Posted on 08/02/2018 12:09:11 PM PDT by Red Badger
Former NCAA athletes shed light on embattled coach’s abusive treatment of players in undercover videos Xavier Nixon, OL: “They had a guy’s quads explode in the weight room… during what we call the Valentine’s Day Massacre.” William Green, DE: “There was these mat drills, where people would literally get choked out.” Gideon Ajagbe, LB: “A lot of what played into my depression was they humiliated me… they said I was a pu**y… “ Meyer’s players experienced “arm dangling,” “quads exploding” on Florida Gator team Urban Meyer threw objects at players “it’s a f*cking full bottle of Gatorade, and he’s chucking it at people.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Stephen Gordon
Email: media@projectveritas.com
Phone: 914-908-2300
(Ohio) Project Veritas has released undercover video of former University of Florida athletes discussing the history of physical and mental abuse they experienced at the discretion of Urban Meyer, the now-embattled head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The videos were filmed in separate meetings throughout late 2017 and 2018 across the country, and feature four players that played at various times during Urban Meyer’s tenure as head coach of the Florida Gators.
According to these players, Meyer would blatantly disregard player’s health and wellbeing. Xavier Nixon, who played at the University of Florida for coach Meyer, recalled an incident where Omarius Hines, a teammate at the time, was severely injured during a weight training session Meyer oversaw called “The Valentine’s Day Massacre.”
“They had a guy’s quads explode in the weight room on the leg press during what we call the Valentine’s Day Massacre. You basically do everything until failure and the lactic acid had built up in his legs so much that his quads literally exploded, they erupted, and he had to be taken out in an ambulance.“
Another player who witnessed the injury, Josh Evans who played safety for the University of Florida between 2009 and 2012, corroborated the event:
“We had a guy on a leg press machine… Guy had probably about six plates on each side of the leg press. So [the coach] blew the whistle as he goin’, and the whole team kinda came over there like go, pushing, pushing, pushing. He got to about 38 [reps,] blew, the sides of his quads just erupted, boom. Legs, screaming, had to take him to the hospital.“
According to the players, there was a culture under Coach Meyer where injured players would be mocked, and the severity of their injuries would be kept from them.
Nixon spoke specifically of an incident regarding Gideon Ajagbe, a freshman for Meyer’s 2010 Florida Gator team, who contracted a severe infection in his shoulder that led to hospitalization. Before he was hospitalized, Ajagbe was forced to practice and was purposefully subjected to ridicule from the team.
Nixon said Ajagbe “was literally dying.” Despite having “bacteria eating the muscle in his shoulders,” Ajagbe was forced to carry “a 45-pound plate over his head… he was crying.” Nixon believed Meyer’s staff “didn’t adequately acknowledge” Ajagbe’s injury. Ajagbe confirmed this event in his own words:
“… it was bad. A lot of what played into my depression was they humiliated me. They thought I was trying to skip out on practice… the word they used, imma be frank, they said I was a pu**y. They’re like man, you’re a pu**y, you’re soft, you’re this, you’re that… There was one day, my arm was literally dangling, like I couldn’t lift my shoulder… And they were like everybody run like Gideon… The whole team, like everyone was laughing at me.”
Ajagbe said he communicated that he was in pain, but that Meyer’s staff would still push him to practice:
“And they’ll try to make me lift up weights, and I’ll literally have [my bad shoulder] up, I don’t know how I got it up there, but I would put all my weight on [my good shoulder…] But they didn’t know, nobody knew, but it was still like daggers.”
Ajagbe expressed remorse, saying, “My mom and dad sent me out here and they put all their faith in this coaching staff to take care of me.” The abuse nearly led Ajagbe to suicide.
After being examined by medical professionals, Ajagbe became depressed and struggled with pills. “Imma be honest with you, I was suicidal.” ”
“For six days nobody knew. They didn’t know how bad it was… ” continued Ajagbe, who claims that Meyer threatened to take him off the team unless he would start “being serious.”
Ajagbe explained how Meyer would psychologically abuse players:
“He’s the kind of dude that would get all the information he needs to get on you and he would use it to manipulate you or he would use it against you.“
“If [Meyer] know that you’re not really smart, he’ll put you in front of the team and make you do trivia. And everyone would laugh at you.”
William Green, another former Florida Gator, said he believes those workouts were excessive, and spoke more to the nature of “The Valentine’s Day Massacre” workout:
“The Valentine’s Day Massacre was a tough ass workout… so it’s basically like, we used to have these types of workouts for us, and they had them labeled by certain things. We had like Failure Fridays or the Massacre where we would [do] a workout that’s ridiculous. Like you’ll do a full body workout, but it’d be everything to failure. Benching until you can’t bench no more, pull down until you can’t pull down no more… pretty much, you’re feeling like you gotta throw up because they just running you down the field, up and down the field.”
Green explained “mat drills” where players “would literally get like choked out… the whole idea behind it… you’d have to wrestle, and it wasn’t like normal wrestling. It was like you both stand up… and there was and there was this one mat… and you gotta crawl across the mat. These guys on top of you. It’s his job to not let you get across the mat, and they literally get up on there and choke you. And you might go to sleep… It’s extremely unnecessary. We don’t talk about the stuff we used to do is not normal, at all. It just wasn’t.”
Nixon also described a pre-game ritual where Meyer would “grab a Gatorade bottle… and throw it at you.”
“I’m sure he thought he was joking, but it’s a f*cking full bottle of Gatorade, and he’s chucking it at people.”
This is the first video in an undercover series exposing issues in both the NCAA and NFL.
Urban Meyer isn’t worthy to shine Woody’s shoes.
Tebow was no different than the other UF legend, Danny Wuerffel.
Spurrier’s QBs didn’t have a particularly great track record in the NFL.
