positive-sounding metric I had, impression.
0:16 Cut the bullspend. See revenue, not just reach.
0:19 LinkedIn delivers the highest return on ad spend of major ad networks.
0:23 Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $25 credit.
0:27 Go to linkedin.com/campaign turns the conditions apply.
0:30 This is I'm Daunton Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
0:45 All right, guys. Today, we're going to take a look at a couple of different guys that you've
0:48 seen in the news here in the last week. They were in the news for very, very different reasons,
0:53 but we're going to look at some of the things in their lives and some of the things going on
0:56 with their current circumstances, and then try to see what we can glean and learn from those things.
1:00 We're going to be talking about the late John McCain. We're also going to be talking about
1:05 the Ohio State football coach, head coach, Urban Meyer. Again, we'll talk about one,
1:11 then we'll talk about the other, and then we'll bring them back. Obviously, I feel it would be
1:15 best to start with John McCain. Over the weekend, if you're listening to this on time on the 25th
1:20 of August, 2018, John McCain passed away. He was just four years shy of his 82nd birthday,
1:26 and he passed away, unfortunately, because of brain cancer. So we had seen earlier in the week
1:31 that he had foregone further treatment than that he was no longer going to be receiving any more
1:37 treatment in that he was basically okay with where he was going to be going. So I know that there are
1:43 a lot of really good tributes out there right now for John McCain. I mean, literally just Google
1:48 John McCain, and there's some really, really fantastic ones, even from places that you wouldn't
1:51 assume he would get those. But I don't really want to do that here. I don't want to have like
1:56 a big long thing, because I've seen it done so well by other people already. So I don't really
2:00 want to reinvent the wheel. But for some of you, I either want to introduce John McCain to you.
2:05 I mean, most of us know who he is, but reintroduce some very special things about this man's life.
2:11 So this was a guy that was a Naval Academy grad in 1958. And then he went straight to Vietnam,
2:17 pretty much after he got out of the Naval Academy, not right after, but he went to fight at Vietnam.
2:24 He was a pilot. He almost died a few times, but then he was shot down to Vietnam in 1967.
2:29 And this is one of the things that he's most known for is that he was a prisoner of war,
2:32 and he was a prisoner of war for six years. So this was a guy that was tortured regularly during that
2:38 time, you know, was tortured so that they would give up information on a troop movement or how
2:43 they were setting up or what the Americans were thinking. And a lot of the torture that John McCain
2:48 suffered over the time that he was a POW in Vietnam, resulted in him having some physical issues.
2:55 And there were some handicaps that he had really for the remainder of his life. You know, this is a
2:59 guy that fought off, you know, multiple crazy injuries from the beatings and torture that he took,
3:03 dysentery, all kinds of crazy things. But you know, obviously, we got him back, we got him home.
3:09 And one of the things that he did, one of the first things that he does, he went into public life,
3:12 he went into politics. So he was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1982.
3:17 And then just five years later, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1987. And that's
3:23 where he served until his death just this year. So a lot of people remember him because he won
3:29 the Republican nomination in 2008. He narrowly missed out on getting it over George W Bush in 2000.
3:35 They had a really heated back and forth. But George W Bush eventually won that. And then of course,
3:40 one or, you know, was elected president twice in a row in 2000 in the 2004. But in 2008,
3:46 he were talking about John McCain, he he lost to Barack Obama. It wasn't exactly a close
3:52 victory for Barack Obama. It was a fairly widespread victory. One thing I do want to point out
3:58 interesting just as like a little weird caveat, John McCain is, you know, people get really
4:03 schizophrenic whenever they think about John McCain and in terms of their support or respect
4:09 for him. Because this was a guy that some of the same people, mainly people on the left. But he
4:14 was seen as, you know, a baby killer whenever he went to war, when he went to Vietnam. But then
4:18 he was seen, you know, as a hero after he was freed from the POW camp. And then he was seen as the
4:24 enemy throughout his entire political career, because he decided to be a red candidate. And
4:28 even whenever he's going up against Barack Obama, they just destroyed him. But now he's seen as,
4:33 you know, the, you know, the, the big American hero Maverick in his death. So it's kind of
4:38 interesting. But there's a lot of people that have given tributes, as I've already mentioned,
4:42 and I may share some with you guys some on our social media. But the tribute that I thought was
4:48 the most poignant. And the one that I thought was the best so far was from his daughter,
4:52 Megan McCain. So Megan McCain has obviously gotten into politics a little bit on the new side and
4:58 on commentary. And she's, you know, been in hot water here or there, but she's always been for her
5:03 dad and her dad's always been for her. And they seemed to have a very special relationship. And
5:08 actually what she posted on her Twitter, her comments, seemed to go viral up to this point.
