Danny Kanell calls out Urban Meyer for comments on NIL

Danny Kanell was not a fan of Urban Meyer’s comments on NIL. Meyer equated NIL to cheating as name, image and likeness evolved recently.

Meyer said the quiet part out loud, according to Kanell. But the former Florida State quarterback noticed some hypocrisy from the former Ohio State and Florida head coach.

He explained during Dusty and Danny in the Morning on Sirius XM.

“I really appreciate Urban Meyer for calling out cheating,” Kanell said. “As you’re cheating when you’re laying players and having them go visit a charity because it definitely was never cheating when you were just getting a bag man under the table handed you 50 grand cash that nobody knew about … There was never an arms race or Florida or at Ohio State winning titles. That was great coaching.

“I mean that was just, you coached your sub tier talents there Urban because you clearly didn’t have any top players at Florida, Ohio State and weren’t in that arms race and just the coaching was that good. You know what Urban Meyer reminds me of? A caller on our show.  

Meyer joined legendary coach Lou Holtz’s show and described his thoughts on NIL, alluding to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.

“If you’re a woman basketball player like the great girl from Iowa and they want to put her on a billboard and pay her, they should be able to do that,” Meyer said. “But that’s not what happened. What’s happened is the arms race of collecting money from donors and the donors are simply paying players. That’s what I understand is happening, and I don’t like that.”

As far as the charity Kanell referenced, Meyer used that example.

“If Lou Holtz or Urban Meyer or Marvin Harrison Jr., or C.J. Stroud, they want to go use their name and help sell cars, help a business, that’s great,” Meyer said. “But to have a 17-year-old demand money for a visit, to pay these players a lot of money to go visit a charity for 20 minutes and they write you a check for $50,000, that’s cheating. That’s not what this is all about. I’m very disappointed in where it went.”

That’s when Kanell compared Meyer to a simple fan calling into a radio show.

“Like we’ve had callers call in and complain and be like, I don’t like it. I don’t like these players getting paid. They haven’t done anything yet,” Kanell said. “I mean, it sounds exactly like that. And this is a take that I would say probably 90% of college football coaches would have had five years ago. But now, college football coaches have realized this is the direction we’re headed. There’s nothing we can do about it. So why complain about it? 

“And so I feel like Urban Meyer, this is an antiquated take. That makes zero sense when you consider the history of college football because nothing has really changed.”