Sports Radio Interviews

Shane Matthews On The Urban Meyer/Gators Controversy

Shane Matthews is a former quarterback of the Florida Gators and now hosts a radio show.  From time to time, he comments on how his old team is doing, and he even refers to them as “we.”  To my knowledge, he talks about plays, what the team should be doing, how they should get better, etc.  For some reason, that’s a crime to some.  Gators’ Head Coach Urban Meyer lashed out at Matthews, basically saying you’re either with us or against us – you’re either a Gator or you’re not.  Should every fan of a team follow blindly without critiquing what’s happening on the football field?  Isn’t that some ass-backwards thinking?  Wouldn’t a follower actually be doing a detriment to the organization by not adding input?  It seems as though sometimes the leaders of college programs think of themselves as the entire organization and forget that the field of play is where all the focus should be.  It’s not personal, it’s becoming a better team.  Shane Matthews joined 790 The Zone to discuss what happened, if he’s insulted by what Meyer said, if he’s been in contact with Meyer, and if he feels he did anything wrong.

What happened?

“We had callers calling in [asking] ‘what would you do?’  [I replied] ‘First of all, I’m not that type of quarterback.  I’m a drop-back quarterback.  They wouldn’t even recruit me.’  So, that gets taken out of context.  It’s all a huge misunderstanding.  Talk radio hears bits and pieces and runs with it; that’s where all this stems from.  They thought that for some reason I was hurting recruiting in criticizing players, which I have never done.”

Why is it brought up now?

“That’s a good question.  It was brought back up about 3 or 4 weeks ago.  Somehow ESPN gets a hold of it yesterday.  I thought they were the worldwide leader in sports and they’re way behind the times.  It’s old news around here but someone stirred it up again.  There’s not a whole lot going around so I guess they wanted to get some excitement.”

Is he insulted by what Urban said?

“I could take it that way possibly.  I know where my heart lies and I know how passionate I am about this program… My heart is a Gator and always will be.”

On his relationship with Urban:

“I talked to him a couple weeks ago and it was just a misunderstanding.  I told him the way it was and as far as I know, things are good.”

Listen to Shane Matthews on 790 The Zone in Atlanta

Tags: College Football, ESPN, Florida Gators, NCAA, Shane Matthews, Urban Meyer