University of Maryland Under Fire After Football Player Dies
As the college football world looks for answers in the wake of several recent deaths, the University of Maryland has taken action.
The university has placed head football athletic trainer Wes Robinson, director of athletic training Steve Nordwall and assistant athletic director for sports performance Rick Court on paid administrative league as it investigates the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair, The Baltimore Sun reported Friday.
McNair, a sophomore from Randallstown, Maryland, died of heatstroke on June 13 after a May 29 outdoor workout went horribly wrong.
Making matters worse, McNair was showing clear signs of distress, including a body temperature of 106 degrees, and was unwilling to or forbidden from taking a break.
The young offensive lineman ran 10 110-yard sprints and needed his teammates to help him complete the 10th one, as Robinson yelled at them to “drag his ass across the field!”
Court, who led the workout, has been singled out by players as having the temperament of a drill instructor.
“He’s just a ball of testosterone all the time,” an anonymous player told ESPN. “He’s really in your face. He’ll call you (expletives). He’ll challenge you in the weight room. He’ll put more weight on the bar than you can do, ever done in your life, and expect you to do it multiple times. He’ll single people out he doesn’t like, which is a common practice here. Guys are run off. They’ll have them do specific finishes at the end and do harder workouts or more workouts just to make their lives miserable here. He’s kind of (coach D.J.) Durkin’s tool to accomplish that. He’s the guy people hate, and that way Durkin doesn’t have to take the blow for it. Guys can’t stand Coach Court.”
This looks like it’s part of a broader cultural problem at the university, where the line between masculine toughness and abusive sadism seems not to exist.
ESPN reported Friday that Maryland players are beginning to come forward, decrying the “toxic coaching culture” in the school’s football program.
Court in particular has seen a body of evidence mounting against him that rather than being a firm-but-fair drillmaster, he is, in fact, simply needlessly cruel.
Players reported the use of fear and intimidation as a psychological weapon, as coaches would slap food out of their hands or throw objects at them out of anger.
Speaking of food, it was also used as a tool of punishment in ways that if you did some of the things coaches allegedly did to Terp players to convicted criminals or prisoners of war, you’d run afoul of the Eighth Amendment or the Geneva Conventions.
One player was forced to overeat to the point of vomiting, according to the report.
And verbal abuse of the players’ manhood? Even drill instructors get drummed out of the Marines for crossing the line into the territory players claim coaches ventured into in belittling their manhood, but Maryland football allowed it.
One former staff member gave the ultimate vote of no-confidence when he said flat-out, “I would never, ever, ever allow my child to be coached there.”
Another former staffer ventured into the same territory, saying, “The language is profane, and it’s demeaning at times. When you’re characterizing people in such derogatory and demeaning terms, particularly if they don’t have a skill level you think they need to aspire to, or they may never get, then it’s rough to watch and see because if it was your son, you wouldn’t want anybody talking to your son that way.”
And one former player put it simply: “The way they coach us at Maryland, tough love — it’s really more tough than it is love.”
The university issued a statement Friday.
“The alleged behaviors raised in the ESPN story are troubling and not consistent with our approach to the coaching and development of our student athletes,” it said. “Such allegations do not reflect the culture of our program. We are committed to swiftly examining and addressing any such reports when they are brought to our attention.”
Tell it to the family of Jordan McNair, which is suing the university for the wrongful death of their son. If what’s been said about Court and others on the staff is true, may the McNairs soak the school for all it’s worth.
As for the three men on administrative leave, let’s hope they spend it reading books on effective leadership rather than watching war movies. Maybe try David Halberstam’s “The Education of a Coach” about Bill Belichick.
Rest in peace, Jordan McNair. May your death not be in vain.
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