OT: Maryland completes Jordan McNair investigation but hasn't told family results (Updated > Durkin Fired)

[huskymedic]

Maryland hasn't told McNairs of probe's findings

>>"It is obvious to me that there was no intention to share the report to the McNair family and us prior to its release, given that as of 6:30 tonight they have yet to inform us whether or not they will give us an opportunity to review it and assert Jordan's privacy rights before it's released," Murphy said.

"Since Mr. Brady and the Board of Regents took over the investigation, there has been no communication with the family or with us, and there was no attempt to coordinate our review of the report prior to its intended release," Murphy said. "... This whole thing is cruel and lacking any empathy or compassion for the victims here, and instead reeks of orchestration around the interest of the university and its football program."<<

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskypantz]

That was one expensive investigation for Maryland.

Trainers at fault

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Basically professional negligence. Maryland will be paying-out a lot of money and I don't expect most of the coaching staff to survive.

Oh, and UConn basketball will be suspended from post-season play in 2018/9 as part of Maryland's penalty because, well, you know.

 

[huskymedic]

SI: What McNair investigation findings mean for lawsuit, Durkin

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I have no idea how Maryland can keep this guy after what happened on his watch; but, it proves that football owns D1 universities, not the other way around.

Sources: Terps board wants to keep coach, AD

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

The whole college sport environment/model has become so perverse.

 

[Vowelguy]

I have no idea how Maryland can keep this guy after what happened on his watch; but, it proves that football owns D1 universities, not the other way around.

Sources: Terps board wants to keep coach, AD

Not only did they keep him, they were willing to throw the President overboard for wanting to ax him.

So at Maryland --- Maryland! -- an unaccomplished FB Coach > College President

 

[huskymedic]

 

[methodology]

Not only did they keep him, they were willing to throw the President overboard for wanting to ax him.

So at Maryland --- Maryland! -- an unaccomplished FB Coach > College President

Have a feeling under armor guy had a lot of say in this

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Have a feeling under armor guy had a lot of say in this

An McNair's laywers are going to have a field day with U Maryland.

 

[Block C]

Maryland is digging themselves a huge while for a big pay out to his parents. I would never let a coach back after this

 

[champs99and04]

I hate people like Pat Forde. They diminish the work of real reporters by making everything about them. Stop. You're supposed to be writing an objective column, not selling a screenplay. So much of his narcissism is dressed up as righteousness, yet at the end of the day we all know that the bigger the head on the wall, the more clicks a story gets.
The Maryland case with McNair is very complicated. Firing Durkin would not have been crazy, but the media's reaction to everything that went down there was predictably reckless and blind to context. They want a convenient scapegoat for all that is wrong with college sports, when in reality they should be directing a lot of that blame inwards.

A lot of what I've read about Durkin makes him sound like...a football coach, and I think we've been incredibly naive in assuming that these kids have always been treated humanely. There is too much money on the line and too much incentive for head coaches to adopt a passive mentality when it comes to monitoring their program. It's just not realistic to require one person to thoroughly supervise over 100 kids at all times. Boundaries are going to be pushed when so much revenue is on the table. You think administrators don't have all the reason in the world to turn the other way? It's always so easy to blame the coach. Be careful about blaming the person that's easiest to blame.

 

[huskymedic]

>>I sure hope those millions of extra cable television households the Big Ten picked up a few years back were worth it. Because at this point, the collective embarrassment brought upon the league by recent additions Maryland and Rutgers would sure seem to outweigh whatever revenue uptick it received from entering the D.C. and New York/New Jersey viewing markets.<<

 

[Vowelguy]

You're supposed to be writing an objective column, .

It's a column, not a news story. Which means it's someone's perspective/opinion. He's supposed to be subjective.

I thought his analysis was great.

 

[Vowelguy]

Be careful about blaming the person that's easiest to blame.

No, the easiest person to blame was the strength coach. That's why he's gone and no one else is.

 

[champs99and04]

It's a column, not a news story. Which means it's someone's perspective/opinion. He's supposed to be subjective.

