Former Jaguars K Josh Lambo Alleges Urban Meyer Kicked Him During Warmups

Former Jaguars K Josh Lambo tells Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times that HC Urban Meyer kicked him during warmups of the team’s preseason game this past August.

“I’m in a lunge position. Left leg forward, right leg back,” Lambo said. “… Urban Meyer, while I’m in that stretch position, comes up to me and says, ‘Hey Dips–t, make your f–king kicks!’ And kicks me in the leg.”

“It certainly wasn’t as hard as he could’ve done it, but it certainly wasn’t a love tap,” Lambo said. “Truthfully, I’d register it as a five (out of 10). Which in the workplace, I don’t care if it’s football or not, the boss can’t strike an employee. And for a second, I couldn’t believe it actually happened. Pardon my vulgarity, I said, ‘Don’t you ever f–king kick me again!’ And his response was, ‘I’m the head ball coach, I’ll kick you whenever the f–k I want.’”

Lambo explained that other players on the Jaguars saw the incident.

Meyer has denied that the incident happened the way Lambo described it to Stroud.

“Josh’s characterization of me and this incident is completely inaccurate, and there are eyewitnesses to refute his account,” Meyer said. “(General manager) Trent (Baalke) and I met with him on multiple occasions to encourage his performance, and this was never brought up. I was fully supportive of Josh during his time with the team and wish him nothing but the best.”

Lambo says that Meyer corned him the next morning.

“He sees me and I’m by myself and he kind of cornered me and comes up to me and says, ‘Are you going to put a smile on that face?’” Lambo said. “I said, ‘I’ll smile if you’ll stop kicking me.’”

Lambo told his special teams coordinator that he didn’t appreciate Meyer’s approach and while Meyer “halfway understood,” he made it clear that Lambo would be gone if he ever spoke him like that again.

“The details of the conversation I do remember, I was having issues with how he was coaching me throughout spring, throughout camp that I had kept to myself and I expressed a couple of those issues with the special teams coordinator, who related them to Urban, who seemingly halfway understood. His response was, ‘OK, you don’t like me doing this, OK. If you don’t like me doing that, fine. But if you ever speak to me like that again, you’ll be out of here. You’re the first player I’ve ever let speak to me that way in my career, and if you do it again, you’re gone,’” Lambo said. 

“I said, ‘I’m genuinely not trying to be sarcastic here, Urban, but what did I say that offended you? He said, ‘When you responded to me out there on the practice field in front of everybody. If you have an issue and don’t like me kicking you, well then you keep that to yourself and you wait until after practice and after meetings and you come find me in the office and tell me privately.’”

Lambo said he reported the incident to his agent, Richard Irvin, who contacted the Jaguars’ legal counsel the day after Meyer kicked him in warmups.

“Jaguars legal counsel indeed acknowledged and responded immediately to the query made by Josh Lambo’s agent Friday, August 27, 2021,” the Jaguars said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times. “Counsel offered to speak with Josh, or to assist Josh in speaking with coaching or any other football personnel, if he was comfortable with her sharing the information. Any suggestion otherwise is blatantly false.”

The Jaguars later released Lambo after he missed his first three field-goal attempts to start the season.

Lambo, 30, wound up signing on with the Chargers as an undrafted free agent out of Texas A&M back in 2015. He spent just over two years with the Chargers before he was waived at the start of the 2017 season.

The Jaguars later signed him to a contract during the 2017 season. Lambo was in line to be an unrestricted free agent in 2019 when he agreed to a four-year extension worth $15.5 million and $6.5 million in full guarantees. 

Jacksonville released Lambo earlier this season and he later had a brief stint on the Steelers’ practice squad. 

In 2021, Lambo has appeared in three games for the Jaguars and converted no field goals in three attempts and 5 of 7 extra points.