5:13 I think of as of the recording of this podcast, there were almost 400,000 likes
5:17 and like 60,000 retweets of this. So I'm going to go ahead and just read that. It's short. I just
5:22 want to read that it's in its entirety. Because I feel like it was a very, very good tribute to her
5:27 father. So here we go. My father, United States Senator John Sidney McCain III departed this life
5:33 today. I was with my father at his end. And he was with me at my beginning. In the 33 years we
5:39 shared together, he raised me taught me corrected me, comforted me, encouraged me and supported me
5:45 in all things. He loved me. And I loved him. He taught me how to live. His love and his care
5:51 ever present, always unfailing took me from a girl to a woman. And he showed me what it is to be a man.
5:56 All that I am is thanks to him. Now that he is gone, the task of my lifetime is to live up to his
6:02 example, his expectations, and his love. My father's passing comes with sorrow and grief for me,
6:07 for my mother, for my brothers, and for my sisters. He was a great fire who burned bright,
6:13 and we lived in this in his light and warmth for so very long. We know that his flame lives on in
6:18 each of us. The days and years to come will not be the same without my dad, but they will be good
6:22 days filled with life and love because of the example he lived for us. Your prayers for his soul
6:28 and for our family are sincerely appreciated. My father is gone and I will miss him as only an
6:33 adoring daughter can. But in this loss and in this sorrow, I take comfort in this. John McCain,
6:40 hero of the Republic and to his little girl, wakes today to something more glorious than
6:44 anything on this earth. Today, the warrior enters his true and eternal life, greeted by those who
6:50 have gone before him, rising to meet the author of all things. The dream is ended. This is the
6:56 morning. So I thought that was a very poignant and very good tribute to John McCain from his daughter.
7:02 And like I said, I definitely encourage you to go and check out some of those things. But you know,
7:07 this is a guy, John McCain that I've watched in his political career, obviously very unique.
7:13 I mean, how many guys were POWs? And then, you know, we're almost the president of the United
7:16 States. I think we can count them on one finger. So that's that's kind of one of those things.
7:20 He did a lot of things in his career. I didn't agree with. There were a lot of stances he took
7:25 that I was like, man, why are you doing that? Like he went outside of the party lines a lot,
7:30 and that's how he got his nickname, Maverick, right? Because he would just kind of do his own thing.
7:34 And there were times when it would seem like he kind of held up the Republican party and the
7:39 entire country at times. And I didn't always think it was the best thing for the party or the country.
7:45 But he always kind of operated with what he wanted to get across. And he thought he knew the right
7:51 thing and what would be best. And you know, that's kind of the thing, man, is even if you're a huge
7:56 fan of any politician, they're never going to always do the right thing in your eyes. They're
8:01 always going to let you down. And they're always going to disappoint you. But the thing about it
8:05 is is even with all his warts, you know, this this seemed to be a very great man, very well respected
8:10 man, even the people that just vehemently disagreed with him politically, they seemed to still like
8:16 him. It was just kind of one of those things that was very interesting. You know, it's it would have
8:21 been very interesting to see if he had never ran for president, how he would have been viewed by
8:25 most people they probably would have adored adored him anymore. Because he went up against, you know,
8:30 the modern left favorite person ever Barack Obama, the God King, right? And so if he had never gone
8:35 against them, you know, there would probably be even more people giving him tributes now.