I thought his analysis was great.

An opinion piece still seeks to at least entertain both perspectives before taking a side. Words like "shocking" and "disgraceful" are used way too liberally. I wouldn't even use those words to describe the strength coach.

No, the easiest person to blame was the strength coach. That's why he's gone and no one else is.

The easiest thing to do was to blow it all up and attribute any collateral damage to a necessary healing process. It's probably what they should have done, if only because, as Scott Van Pelt just said on SportsCenter, it's now going to be impossible for him to do his job.

But bigger picture, letting Durkin take the fall is just as irresponsible. This is the type of tragedy that illuminates a whole lot about what's wrong with college sports and America in general, and those problems run a lot deeper than one head coach. Personally, I take no solace in scapegoating one person whose conscience will probably bear the brunt of this as things stand, especially in light of two independent investigations that loosely exonerated him from the charges levied against him.

Beyond that, the entire approach is reactionary and susceptible to major confirmation bias. Some of the findings are unquestionably troubling and inappropriate, but it's impossible to gauge the impact that these things had in real time, prior to the fatal mishaps on the part of the trainers that have been rightfully outlined and accounted for. They're exactly the sort of tactics that nobody questions when you're winning and it's more convenient to romanticize barbaric teaching tools out of fear of coming off as a wet blanket.

People like Forde are the creation's of a system that prioritizes money over the livelihoods of real people. They don't put in the time or the research to develop nuanced opinions, not because they're lazy, but because he knows not to go after the mouth that feeds him. Keep the gravy train rolling and only ever stop it so that I can get on. That's the mentality of people like Forde who don't want to acknowledge their own culpability in the cartel they claim to oppose. As long as we're calling for people to lose their jobs, we don't have time to question the people funding the exploitation of our country's best young people. And that's us.

 

[Ewekon]

Wow

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Vowelguy]

But bigger picture, letting Durkin take the fall is just as irresponsible. This is the type of tragedy that illuminates a whole lot about what's wrong with college sports and America in general, and those problems run a lot deeper than one head coach. Personally, I take no solace in scapegoating one person whose conscience will probably bear the brunt of this as things stand, especially in light of two independent investigations that loosely exonerated him from the charges levied against him.

Beyond that, the entire approach is reactionary and susceptible to major confirmation bias. Some of the findings are unquestionably troubling and inappropriate, but it's impossible to gauge the impact that these things had in real time, prior to the fatal mishaps on the part of the trainers that have been rightfully outlined and accounted for. They're exactly the sort of tactics that nobody questions when you're winning and it's more convenient to romanticize barbaric teaching tools out of fear of coming off as a wet blanket.

People like Forde are the creation's of a system that prioritizes money over the livelihoods of real people. They don't put in the time or the research to develop nuanced opinions, not because they're lazy, but because he knows not to go after the mouth that feeds him. Keep the gravy train rolling and only ever stop it so that I can get on. That's the mentality of people like Forde who don't want to acknowledge their own culpability in the cartel they claim to oppose. As long as we're calling for people to lose their jobs, we don't have time to question the people funding the exploitation of our country's best young people. And that's us.

Did you read the report? Forde did.
Did you see the ESPN story this summer, and followed all the details and the coverage? Forde did.
I WANT someone will synthesize all the news, has done the read, and can put it in context.

And did you read the WaPo NEWS story yesterday? It was incredibly damning. Forde hardly lept to conclusions.

As for the "who's to say who is to blame?" Spare me. He was the boss.
"Everybody does it, he just got caught" is a BS excuse. Someone DIED. And UMD decided there would largely be no consequences for anyone, save 1 sacrificial (but handsomely paid off) lamb.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

An opinion piece still seeks to at least entertain both perspectives before taking a side. Words like "shocking" and "disgraceful" are used way too liberally. I wouldn't even use those words to describe the strength coach.



The easiest thing to do was to blow it all up and attribute any collateral damage to a necessary healing process. It's probably what they should have done, if only because, as Scott Van Pelt just said on SportsCenter, it's now going to be impossible for him to do his job.

