Urban flier

Please, do not bring up the A-word. That is the Blob's modest request for this day.

That is its tiny favor to ask on the day a clearly ailing Urban Meyer announces he will retire from coaching (at least for now) after the Rose Bowl. That is its humble entreaty of all the TV lacquerheads and sports-talk radio poodles who will undoubtedly weigh in on this -- and in and in and in.

Whatever you do, guys, do not breathe the word "adversity." Because it doesn't apply here.

Yes, Meyer was suspended for three games at the beginning of the season, but that is not adversity when you're beating the wadding out of welcome mats like Oregon State (2-10), Rutgers (1-11) and TCU (6-6) in those three games. It is also not adversity when you brought that suspension on yourself by coddling a psycho assistant coach and then offering an explanation no one outside of Columbus, Ohio, could possibly believe.

Adversity is what happens when you are visited by unforeseen and undeserved misfortune. It is not what happens when that misfortune is self-inflicted.

Meyer has inflicted a lot of misfortune on himself across the years, so much so it has become an irretrievable part of his decidedly mixed legacy. On the one hand, he undisputedly is one of the two greatest college football coaches of the modern era along with Nick Saban. On the other ...

On the other, he's been pretty good at looking the other way when it was to his advantage.

Virtually unparalleled success on the field has gone hand-in-hand with some sketchy ethics for Meyer, and you cannot assess his career without considering both. Yes, he won two national titles at Florida; then again, some 30 Florida football players also were arrested during his six years there. Yes, he won another national title at Ohio State; then again, more arrests also happened there on his watch, on top of the whole Zach Smith mess.

One hopes both would get equal time in the inevitable media eulogy today. One also hopes the Rose Bowl won't become A Tribute To Urban Meyer a month hence.

Holding one's breath while hoping for that probably wouldn't be a wise option, however.