8:39 But really, really a stand up guy in a lot of ways. And there's just a lot to learn from him about
8:44 what it means to be a man. And then we have Urban Meyer. So obviously a lot of guys out there that
8:50 listen to this, you are college football fans, just like I am. And the funny thing about the
8:55 controversy surrounding him is it seems like a controversy that has huge college football
9:00 implications, right? Like that's how we were always all thinking about this along these lines.
9:05 But if we dig a little bit deeper, this controversy kind of shows one of the huge problems of the
9:10 depraved human heart, right? And we'll get into more about about what that means here in a little
9:16 bit. But ultimately what we're going to be looking at is, you know, with the things that surrounded
9:21 this situation, where were all the men? Where were all the people standing up for the rights of people
9:27 that maybe couldn't defend themselves? So some of you, I know, don't know what I'm talking about
9:31 at all. So let me just kind of bring you up to speed. So in July of this year, so July of 2018,
9:36 there was a very abrupt firing of an Ohio State assistant coach. He was the wide receivers
9:41 coach, his name was Zach Smith. And he was fired by coach Urban Meyer. And this was after Smith had
9:47 violated a civil protection order or restraining order against his now ex wife Courtney. And Smith
9:54 is a guy that's been with Urban Meyer for a long time. I mean, he's been on Urban Meyer's
9:58 staffs at the University of Florida, and Ohio State for I think it was 11 years or something
10:02 like that. So this is a guy that, you know, it was kind of seen as Urban Meyer's protege.
10:07 So I mean, he was making over $300,000 a year to be an assistant coach and director of recruiting.
10:12 So very, very in tight with Urban Meyer. But the firing came on the heels of multiple domestic
10:19 violence allegations against Smith. That was from 2009 to 2015. This was reported by a guy named
10:27 Brett McMurphy on his Facebook fan page. So that Brett McMurphy is not a huge name. It's not like
10:32 he has millions and millions of followers. But it was very interesting that whenever he broke the
10:38 story, Brett McMurphy, that is Ohio State's initial response to this was that, Oh, this is
10:44 a personal matter in the university doesn't normally make comments on personal matters.
10:48 And then 10 hours later, they fired Smith 10 hours later. So it seemed like some of these,
10:55 you know, folks that kind of run the university and maybe the athletic department or all of them
10:58 got in a room in a war room somewhere and decided, Oh, we got to get on the other side of this.
11:02 And there's a lot of details that follow from there. But the thing that was very telling about
11:09 this is that this wasn't a rare occurrence, apparently, for this coach Smith, right?
11:14 Whenever he was first arrested for aggravated battery in 2009, he had beaten his his pregnant
11:22 wife. Courtney was pregnant at the time that he beat her. And so it's kind of one of those
11:26 things like this. This was a guy that seemed to have no issues roughing up his wife. Now,
11:31 if you fast forward to big 10 media days, this was on July 24th, Myers said that he knew about the
11:36 incident in 2009, when, you know, coach Smith had beaten his pregnant wife, but he pretty much
11:42 didn't know about any of the other allegations thereafter, at which point I would have been like,
11:46 and would that have mattered coach? Would that have mattered at all? This guy beat his pregnant
11:53 wife? It doesn't matter how good he is at Xs and O's or recruiting. He's gone. He's got to be gone.
11:59 Like, he didn't trip fall in his fist land on the girl's jaw, right? Like, that's not how this went.
12:05 But it was really interesting at the time. And you could just smell this from a mile away. Ohio
12:10 State did their own investigation of the matter, which how in the world could that go poorly? Right?
