And cue the Urban-Florida-health scare-retirement one-liners in three... two... one...
Scheduled to make an appearance in Findlay, Ohio, Wednesday night, Urban Meyer instead made an unscheduled visit to a local medical facility earlier in the day. According to multiple media outlets, and confirmed by an Ohio State spokesperson, the Buckeyes head coach underwent what was only described as an unspecified surgery. Where the procedure was performed wasn’t divulged.
There are also reports that Meyer underwent an appendectomy, although those have yet to be confirmed.
There’s a possibility that Meyer will be forced to stay in the hospital overnight, but, according to the school, he’s expected to be fine moving forward. In fact, he’s still expected to travel to New York City Friday for Ohio State Night at a New York Yankees game and throw out the first pitch.
In March of last year, Meyer underwent a minor surgical procedure that involved the removal of fluid from a congenital arachnoid cyst. Health concerns prompted Meyer to briefly step down as Florida’s head coach in December of 2009, and played a role on some level in his permanent decision to leave his Gator post a year later.
After spending one season as a college football analyst at ESPN, Meyer took over as the Buckeyes head coach in November of 2011. In three seasons at OSU, Meyer has compiled a mark of 38-3 that includes not only a perfect 24-0 mark in regular season Big Ten play but also the conference’s first national championship in over a decade.
UPDATED 12:58 p.m. ET: Meyer’s wife Shelley Meyer confirmed to the Cleveland Plain Dealer that her husband had his appendix removed Wednesday. A school official subsequently acknowledged to CFT that it’s uncertain as to whether Meyer will make the trip to the Big Apple as planned.
UPDATED 2:44 p.m. ET: The Associated Press writes that Meyer “is still scheduled to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium on Friday night as part of a trip to New York City” after undergoing the appendectomy this afternoon. As someone whose appendix burst 20 years ago, I have no idea how Meyer will be physically able to throw a pitch two days after such a procedure.
