"The Truth About Aaron Hernandez and Urban Meyer"

Buddy Martin, who published the Urban's Way book in 2008 that chronicled the period of Florida Gators football between 2006 and 2008, is coming out swinging on behalf of Urban Meyer. Citing his unparalleled access to Florida football during that crucial stretch between 2006 and 2008, Martin is saying that Meyer's "trial by media" is a trial without a real charge, and a trial without a foundation in fact.

The post from Buddy Martin is rather extensive and is worth a full read. Here is an excerpt.

So if Urban Meyer is undergoing Trial by Media, what are the charges? That he harbored the criminals? That he knowingly coddled renegade athletes and looked the other way at their indiscretions? Or that he was loose with facts about his intentions to leave the job at Florida and therefore hypocritically portrayed his program as clean when it was overrun by the criminal element? To the well-informed those charges are almost laughable.

If Meyer was harboring criminals or hiding axe murderers in helmets and pads, I must have overlooked them.

Now Meyer is being characterized by some critics as someone who recruited troubled players and allowed them to run amok – not at all what I saw or heard.

As a matter of fact, the “30” which is often used to define the Meyer as the number of players who had been arrested was not even the most in the SEC. That distinguished achievement belonged to Georgia.

There was this huge controversy over how Meyer left Florida for Ohio State, which some critics have tried to lump together with his Aaron Hernandez connection as Acts One and Two of a morality play. But if there was a conspiracy to fleece The Gator Nation and play a Jedi Mind Trick on the fans by pulling off a disappearing act from Gainesville, I’m sorry – I totally missed it, too.

How (do) I know? I lived in his world for almost 12 months.