12:15 You know, we have an internal issue that's investigated internally, because we're certainly
12:19 going to be able to do that. But we all know this and everyone's going to pontificate about
12:23 their opinions on this, whether you're you're anti Ohio State or you're an Ohio State fan,
12:28 and you make sure you say the Ohio State before you say their name every time it doesn't matter
12:32 where you're at on this. We know why they did the investigation themselves, because no matter what
12:36 they found, they can control the narrative. They can control what was going to be said and they can
12:41 control what the punishment would be. So that's obviously why they did that. And, you know, came
12:46 out from the Ohio State report that Meyer, you know, had significant memory issues when trying to
12:51 recall the things that went down between Coach Smith and his wife. There was also reports that
12:57 he may have deleted old texts that would have indicated that he did indeed know that this was
13:02 not an isolated incident from 2009. But all this kind of led up, you know, we're sitting here for
13:08 a long time in here. I'm in smack dab in the middle of sooner country down here in Oklahoma.
13:12 And so all my friends that are OU fans are just jol jacking back and forth like, oh, I really
13:17 hope something goes down. You know, they're just looking at it from a exes and those wins and losses
13:21 standpoint. They don't want to see Ohio State duo, which, you know, it is what it is. But this all
13:25 leads up to last week, whenever they had this press conference, where they were going to announce
13:29 their findings. And it kind of turned into an apology press conference. But the whole thing was a,
13:35 you know, what show it was ridiculous. Like it was 30 minutes. It was about, you know,
13:40 and it was just the statements that were read by urban Meyer were very cold.
13:46 And obviously very calculated that they really weren't making any mention of the situation at all.
13:53 And even the athletic director, everything seemed really, really strange. Like it just,
13:59 the whole thing felt strange. I remember people live tweeting it while it was going on. And they're
14:04 just like, man, this is so ridiculous. And then, you know, they announced that urban Meyer was going
14:08 to be suspended for the or take an administrative leave. Sorry, they made sure to not say suspended.
14:14 But administrative leave for the first three weeks of the season. So that would just basically,
14:19 the only tough team they were going to see in the first three weeks anyway, it was TCU.
14:23 But you know, the first three weeks of the season, he can't coach, he's not going to coach on the
14:27 sideline or a practice or anything like that. And I think he had to give up six weeks worth of pay,
14:31 which is literally a drop in the bucket for a guy like that that makes the kind of money that he
14:34 does. But the thing I found very, very interesting is about 31 minutes into the press conference.
14:41 I think the press conference was like 33 minutes long total or something like that.
14:45 There was a journalist named Gregomonti that asked what ended up being in a lot of people's
14:51 mind the defining question of the entire press conference. And it was this, what message do you
14:57 have for Courtney Smith? He asked us directly to urban Meyer, what message do you have for Courtney
15:04 Smith? And so this is urban Meyer's moment. Okay, you've read your, you know, your statement that was
15:10 developed for you by a PR team and approved by the, the lawyers of the athletic department
15:14 and everybody at Ohio State just go out there and read this. Don't add to it. Don't take
15:18 anything away. Just read this, take a few questions, be vague and you'll be fine. But this was his
15:23 moment. This was his moment to, to own up a little bit to, to knowing that that something was going
15:30 on and that he could have done more, but that he didn't. This is how he responds to the question.
15:36 I have a message for everyone involved in this. I'm sorry. We're in this situation.
15:41 I'm just sorry. We're in this situation. I'm going to read that again just in case you
15:48 didn't all get it. I have a message for everyone involved in this. I'm sorry. We're in this situation.
15:53 I'm just sorry. We're in this situation. And then just stood there. There's blank stare on his face.
15:58 And like, here's a crazy thing. There's everybody obviously keyed in on that because he could have
16:04 really stood up for Courtney Smith. Even though he didn't do it for years and years and years,
16:08 he could have at least done it publicly would have been better than nothing. But it was only after
16:12 overwhelming outrage that he wasn't planning to address Courtney Smith and, you know, really his
16:17 tone deaf message to her did Urban Meyer apologize to Courtney directly. But he did it on Twitter
16:23 two days later. So I mean, it was just, it was all PR nonsense. And here's the thing that the fans
16:31 are they're not at fault in this situation. But they got, you know, caught up in this. They they
16:36 caught up in a hook line and sinker for these guys. The fans gathered for public rallies to support
16:41 Urban Meyer. And there was overwhelming support for Urban Meyer on social media from Buckeye Nation.
