JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A lawsuit by former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo seeking his full salary for last season, plus damages for emotional distress over what he called a “hostile work environment” created by the Jaguars and former coach Urban Meyer, has been dismissed.
A judge granted the Jaguars’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Nov. 8, and Lambo has 21 days from that point to file an amended complaint if he chooses.
Lambo filed the lawsuit in May, following accusations he made of being kicked by Meyer.
His lawsuit claimed that Meyer and the Jaguars created a hostile work environment, and that he was released from his job with the team for speaking up about Meyer kicking and degrading him.
Lambo accused Meyer of kicking him during a preseason game last season. That accusation to the Tampa Bay Times came just hours before owner Shad Khan fired Meyer in the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2021.
“I’m in a lunge position. Left leg forward, right leg back,” Lambo told the Times last winter. “... Urban Meyer, while I’m in that stretch position, comes up to me and says, ‘Hey Dips--t, make your f--king kicks!’ And kicks me in the leg.”
According to the lawsuit, Meyer confronted Lambo after his complaint, telling the kicker, “[I]f you ever speak to me like that again, you’ll be out of here. You’re the first player I’ve ever let speak to me that way in my career, and if you do it again, you’re gone.”
Meyer denied Lambo’s accusation in late January in an interview out OutKick’s Don’t @ Me.
Lambo reported the incident to the team, which the team acknowledged came in contact from Lambo’s agent on Aug. 27. He said in the lawsuit, according to the Times, that his release was a violation of Florida’s Private Sector Whistle Blower’s Act.
Attorneys for the Jaguars countered Lambo’s claim that he was a whistleblower or victim of retaliation.
The team’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit said that Lambo admitted in his complaint that the Jaguars separated his employment due to an unsatisfactory performance on the field and that Meyer acknowledged his performance “dramatically declined” in the 2021 season.
Lambo was released by the team on Oct. 19 after struggling in the 2021 season.
The motion’s conclusion states that the allegations Lambo made of being battered by Meyer in violation of law can’t form the basis of a claim against the Jaguars and that Lambo failed to exhaust his administrative remedy prior to bringing the suit and that the claim should be barred.
The judge sided with the Jaguars’ arguments and dismissed the lawsuit.
Lambo missed 12 games with a hip injury in 2020 and wasn’t the same kicker in 2021. Lambo missed all three of his field goal attempts in 2021, two of those at TIAA Bank Field where he was previously automatic, as well as a couple PATs.
He departed as the most accurate kicker in franchise history.