5 Takeaways from Urban Meyer's Appearance on HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel

Urban Meyer is a notoriously private person, so when it emerged that the Ohio State head coach was going to be the subject of a segment on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on Sept. 23, many were surprised.

In fact, Meyer himself can't recall exactly why he agreed to willingly appear on the show.

"Oh, I don't know. Good question. I don't know why I did that," Meyer responded Monday when asked why he conceded to the segment. "It came across my desk and I said, 'No, of course not,' and I got a couple of phone calls that said, 'Yeah, it would be good for people to see.' That's why."

Regardless of the reason why he agreed, Meyer will be featured on the monthly sports magazine show at 10 p.m. ET Tuesday in a 12-minute segment reported by Andrea Kremer. With a primary focus on the success and turmoil that he enjoyed and endured at Florida, as well as his career's revival at Ohio State, there is plenty to take away from the in-depth look at one of the most fascinating figures in college football history.

The Making of a Meyer

Before Meyer was ever a two-time national champion head coach, he was merely a minor league prospect cutting his teeth in the Atlanta Braves organization. Although his time on the diamond was short-lived from a professional standpoint, it helped provide plenty of insight into the upbringing that made the Ashtabula, Ohio, native the man that he is today.

Drafted by the Braves at the age of 17 in the 13th round of the 1982 amateur draft, Meyer struggled in his first season with the Gulf Coast League Braves, posting a paltry .170 batting average in 20 games. The lack of success for the 6'2", 180-pound righty caused him to doubt his future in baseball, leading to a more than memorable conversation with his father, Bud Meyer.

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"I'm the third-string shortstop. The manager keeps mispronouncing my name. So I call up my dad and I say, 'I'm out,'" Meyer recalled to Kremer. "And he says, 'OK, you're a grown man now. You make your own decisions. But you will never step foot in this household again. Is that clear? There are no quitters in the Meyer family.' Bang."

Meyer would stick it out with baseball for one more season, hitting .193 while splitting time between the Braves' Gulf Coast and Appalachian League teams in 1983. While baseball may not have ultimately been his calling, it certainly played a key role in shaping his future career.

"It was very clear, the message: Don't quit," Meyer said of his conversation with his father. "Fight through it."

Success Addict

Although success never came for Meyer on the football field, the same couldn't be said when it came to coaching football, a career that he delved into after serving as a walk-on at the University of Cincinnati. Following stints as an assistant at Ohio State, Colorado State and Notre Dame, Meyer became one of the sport's fastest rising stars, taking over as Bowling Green's head coach at the ripe age of 36.

A 17-6 record in his two-year stay with the Falcons led to two years at Utah, where Meyer led the Utes to an undefeated season and Fiesta Bowl victory in 2004. But all of that paled in comparison to the success the coach found at Florida, where he captured a national title in his second season with a 41-14 thrashing of Ohio State in the BCS National Championship Game.

That may have been enough to satisfy most head coaches, but for the 42-year-old Meyer, it only increased his appetite for winning.

It wouldn't take long for Meyer to quench that thirst either, as the Tim Tebow-led Gators again held college football's crystal ball in 2008. But despite being on top of the college football world, that's when it became apparent that Meyer was developing a problem, as evidenced by his postgame "celebration."

"I was in a panic situation and we just won it," Meyer said. "I closed the door and I started just recruiting. One of my friends came up to me and said, 'What are you doing?' and I said, 'Well I gotta get this kid.' And he said, 'What's wrong with you? Enjoy this.' And I tried."

"Was he calling recruits?" Urban's wife, Shelley Meyer, responded when asked by Kremer if she knew how her husband spent the moments following his second national title in three years, before admitting that his behavior had become obsessive.

As they'd soon find out, it was only the beginning.

"I thought I was dying."

The climax of the HBO Real Sports segment addresses 2009, when Meyer was polishing off two Ambiens a night with a beer just to get some sleep. Chest pains and weight issues soon followed, all while Florida was still maintaining its success, carrying a 22-game winning streak into the SEC Championship Game.

"I go from 217 pounds to 180 pounds. I lose 37 pounds," Meyer said of his health in 2009. "And we're undefeated."

That perfection wouldn't last, however, with Nick Saban's Alabama getting the best of Meyer's Gators in the conference title game. The loss preceded what was the beginning of the end of Meyer's time in Gainesville, as just hours later he was rushed to the hospital.

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"I remember a sharp pain in my chest. I was numb. That's all I remember," Meyer said. "I woke up in the hospital and they said, 'Well we don't believe it was a heart attack.' I said, 'OK, well what was it?' and they said, 'We don't know.' Then you start thinking, 'There's something wrong with me medically. What is going on here?' "

"Were you depressed?" Kremer asked Meyer.

"Absolutely," he responded. "Mentally, I was broke."

Florida Fiasco

So much so, in fact, that after leaving the hospital, Meyer shockingly opted to retire from coaching. But his hiatus would last less than a day, as he reneged on his decision to leave Florida fewer than 24 hours later.

"Did you pick work over your family in that sense?" Kremer asked.

"Probably," Meyer answered. "I'm not very proud of that."

The Meyers wouldn't have to wait long for Urban to return home, however, as he again stepped away from the Gators sideline following the 2010 season—this time for good.

Sure, Florida had just endured an 8-5 season, his worst as a head coach, but Meyer claims that the reasoning behind his second retirement in as many years delved deeper that. As he watched his youngest daughter, Gigi, accept a scholarship to play volleyball at Florida Gulf Coast University, it finally hit the coach—and father—how much in his life he had already missed.

"I get to the gym and this beautiful little girl stands up and says, 'Mom, I want to thank you, you were always there. And Dad, you were never there, but I love you too,' " Meyer recalled. "And I remember I said, 'Oh my gosh, it happened.' I was the guy that wasn't there."

In a Better Place

In 2011, there was Meyer, parlaying his early retirement and expertise into a cushy analyst gig at ESPN that allowed him to spend plenty of time with his family. But as healthy and happy as Meyer was, coaching remained his passion, which is why Shelley was so heartbroken when she learned that Jim Tressel was resigning from his position as the Buckeyes head coach in May 2011.

"If ever he would go back, it would be Ohio State," Shelley Meyer said. "When that news broke, I was devastated."

Her fears came to fruition that November, when Meyer officially accepted OSU's offer to return to college football. But before signing his contract with the Buckeyes, he had to sign one with his family, pieced together by his oldest daughter, Nicki.

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"I just started writing all of the things that he didn't do [at Florida]," Nicki said of her famous pink contract. "I made it very formal."

Meyer complied, beginning an Ohio State career that started with a 24-game win streak lasting the entirety of the 2012 and 2013 regular seasons. But a span of three losses in four games—including defeats in the 2013 Big Ten Championship Game and Orange Bowl—tested how far Meyer has come, and have proved to both him and his family that he's in a better place than he was five years ago.

"I don't feel that at all," Meyer said when asked if the Buckeyes' defeats have made him as miserable as the ones at Florida did. "I'll never get to that point again."

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Ohio State Lead Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes obtained firsthand. All recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.