16:47 And there were plenty excuses to go around like, how could he have known? Is it his job to know all
16:52 the details of all of his coaches? Is his job to do this or do that? And my response is pretty easy
16:57 to that. Well, yeah, kind of like he can't know everything there is to know about these coaches,
17:02 but it was pretty clear that he did know that one of his coaches was beating his wife.
17:05 Like, what are you talking about fans? But here's the thing is kind of what we learned
17:12 out of this whole thing with Urban Meyer. One of the things that I feel like we all learned
17:17 again is that domestic violence still isn't that big a deal to most people. I mean, it's just not.
17:22 I mean, if this guy can beat his pregnant wife and not be fired, like, what would he have been
17:29 fired for? Like, just think about that. Like, child abuse? I mean, look at last week's episode,
17:35 would Urban Meyer have been, you know, just a younger version of Joe Paterno? Would he have
17:40 protected this guy if he was molesting children, raping children? Would he have done that? Like,
17:45 I mean, we don't know. But I mean, domestic violence just isn't that big a deal, apparently.
17:50 Well, he didn't kill the baby that was in the womb, right? Oh, he didn't beat her up where she
17:54 had to go to the hospital as if any of that stuff matters, like, in order to make it worse or better,
17:59 you know what I mean? And another thing I feel like we learned is, you know, basically, if all
18:03 those fails, guys, just misremember, you know, just have issues with your memory. This seems to be a
18:09 growing excuse that a lot of so-called men are using when they get into trouble or get into issues
18:14 is, oh, man, I just, I don't quite remember that. I don't really recall, you know, I wish I knew,
18:21 but I just, dad come in as I, when I'm sitting here thinking about it, I just, I just can't really
18:26 recall. It's just that over and over and over. But, but here's the main overarching issue of the
18:32 Urban Meyer situation. And this is as clear as day. Winning is everything. It is everything.
18:41 And I'm not saying anything that a billion people haven't already said before me, but, but guys,
18:46 Ohio State was 12 and two in 2017. What if they had gone six and six and lost their bowl game?
18:53 What would Urban Meyer have been, you know, let go completely? Probably. Let's say Urban
19:00 Meyer had a couple of bad seasons in a row, just not Ohio State, the Ohio State type seasons, right?
19:07 But no, he was 12 and two, you know, he was in the, you know, the Big Ten Championship game. I
19:11 think they went to the Cotton Bowl. They smoked USC like this was, this was a good season for that
19:16 team. And they got another good team here, like coming into the season. I mean, what if Urban
19:21 Meyer wasn't a three time national champ? Like, what if the 2018 team didn't look very good?
19:26 Like, like, what if the 2018 team like had to play, you know, two top ranked opponents within
19:33 their first three games, you know, maybe an out of conference with Pona and maybe somebody else,
19:37 you know, what if they had two really, really tough games? Like, think about the differences
19:40 in all these different situations in some of these situations, it would be like, yeah, he'd
19:44 definitely be gone. But in other situations, it's like, oh, we're going to do all we can to keep him
19:48 here. But that's, that's just kind of what we saw in this situation is that Ohio State,
19:53 the Ohio State Athletic Department, the football program, Urban Meyer, there were so many people
19:57 found at fault here. And I have to put the blame on Urban Meyer here because it was pretty apparent
20:04 from the evidence that we saw that he did know. Like, he clearly knew about the one in 2009,
20:08 which should have been enough to tell him about who this coach Smith was. But then he just kept
20:12 the guy around, you know, this, this woman apparently reached out to other wives of other coaches.
20:17 And it just apparently didn't make any difference. The guy knew about it. And he said,
20:23 he said nothing. You know, maybe he gave the guy a pep talk at some point said, hey, you know,
20:28 maybe don't leave bruises or something like that. But I mean, he could have done something and he
20:31 didn't. He was just very, very cowardly about the whole thing. And you know, it's unfortunate,
20:36 because here's thing, guys, I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't care if Ohio State wins
20:40 every game or loses every game this year. It's not going to affect my life in any way whatsoever.
