Shelley Meyer on Florida Fans' Hate of Urban Meyer: 'I Wish They'd Get Over It'

By D.J. Byrnes on July 27, 2014 at 5:49 pm
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As Ohio State fans know too well, Urban Meyer's reign at Florida was wildly successful. 

Instead of building a statue for the man and thanking him for his contributions to the university, a nutty swath of Florida fans turned Urban Meyer's unceremonious exit from UF into a bizarre, spurned-teen-lover grudge. 

Rationalizations for the cognitive dissonance have ranged from Meyer "left the cupboard bare" to accusations the two-time title winner personally groomed Aaron Hernandez as his pet serial killer.

The former is probably due to the sight of Urban Meyer take Ohio State's gutted cupboard and running the table. The latter (hyperbole), however, were flames stoked by the likes of Meyer-replacement, Will Muschamp (likely to throw smoke in front of his team's failures).

Shelley Meyer, like most folks with a functioning cerebral cortex, is baffled by the hatred by a certain section of Florida fans.

From Pat Dooley of The Gainesville Sun, a friend of the Dubcast, and a man who levied the most pertinent article on the Meyer-Hernandez relationship:

"All of my comments are about message board people,” she said. “I still go to Gainesville four times a year. Nobody ever says anything mean to me. What I care about are the people down there who love us and know us. The people who hate us I don’t even know.

“I just wish people would get over it. I wish we could have been there 12 years. I’m the most bummed that we weren’t there 12 years.”

That's standard human procedure in 2014, to be honest. It's a lot easier to take your personal insecurities out in a message board than it is to confront Urban Meyer's wife in public. 

Why does Shelley subject herself to the ramblings of Florida message board posters?

“Because I still care about the Gators and want to see how they’re doing.”

What's Shelley's reasoning behind the hate?

"Now, I know ‘The Team Up North’ versus Ohio State game is pretty mean; everybody is pretty mean when that game rolls around. It’s extremely competitive, but it’s just not as mean (as the SEC). Not as dirty and mean. I hate to say that, but that’s just how it is in the South. College football is everything down there.”

[...]

“The Big Ten isn’t like that,” she said. “That’s just my opinion. There is not that feel here. The intensity in the competition (in the SEC) is incredible.”

Shelley Meyer: Tough but fair takes.

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