Two months ago, free agent kicker Josh Lambo filed a lawsuit against his former team in Jacksonville for acts allegedly performed by the former head coach of the Jaguars, Urban Meyer. Jacksonville filed a motion this week to dismiss the lawsuit, alleging that the club is not responsible for the actions of Meyer, according to Daniel Kaplan of The Atheltic.
In the 2021 preseason, Lambo missed a kick in each of Jacksonville’s first two games. Lambo alleged that, during a practice before the final preseason game, Meyer kicked him in the leg and said:
“Hey dips—, make your f—ing kicks!” When Lambo told Meyer, “Don’t you ever f—ing kick me again!” Meyer replied by saying, “I’m the head ball coach. I’ll kick you whenever the f— I want.”
The Jaguars claim in their motion that, under the Florida Whistleblower Act, the team cannot be sued for retaliation since they didn’t instruct Meyer to kick Lambo. Their motion says, “Plaintiff’s case is predicated solely on the alleged criminal acts of Urban Meyer, not any policy, practice or activity of club.”
Lambo’s initial suit further claims that he notified his agent, Richard Irvin, of the interaction and that Irvin made the team’s counsel aware of the matter the following day. The allegations became public in December, shortly before Meyer was terminated, and, at the time, the Jaguars released a statement saying that the team immediately responded to Irvin’s query saying:
“Counsel offered to speak with [Lambo], 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.”
According to Jacksonville’s new motion, they allege that they received no response to their offer to provide Lambo with counsel. The motion reads, “Plaintiff does not allege he or his agent ever responded to the inquiry made by Club’s legal counsel offering to follow up with Plaintiff, with Mr. Meyer and/or with Club management.”
Lambo is seeking damages for emotional distress and reputational harm as well as his full $3.5M salary from 2021. He claims “the environment created by Meyer and the franchise affected his performance,” which suffered until he was cut after missing three field goals and two extra points in the team’s first two games.
Meyer has refuted the accuracy of Lambo’s description of events and Jacksonville’s new motion claims that, regardless of the accuracy, they hold no fault for Meyer’s “alleged criminal acts.”
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