20:44 I love watching college football, but I don't live and die with any team within college football.
20:47 Okay. But the thing about it is, is at some point, somebody's got to take ownership of this.
20:52 And it's clearly not urban Meyer and not the Ohio State. But as we kind of bring these two
20:57 guys together, I want to look at a little bit of a comparison. And this is going to be a fairly
21:01 haggard comparison between John McCain and urban Meyer. But I just want to look at the things that
21:06 I feel like we learned about these two guys as, you know, they were both in the news this week.
21:11 And the first thing, it seemed that McCain always tried to do the right thing and that Meyer
21:16 always tried to build the right team. So for McCain doing the right thing, you know, he was
21:22 going to do the thing that he felt was right. This was a man that as far as we can tell was it was
21:26 a Christian man and he tried to operate that way. And you know, what he might consider to be right
21:32 may not be the actual right in every situation. But it seemed like this was the type of guy that
21:36 would labor through a decision to try and do the right thing. And he wasn't without his controversies
21:41 throughout his career guys. So don't tweet me that one time when he said this or that one time when
21:44 he approved that law or whatever, I don't really care. But he really did try to do the right team
21:49 that the right thing. But Meyer is a guy that's just trying to build the right team. Obviously,
21:53 this coach Smith was it was a talented coach and recruiter. I mean, to be with a guy like Urban Meyer
22:00 for over a decade, it would have been really implausible to assume that that he could get by
22:06 and do those different things if if he wasn't a good coach. Like if he didn't have an effective
22:11 skill when it came to recruiting. And so here Urban Meyer is he's just trying to build the right
22:15 team guys. He's trying to get the right guys on the team that that can recruit for him and can
22:19 take care of the positions and make sure that the team is prepared. Like regardless of what the
22:24 right thing is, because I'm just sitting here saying that in 2009, if Urban Meyer found out that
22:30 this had happened with one of his coaches and fired him, are you telling me that Urban Meyer
22:34 couldn't have found a really good replacement for this guy? Do we really think this coach Smith was
22:40 some sort of gift to football coaching? I mean football coaches to a certain degree or a dime
22:46 a dozen, but even when you get into the upper echelons, it's those coaches that can demand
22:50 the best assistance. Like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer, Bob Stuth when he was still coaching and
22:55 these types of guys, like they could get whoever they wanted. It's just by virtue of their long
23:01 success. Guys wanted to be around. I mean, look Bill Snyder, look at his coaching tree that's come
23:05 from him. He could have gotten other people. But again, he only cared about the right team.
23:10 And another thing that I wanted to look at here is that McCain fought for decency and Meyer fought
23:15 for W's. And I guess we'll still be fighting for W's. So one thing that we've seen a lot of people
23:20 come up with, especially people that are on the more the left leaning media, they always brought up
23:25 this interaction with John McCain and this old lady at a rally that he was doing whenever he was
23:30 campaigning against Barack Obama in 2008 so that he could become president. And so this woman,
23:36 it's basically this kind of open for him. He's just kind of walking around this stadium or there's
23:41 town hall or something like that. And people are just kind of passing the mic around and asking him
23:45 questions or telling him things or whatever. And this old lady got up and you could just tell
23:49 she was pretty ignorant about the different things and she had read some really stupid things. But
23:53 she was just like, look, I don't trust this Barack Obama guy. He's an Arab. And then John McCain
23:59 immediately starts shaking his head and he snatches the mic out of this old woman's hand. And this
24:04 is exactly what he says. He says, he's a decent man, family man, citizen, that I just happened to
24:10 have disagreements with on fundamental issues. And that's what this campaign is all about.
