Sources — Jacksonville Jaguars say football coach Urban Meyer fired for cause, don’t intend to pay rest of contract

The Jacksonville Jaguars fired their former head coach Urban Meyer for cause, sources tell ESPN, with the intention of not paying him the remaining four years of his contract.

A source within the organization said the Jaguars’ reasons for withholding the remaining guarantees are not tied to one specific incident — but rather a cumulation of instances that Jacksonville’s officials believe justified the firing.

It is not unusual for situations like these — involving negated guarantees — to later be negotiated by the two sides in order to avoid a prolonged legal situation. It will be up to the lawyers involved in any negotiation between the Jags and Meyer to try to figure out if they can resolve the situation.

A spokesman for Jaguars owner Shad Khan told The Associated Press on Friday night that the decision to move on from Meyer was made after Jacksonville’s 20-0 loss at Tennessee on Sunday. A conversation Khan and Meyer had in the locker room after that shutout — Meyer had few answers for the team’s woes or how he planned to fix them — sealed a decision Khan had been mulling for weeks.

The only reason the final announcement of the decision was delayed was due to other planned events, the spokesman told the AP, and had nothing to do with former Jacksonville kicker Josh Lambo‘s accusation in the Tampa Bay Times that Meyer kicked him during an August practice. Lambo’s story came out hours before the Jags announced Meyer’s firing.

Meyer’s 11-month tenure also included controversial viral videos showing the former coach acting inappropriately with a woman at a restaurant/bar in Ohio after he stayed behind following a game against Cincinnati.