The lawsuit claims that the kicker’s performance suffered due to being kicked and verbally abused by the former head coach during the 2021 season.
Kicker Josh Lambo filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Jaguars, seeking his $3.5 million salary plus damages for emotional distress at the hands of the organization and former head coach Urban Meyer, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The lawsuit claims that the kicker’s performance suffered due to being kicked and verbally abused by Meyer during the 2021 season. The kicker wants a jury trial, seeking to earn back pay on his salary and “compensation for any special damages sustained as emotional stress and reputational harm and litigation fees,” the Times reported.
Attached to the lawsuit is a request for documentation from the Jaguars, including communications between employees that may relate to reports of unprofessionalism, bullying and abusive or toxic behavior by the former head coach, per Stroud. Also requested are documents from Meyer’s firing and any documents that connect his termination to his behavior in the workplace.
Lambo, who was released by the Jaguars on Oct. 19, told the Times in December that the disgraced Jacksonville coach kicked him during practice after the kicker missed field goals during two preseason games.
“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---, make your f------g kicks.’ And kicks me in the leg.”
The kicker recalled telling Meyer, “Don’t you ever f---ing kick me again.” Meyer responded, “I’m the head ball coach, I’ll kick you whenever the f--- I want.”
Meyer denied Lambo’s “characterization” of the incident, calling it “completely inaccurate.”
Per the Times, the lawsuit says Lambo immediately told his agent, Richard Irvin, that Meyer kicked him, and Irvin contacted Jacksonville’s legal counsel the next day. Meyer allegedly threatened to release Lambo within a day of the incident, and the lawsuit stipulates that the kicker’s ability to sleep, practice and play were severely impacted.
“Mr. Meyer’s hostility had the intended effect on Mr. Lambo, resulting in Mr. Lambo uncharacteristically missing difficult and long kicks from the ranges of fifty-five yards, fifty-two yards and fifty-eight yards,” the lawsuit says according to the Times.
The Jaguars’ legal counsel was contacted after the alleged kicking incident, Irvin and the Jaguars confirmed to the Times, and counsel told Lambo he could meet with them. Lambo said he has “no recollection” of that happening.
“Jaguars legal counsel indeed acknowledged and responded immediately to the query made by Josh Lambo’s agent Friday, Aug. 27, 2021,” the team said in a statement to the 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 lawsuit says because Lambo reported the alleged kicking incident to legal, his release in October violates Florida’s Private Sector Whistle Blower’s Act. It also says that an employer physically striking an employee at work—and threatening to do so again—is illegal under Florida criminal and civil law, per the Times.
It’s not the first time Meyer has been called out for fostering a toxic work environment. In March, a report surfaced that multiple people who worked with Meyer called the environment “toxic” and said the head coach belittled players and staff, and also threatened to fire them on a regular basis.
“The most toxic environment I’ve ever been a part of,” a veteran member of the football operations staff told The Athletic. “By far. Not even close.”
Meyer was fired by Jacksonville on Dec. 16 after several public incidents as well as on the field performance. In October, Meyer faced criticism after a video surfaced of him dancing with a woman in an Ohio bar that was not his wife. The Jaguars went 2–11 under Meyer and finished the season with an abysmal 3–14 record.