24:14 I mean, John McCain could have fed the flame, right? He could have just doused gasoline on this
24:19 thing and been like, yeah, you know, there are some issues with this guy and he has some tendencies
24:23 that, you know, would lend me to believe that he had some, some viewpoints that would be anti-American
24:29 blah, blah, and all these different things. But he didn't do that. In his estimation, Barack
24:35 Obama was a decent guy, was a good family man, was a good citizen. And this is back in 2008. This
24:41 is before we knew the things that came out about this man during his presidency. But he fought
24:45 for decency because it was the decent and right thing to do at that point. And I can't imagine
24:49 somebody on the right or the left, you know, crushing him for that. But this guy, Ervin Meyer,
24:55 he just wants to get the W's. Because the more you win, the more yourself grandeur grows,
25:01 the more money you make, you're going to be able to demand more money if you leave. You know,
25:06 in terms of the open market for coaching, you're going to be able to demand more money because
25:09 he's in one of the basically top five jobs in the country. He can certainly demand more money
25:14 if he's there. But not if he goes six and six and loses a bowl game. Like he's not going to be able
25:18 to do that seven and five and win in a bowl game. That's not going to get you a huge raise. That's
25:22 going to get you bounced down the road. And this is a guy that's won everywhere. He's been Utah,
25:26 one games, Florida, one games put together some of the best teams we've ever seen in the history
25:31 of college football, go to Ohio State and pretty much does the same thing. I mean, he's just looking
25:36 for W's. He wants to win the big 10 and make sure he never loses to Michigan. That's all this
25:42 guy's there for. And that's what he's fighting for. And you see this come out when you see a guy
25:46 just blatantly lighted people at press conferences and different things like that. It's just like,
25:50 dude, I mean, you're not fooling anybody. You're here for the W's.
25:53 And the last thing I want to talk about here is McCain was a maverick and Meyer was a coward.
25:59 I mean, that's pretty easy guys. I mean, John McCain, as we talked about a little bit earlier,
26:03 he was going to go his own way, even if it bucked party lines and, you know, talking points and
26:09 those types of things. And that's what he was going to do. He was going to try and do the right
26:12 thing. And if he had to be the one guy sitting out there by himself, he would do it. I remember
26:16 hearing about him. This was early in the Republican primaries for president in 2008. McCain was
26:24 done. Like he was dead in the water. Like there was just no chance that he was going to win the
26:28 nomination. And I remember hearing a story about him being in an airport. And you know,
26:33 it's pretty much he just needs to announce that he's going to be stopping his campaign. And that
26:37 would have that would have been it. And he just had the resolve at that moment. He was just like,
26:42 no, that that's not who I am. I'm not going to quit. I'm going to see this through. And then,
26:45 you know, a few months later, here he is, you know, across stage from Barack Obama doing debates.
26:50 I mean, it was pretty incredible. This guy was a maverick and he wasn't going to be denied.
26:54 But a guy like Urban Meyer, for all the things that he's done well, he is clearly, clearly a
26:59 fantastic coach. He's a great program runner. He's all the things you would want in a football
27:04 coach, right? But the dude's a coward. He could not bring himself to fire his assistant in 2009
27:11 after he beat his pregnant wife. There's a cowardly act because he he thought you would think at this
27:17 moment that, Oh man, if I get rid of this guy, you know, he's got several recruits that are going
27:20 to come here next year. And you know, if I get rid of him, I might lose those recruits to LSU or
27:25 Auburn, something like that. I just, man, I can't afford to do that. And you know, you know, he does
27:29 a really good job as an assistant. And you know, he's always got his players ready to go on Saturdays
27:33 and you know, all these different things. Like that had to be the calculus that Urban Meyer had
27:36 that moment. Like he didn't have that black and white binary in his head where it was just like,
27:41 uh, flowchart. Does he beat his wife? Yes, he's fired, right? That would have been the best thing
27:46 to do at that moment. But, but Urban Meyer has basically defined his career by this because I
27:52 can tell you this. Let's say Ohio State wins their first three games. You know, again, the only tough
27:56 game they have is against TCU. Let's say they win their first three games. They lose maybe one big
28:00 10 game that win the big team championship. They get into the playoff and Ohio State wins the
28:04 championship. Like what's going to be the narrative? Like it's not going to be Urban Meyer wins his
28:09 fourth national title. It's going to be this. And if it's not, it certainly should be. Like this
28:15 should be the defining moment for Urban Meyer that he did not stand up for a woman that it could
28:20 apparently not defend herself. That even when she got the law involved, they couldn't help defend
28:25 her either. This, this animal, this crazy person, well, not crazy person. He's just an evil dude.