He did not develop him into a NFL QB.
On of the lines from the video. He made us run till we almost threw up. My personal trainer does that to me twice a week. The guy who blew his quads out. I think he could have said ENOUGH. But as 19 year olds do, it’s about hyper-maculinity and being the BMOC in the weight room. His own fault. This was not the Army and was not boot camp. Want to examine a soulless football factory of shady recruiting, abuse, sketchy academics and coach who thinks he’s God. Look towards at the sweaty armpit that is Tuscaloosa Alabama and Nick Satan. There was a sports writer in the 1970’s who said it best, “One certainty of life besides Jesus Christ being the Savior is if either Auburn or Alabama are winning football games, they are cheating”. It’s a culture of cheating down there which infected the whole SEC back in the 1950’s
No, first Tebow got shots on FOUR teams. That’s not blackballed. Second: he STANK ON ICE. Really people stop worshipping a mediocre QB with a completion percentage under 50 and pretend the only reason he’s not in the league is his religion. He’s not in the league because he was a LOUSY NFL QB.
And a lot of conservatives feel that college football is a corrupt cesspool.
What no college senior has ever said..."I think I will pass on Virginia, Michigan or Florida and go to University of Georgia"
You’re wrong. Spurrier did beat UGA as a QB. 1965.
The incident you are referring to today was a player (Kadarius Toney) was pulled over for the horrific crime of not having his seat belt buckled. He did have a loaded rifle in the back seat. That is not a crime. He was not arrested for it.
He did have the a gun in the backseat but its not illegal in Florida honey.
I make mistakes and I admit when wrong. Spurrier record as a quarterback against Georgia UGA 2, Gators 1 and Georgia cost Spurrier an SEC title. I said earlier I love Spurrier.
Why Kadarius Toney wasn’t arrested for having loaded AR-15 in his car
We’ll we will see in Jax this year.
~~~ Oh I can’t wait, to come to your home field, i will be cooking and cooking and cooking and drinking and bbq something special that day, wish we could spend it together, I live in Florida, even better I will start a thread and we can watch together right here, ... deal... I will find you.
I’ll give you your one year like Boise State, Oregon and Central Florida had. I think you guys will be back to sh*tting the bed in no time with all your 5 star recruits. Georgia..
~~~~~ oh my goodness that nasty talk, son, bless your heart, I bet your mama isn’t proud of that. BS with that blue field ant that something, my word what were they thinking, Oregon I like the the Ducks change outfits all the time, that must be upsetting no tradition Bless their hearts. Now I will tell you CF is a stand up college and they hmmm undefeated last year, honey they are on your schedule in a few short years, fun times , don’t you agree.
The program with no heart.
~~~~ Huh are you talking about Georgia, oh my goodness I got video here ya go.... I KNOW you have never been between the hedges, I don’t care who you are there are non greater in the land...this is awesome... Enjoy...
This one is pregame if it doesn’t give you chills you better go to the doctor. This is one is to welcome you to our lovely stadium...
Then its pregame...
You can find post game on your own.
They ring the bell after the game and tailgate and tailgate some more.
~~~~ you can have these I am not even going to worry with this. I am all football...
~~~~
We have 4x the Rhodes scholars and almost a 1 billion dollar endowment. The list goes on.
~~~~~~ my goodness i am so sorry you are talking out your ass, poor ole Vandy has more RS than Florida, and you don’t even make the top 49 my beloved Dawgs are 32...here ya go, we just built a new locker room for 1 billion, new score board 63 million on a new scoreboard 25% was put from donor’s, 1 year old indoor practice field over 30 million, UGA has over 1 billion in the bank, bless your heart money at UGA is not a problem.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/universities-by-number-of-rhodes-scholars.html
-———oh goody I am happy for you. You need something to hang your hat on that’s just precious. Now back to football
~~~~~~~
But you do have 2017 leghumper football and “Run Lindsey run”. Another diddty we are the #9 ranked public university right above Penn State and University of Texas. You guys somewhere between Florida State and University of Delaware.
~~~~oh my you are on to something good for you.
~~~~~
What no college senior has ever said...”I think I will pass on Virginia, Michigan or Florida and go to University of Georgia”
~~~~ Honey we will pass on that I am so sorry to say but I don’t think we want them so happy they have other choices, we are not for everyone and that’s fine thing, I love America don’t you.
I need to go check on our President... Soooo my parting gift to you...I understand your pain my 3rd favorite game of a lifetime... #notsorry hugs
Sorry for highjacking thread...GoDawgs.
I think O’Keefe believes this is an important story and that Urb is a selfish egomaniac who puts young men’s well being at risk and only cares about winning.
He left a dumpster fire at Florida, then cried that he was ill and “wanted to spend more time with his family.” Then he takes a job as a football commentator.
You should watch the guys in the video.
The explanation of WHY he had a loaded AR 15 in the back seat was way ....
I’m at a loss for words so early in the morning.
The way some sports fans are, I would have had two AR’s - one in the back, and one in front. Plus the pistol on my belt!
But if the NFL took the teams away what would happen to the little Snowflake Safe-Zone Daycare schools that are now attached to them?
The Big State Us would lose a lot of money, but it would force state legislatures & the schools governing bodies (Board of Regents, Board of Visitors, etc.) to get a handle on the out-of-control spending that is currently going on. Do they really need all those 6-figure administrators, “Hate-White Civilization\America” Studies Departments, “forever-increasing” numbers of foreign students (who pay full freight!) and resort-like living accommodations for students (They claim its necessary to attract enough students to pay the bills!)? Possibly now focus on taxpayer ROI since these are taxpayer funded institutions and increasing the number of taxpayers is therefore probably a good idea!
That I could be taken seriously probably confirms that there isn't any question about it.
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