"I want him to be done": When Urban Meyer's wife Shelley wanted husband to finally retire after 33 years of 'intense' coaching

Shelley Meyer had long been ready for her husband to walk away from coaching. The pressure, the health toll, the family strain, she’d seen it all. So, when Urban Meyer finally stepped away, she was more than relieved.

In January 2019, following Ohio State's victory in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, Shelley said, as per ESPN:

“I would be ecstatic if he didn’t [coach again]. I'm done. I want him to be done. He's too intense."

Meyer’s 33-year run in coaching, 17 of those as a head coach, was defined by an almost unhealthy intensity. Shelley, a psychiatric nurse, saw it firsthand. During his time at Florida, she said he dropped 40 pounds, barely slept, and coped with Ambien and beer just to get through the night, according to WKYC.

Urban Meyer and wife Shelley celebrate with the team - Source: Imagn

When Meyer stepped down from Florida for the second time in 2010, he said he wanted to be a better husband and father and spend time with his daughters, Nicki and Gigi.

“I’ve not seen my two girls play high school sports,” Meyer said. “They’re both very talented Division I-A volleyball players, so I missed those four years. I missed two already with one away at college. I can’t get that time back.”

At Ohio State, the migraines returned, triggered by a congenital arachnoid cyst in his brain. The 2018 season was brutal.

“I can’t say anything about that because I don’t know,” she said (per Buckeye Sports). “I love my husband. He has always been very intense. I know no other Urban Meyer. He has been intense as long as I have known him. He is feeling good right now. Winning cures a lot of things.

“He has been feeling good the last few weeks after getting the headaches under control.”

Throughout Urban Meyer’s career, Shelley Meyer was more than just a coach’s wife

Shelley Meyer celebrate alongside the trophy - Source: Imagn

From the early days, Shelley worried about what coaching could do to her husband. That concern only grew during Urban Meyer’s turbulent stretch at Florida.

Shelley, a psychiatric nurse, spotted the signs: anxiety, depression, physical decline, even when Urban kept insisting he was fine. It wasn’t until he collapsed with chest pains in 2009 that he finally started to listen.

When he later decided to return to coaching, Shelley and the family drew a line: it had to be on their terms. They put together a “family contract,” written on a pink slip of paper, laying out clear rules, according to Bleacher Report.

Urban said he’d call her a dozen times a day, to talk, to check himself, to let her check him. That kind of support, he said, helped him hold it together.

Since stepping away from coaching after one year with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021, Shelley has seen a different Urban, or maybe the old one again. For her, that version of Urban, the one she married, has finally returned.