Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer has landed a new job in the broadcast booth, and that’s good because the stress of his last job could have killed him.
Former Ohio State great Cris Carter shared alarming details about Meyer’s health and how it affected his well-being and ability to coach.
“Urban’s a very, very close friend of mine. His biggest problem is he wants to coach, but physically he can’t coach,” Carter said. “I think it’s been well-documented, as far as the cyst on his brain. When he gets agitated, upset … when he gets in coaching mode, it becomes very to almost impossible for him to coach because the cyst begins to leak fluid, which leads to — not a migraine headache, but a splitting headache. When we saw him double over on the sideline, that was not because of anything else but the cyst and it rupturing.”
Meyer suffers from an arachnoid cyst, which can reveal itself especially during stressful situations.
“I started dealing with some issues last year,” Meyer said. “We had conversations back then. It’s not your elbow or your foot.”
Meyer was diagnosed with the cyst in his brain back in 1998 while an assistant coach at Notre Dame.
Throughout his coaching career, he’s been prone to severe headaches.
So what, exactly, is an arachnoid cyst?
“It’s a benign cyst on the membrane tissue that covers the brain,” says Dr. Robert Brodner, a board-certified neurosurgeon at Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach. “They occur congenitally in about 5 to 6 percent of the population — with the vast majority being asymptomatic.”
In other words, most people who have one are never even aware of it.
However, sometimes people do suffer symptoms (as was described in Sports Illustrated of Meyer experiencing two episodes of blinding head pain while on the sidelines during games in 1998 and 2003). When that happens, it’s because, says Brodner, “Over time, the cyst can slowly, progressively enlarge as it imbibes spinal fluid. The enlargement can then exert pressure on the part of the brain in closest proximity to the cyst.”
The associated symptoms depend on which part of the brain is being pressured.
But, Brodner said, the most common ones are “headaches, nausea, vomiting and gait disturbance.”
From the 2009 book, Urban’s Way:
“Since his days when he blacked out and nearly fell while on the sidelines as an assistant at Notre Dame, Meyer had tried to learn how to better control his emotions. It turned out to be an arachnoid cyst on his brain, benign, but it also caused severe migraines when aggravated by emotional stress. The doctors told Meyer to “cool it with the screaming and yelling”, which he did until he became a head coach at Utah. During a game against Oregon, in a tense moment or the fourth quarter, he almost passed out. Doctors helped him pinpoint those emotional outbursts – usually, in the fourth quarter – and he began to alter his behavior pattern.”
Meyer had brain surgery in the spring of 2014 after suffering consistent headaches for nearly a month.
The complex surgery removed a subdural fluid collection caused by the cyst to relieve increased intracranial pressure, according to Dr. Thomas.
After that surgery, Meyer had been able to manage the pain. It flared up at times in 2015 and 2016.
Urban Meyer’s headache forces him to take a knee during a game last season.
The problem returned in full force last season and it led to his decision to quit his dream job.
Meyer has now signed a new deal with FOX Sports as a studio analyst on a yet-to-be-named college football pre-game show that will take on ESPN’s popular College GameDay.
The new Saturday morning show will be hosted by Rob Stone, and will feature Meyer, USC standout Reggie Bush, former Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart, and ex-Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn.
“With a head coach that won three national titles in 10 years, two of the most successful college quarterbacks in recent memory and one of the sport’s most electric running backs, our new college football pregame show has the game covered from all angles,” said Mark Silverman, president of FOX Sports National Networks. “We think that this entire lineup will educate and entertain viewers with the unique FOX attitude that viewers are familiar with.”
While broadcast duties can be intense, it will be nowhere near the pressure of being a head college football coach, and health professionals believe Meyer’s cyst can remain under control if he gets rest and takes care of himself.
“By the time someone takes on a stressful job, the brain has already adapted to the presence of an arachnoid cyst,” said Dr. Nicholas Marko of UC Health. “Stress by itself may not affect arachnoid cysts, but other issues around stress – poor sleep or diet, for example – can complicate life with it.”