28:31 He's not crazy. He's just a normal dude. I think he can get away with beating his wife.
28:35 I don't want to put him in a different category in your brains. Urban Meyer could have done something
28:39 about that. Urban Meyer may have been the only person that could have done something about that
28:44 outside of Coach Smith himself, right? But this is where we're at. So I thought it was very
28:49 interesting. I was thinking about splitting the this episode into two because I really wanted to
28:54 give John McCain is due and I really wanted to just kind of rip Urban Meyer, but but more that I
28:59 thought about. I was like, man, both these guys are in the news at the same time. Like, let's talk
29:03 about them and let's see how we can compare and contrast them. So hopefully that was good for you
29:06 guys. All right. Before I let you guys out of here, we're going to do a quick resilience boost.
29:10 As you know, by now, we are a men's ministry and our mission is cultivating manly resilience.
29:14 And specifically, we do that by providing content that forges spiritual, mental and physical toughness.
29:18 So today, we're going to do some spiritual resilience. And so this is going to be completely off topic.
29:23 But as you guys know, if you've listened to this for any length of time, I love Matt Chandler,
29:28 anything that Matt Chandler does. So I just ran across one of his new you version reading plans.
29:33 And so there's a 13 day you version reading plan. It's called James faith slash works. And so I
29:39 provided the link here in the show notes to that. But if you've got the you version Bible app,
29:42 just search Matt Chandler. I think he's got four or five ones on there. It's got like, you know,
29:47 yellow and blue kind of a logo thing going on. But it's really a fantastic thing. I'm about 10
29:52 days into it of the 13. But it's it's super high quality. The devotionals are short. And then he's
29:57 going through James, which is already a short short book. And then there's YouTube videos that kind of
30:02 align with that. And if you're interested in the other things that he's done on James, if you go to
30:07 his church's website, they've got the kind of elongated versions of the sermons that he did on James
30:12 just last year. Thanks a lot, guys. I really appreciate you listening this far into the
30:16 episode. As always, please subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud or Google play and refer your friends
30:21 to listen and share this on social media. If you use the hashtag undaunted life, we'll be sure to
30:26 find your posts and give it a thumbs up. If we deserve a five star review, guys, please, please
30:30 leave us one. And in when you do so, make sure you leave a few sentences to let us know why you like
30:35 the content. I'm currently booking speaking engagements for the remainder of 2018 in the beginning of
30:40 2019. So if you'd like me to come speak to your church, to your camp, to your company, whatever,
30:45 hit me up info@undaunted.life info@undaunted.life. Our website is www.undaunted.life. You can follow us
30:53 on Instagram and Twitter @undauntedlife or facebook.com/undauntedlife. You can check out
30:59 our free devotionals on the U version Bible app. Just search undaunted life under plans. And as
31:03 always, we want to thank the band August Burns Red for allowing us to use their music library for
31:07 our content. The intro outro track on this podcast is their song King of Sorrow, which is off their
31:12 latest record entitled Phantom Anthem. The links to all of this are in the description.
31:16 I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep cultivating manly resilience,
31:22 keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical toughness. Keep seeking the Lion of Judah.
Key quotes
2
Kyle Thompson
Winning is everything. It is everything.
Kyle Thompson
McCain always tried to do the right thing and that Meyer always tried to build the right team.
Free Resource
31-Day Resilience Reset
If this episode hit, the next 31 days will be the reset. Free PDF, instant download.
START FREE →
Brotherhood
Apply to Dominion
Six pillars. Application only. The men's program Kyle built around the show.
APPLY NOW →
Dig Deeper
Ask the Archive
"Which episodes cover this topic?" Get answers grounded in all 940+ episodes.
START A CHAT →