But bigger picture, letting Durkin take the fall is just as irresponsible. This is the type of tragedy that illuminates a whole lot about what's wrong with college sports and America in general, and those problems run a lot deeper than one head coach. Personally, I take no solace in scapegoating one person whose conscience will probably bear the brunt of this as things stand, especially in light of two independent investigations that loosely exonerated him from the charges levied against him.

Beyond that, the entire approach is reactionary and susceptible to major confirmation bias. Some of the findings are unquestionably troubling and inappropriate, but it's impossible to gauge the impact that these things had in real time, prior to the fatal mishaps on the part of the trainers that have been rightfully outlined and accounted for. They're exactly the sort of tactics that nobody questions when you're winning and it's more convenient to romanticize barbaric teaching tools out of fear of coming off as a wet blanket.

People like Forde are the creation's of a system that prioritizes money over the livelihoods of real people. They don't put in the time or the research to develop nuanced opinions, not because they're lazy, but because he knows not to go after the mouth that feeds him. Keep the gravy train rolling and only ever stop it so that I can get on. That's the mentality of people like Forde who don't want to acknowledge their own culpability in the cartel they claim to oppose. As long as we're calling for people to lose their jobs, we don't have time to question the people funding the exploitation of our country's best young people. And that's us.

Yes, the system has major issues. But, using the system-wide issues as an excuse to forgive the man most responsible for the staff and culture at U Maryland's football program is wrong. Its the same excuse that Pitino has been using at Louisville; but, at least no one has died playing basketball for him. Durkin knew what was going on. He knew what Court was doing. A 19 year old kid playing died because of the U Maryland football program that Durkin built and lead put tougness over safety and wining over everything. And clearly, that attitude came from the top where the U Maryland Board only see dollar signs with student atheltes seen as resources and not people. Its criminal negligence (he's a trained professional after all) and just wrong.

 

[champs99and04]

Did you read the report? Forde did.
Did you see the ESPN story this summer, and followed all the details and the coverage? Forde did.
I WANT someone will synthesize all the news, has done the read, and can put it in context.

And did you read the WaPo NEWS story yesterday? It was incredibly damning. Forde hardly lept to conclusions.

As for the "who's to say who is to blame?" Spare me. He was the boss.
"Everybody does it, he just got caught" is a BS excuse. Someone DIED. And UMD decided there would largely be no consequences for anyone, save 1 sacrificial (but handsomely paid off) lamb.

I've said that Durkin should share in the blame. I disagree with the assertion that he's primarily to blame when the NCAA and the schools are running a billion dollar business that's predicated on exploiting precisely the kind of labor that cost this kid his life. He's not the boss. He's merely a checkpoint on a much larger chain of command that is designed to circumvent responsibility. The problem isn't our failure to hold someone accountable. The problem is our failure to hold everyone responsible at the expense of jeopardizing a billion dollar business.

Fire him or don't fire him. I don't really care. But to suggest that there have been no consequences or that essentially paying him to not coach would have been the worst consequence when one of his own players died is exactly where I take issue with the mob on this one. To get one thing straight, he did not cause or enable the death of a player. He enabled a culture that ultimately contributed to a tragic confluence of circumstances, some of which were extenuating and some of which he only reinforced. But do you know who else enabled that culture? Everyone, including us. Put this one on the house or don't put it on anyone at all, because it's a hell of a lot easier to bloviate about accountability when you're not in his shoes, wearing the scarlet letter every day for the rest of your life, whether you have a job or not, for something you're at worst indirectly responsible for. That man has a life and a family, too, and somehow through this all, the tragic loss of one life has made it more popular to dehumanize another person in a misplaced hunt for justice. I don't even like treating real killers that way. If Forde is going to use words like shameful and sickening to describe people who showed up to work trying to do their jobs, then what will he have left for people who actually warrant those tags?

In the end, the decision to keep him does come down to money, but that's only consistent with the way everyone's operated from the start. The irony is that this time, the preservation of money will come at the expense of winning football games.