Wiedmer: Apologies not enough in Maryland football player's death

D.J. Durkin, who is entering his third season as football coach at the University of Maryland, is under scrutiny after allegations his staff verbally abused and humiliated players.
D.J. Durkin, who is entering his third season as football coach at the University of Maryland, is under scrutiny after allegations his staff verbally abused and humiliated players.

When are we going to accept that football is a game? Nothing more. Nothing less. It's not war. It shouldn't be life or death, though the way we sometimes treat those who play it makes you wonder.

Maryland football coach D.J. Durkin and Rick Court - the former Terrapins assistant athletic director for sports performance - are the latest misguided zealots to find themselves under investigation for cruel and unusual punishment to college kids following the June 13 death of 19-year-old offensive lineman Jordan McNair.

During a strenuous conditioning workout on May 29, having struggled to complete a series of 10 110-yard wind sprints, McNair collapsed from heatstroke. When he reached the hospital, his body temperature was 106.

McNair's family has hired an attorney to look into his death. Maryland has parted ways with Court, placed Durkin on paid administrative leave and launched what appears to be a very thorough investigation into McNair's death in particular and the program in general.

If what's already leaked out about the culture of the program under Durkin following an ESPN investigation is accurate, Court shouldn't be the last person to have spent his last day working for the school. Durkin also should swiftly depart and rather pointed questions should be raised about new athletic director (and former Georgia AD) Damon Evans, who formerly oversaw the football program as an associate AD.

Evans stated Tuesday, "I did not witness those things."

But shouldn't he have? And if not he, shouldn't someone somewhere have both witnessed and reported Durkin's and Court's questionable coaching practices before a student-athlete lost his life?

To be fair - though ambulance-chasing attorneys would have us believe otherwise - not every young person's death while under adult supervision is the result of negligence, sloppiness or abuse. People just die sometimes. Nobody's fault, however crushing and unexplainable that loss.

But this never has sounded like that. Instead, according to ESPN, a university-hired external investigation reportedly has found that the athletic training staff never took McNair's temperature after he collapsed, that it did not apply a cold-water immersion treatment and that it did not follow the emergency response plan appropriately.

Admitted Evans on Tuesday: "The care provided was not consistent with best practices, and heat illness was not properly identified or treated."

Another troubling fact, according to ESPN: After McNair's final wind sprint, his teammates holding him up as he began to wobble, the school's football trainer, Wes Robinson, yelled at the players, "Drag his (behind) across the field!"

To its credit, Maryland placed Robinson on administrative leave last Friday.

But ESPN's initial story last week indicated that Robinson probably was only acting as Durkin instructed him. This was the Terrapins way under this coach. Or as one former player was quoted on the network's website: "The way they coach us at Maryland, tough love - it's really more tough than it is love."

A lot of older folks might say it's nothing that former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, former Texas coach Darrell Royal or Alabama legend Bear Bryant didn't do, especially during Bryant's notorious "Junction Boys" practices at Texas A&M.

They'll argue that it's a tough sport that must instill toughness in those who choose to play it. And there's much truth in that.

But the 6-foot-5, 290-pound McNair didn't die because of a lack of toughness. He died because of stupidity, if not out and out cruelty. And such behavior, such wanton endangerment of athletes of all ages and talent levels must stop. Now.

While it's commendable for school president Wallace D. Loh to say in a prepared statement, "We will do everything within our power to ensure that no University of Maryland student-athlete is ever again put in a situation where his or her safety and life are at foreseeable risk," it would be better to detail how that might be accomplished.

Here's one thought: The NCAA should mandate that every head coaching contract contains a clause that a university-appointed observer will have access to any practice he or she chooses to attend and with no prior warning. That person may video practice, with sound, but is not to communicate with players or staff. However, if there are signs of possible abuse or negligence, that coach will be held responsible and be forced to explain the cited behavior to the school president and athletic director.

Does that mean McNair would still be here today? Perhaps not. But it does mean that reporting such questionable coaching tactics much earlier might have saved his life, as well as the reputation of the program.

What we know for certain is the following, the words both gut-wrenching and surprisingly honest from Loh: "They entrusted their son to us, and he did not return home."

In its article last week, ESPN quoted one former Maryland staff member saying: "I would never, ever, ever allow my child to be coached there."

As soon as possible, Loh needs to make certain Durkin never coaches another Maryland player. If the rest of his staff and see-no-evil Evans are swept out as well, all the better.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com

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