Lying is OK. I’m not talking about the little white lies that we often tell to spare someone’s feelings or avoid an argument, I’m talking about things that matter. Lying about things that make a difference, can destroy the trust in a relationship or an institution. We have allowed lying to become acceptable, but only if we like the person or agree with their politics. It’s really an amazing phenomenon to observe if you can sit back and detach from the actual lies being told.

Urban Meyer is a big time college football coach. He’s been at Utah, Florida, and most recently Ohio State. He has a history of winning, not just games but conference and national championships. He’s also guilty of lying, repeatedly and often. Not just to the media, not just to fans, but to his employers. That should be an offense resulting in termination. Because if your employee is going to lie to you repeatedly, when that employee has a morals clause in his contract, shouldn’t he be let go?

A quick history. Zach Smith has been a low level assistant coach for Urban at both Florida and Ohio State. Recently it came to light that Zach had been accused of domestic violence against his wife on several occasions. Twice the police were called, but no charges were ever filed and both times the respective universities also came to the conclusion that they could not determine if Zach was really abusing his wife or if she was lying. The most recent incident was in 2015.

At the Big 10 media day press conference a few weeks ago, Urban was asked if he knew about the 2015 incident and Urban emphatically said he had no idea. No previous knowledge. He also attacked the reporter who had written a story about Zach and the apparent cover up by Meyer and OSU staff. Turns out Meyer knew, as did the administration at OSU.

During the ensuing investigation, Meyer also lied about a number of other situations involving his assistant coach, credit card abuse, taking high school coaches to strip clubs, not showing up to practice, having sex with a secretary in his office. He even lied about he and his wife counseling Zach and his wife. OSU officials said there was a clear pattern over a 9-10 year period of Meyer lying to university officials. Shouldn’t that be enough to terminate his employment? I think most of us agree that it should.

But Meyer has made the university tens of millions of dollars through TV deals, booster donations, advertising contracts, etc. He has kept the program in the national spotlight and that is enough to look the other way. When the university board had a chance to take a stand for integrity, they balked.

If Meyer was a mediocre coach, say just over a 60% winning average, with maybe a conference championship or two, he would have been gone, rather than suspended without pay for 3 games. We do the same thing with politicians or movie stars or even friends. If we like them, we tend to be more forgiving, no matter how many times they lie to us or others. If we don’t like them, watch out! We’ll crucify them for one little white lie.

I do believe liberals are more apt to forgive their own for their transgressions, but everyone practices forgiveness to an extent. But don’t we have a right to expect that our institutions act with integrity? Shouldn’t we demand that high profile entities, whether individuals or groups, set and maintain high standards? I think we used to, but not anymore.