University of Maryland alum Josh Axelrod argues that Maryland football should cancel its upcoming season because of a “toxic culture” and the death of a player. Axelrod’s piece comes from the heart, but it misses the mark in many ways.
First, it stamps out any fact-finding and due process.
There are currently two ongoing investigations. First, Walters, Inc. is investigating the events surrounding Jordan McNair’s death. Second, University of Maryland President Wallace Loh and Athletic Director Damon Evans announced an independent investigation at Tuesday’s press conference that will investigate the “toxic culture” in Maryland’s football program, including the conduct of head coach D.J. Durkin and his staff. That will be a four-person panel and will consist of two former federal judges, a former federal prosecutor, and a “retired, respected football coach.”
We’ve all read the nauseating ESPN report. We also know Jordan McNair is dead. We know the athletic training staff failed to take his temperature and failed to treat him immediately or appropriately. We know there was a delay in calling 911. Mistakes were most definitely made. How do you not at least check his vital signs? Like Axelrod, I’m a proud Maryland alum. I want answers. Let’s let the investigators work!
Axelrod says “canceling the season would give investigators more time to determine their [Loh and Evans’] culpability on this matter,” but is there really any reason to think that investigators won’t be able to get their answers? Does he think Maryland playing 12 football games from September to December will prevent investigators from getting to the bottom of this?
Second, Josh’s call for Maryland football to cancel its season is an overreaction, the kind of overreaction to tragic events we’ve seen many times before. While well-meaning because they are intended to prevent further tragedies, these remedies often aren’t well thought-out. In some cases, they’re unconstitutional.
In the wake of the Parkland shooting, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., wrote an op-ed suggesting the government ban certain types of guns, institute a mandatory buy-back program, and prosecute those who don’t comply. What Swalwell suggested is completely unconstitutional. There are more rational ways to deal with these kinds of problems than just giving into whatever emotional thoughts leap into your head in the moments following a tragedy.
Darius Minor, a freshman at the University of Maine, collapsed and died during a preseason football workout this year. Are the Black Bears going to cancel their season? No. Did Kent State cancel their season when Tyler Heintz, a freshman offensive lineman, died of heatstroke after an offseason morning workout last year? No. When Vikings Pro-Bowl tackle Korey Stringer died after collapsing from heatstroke at training camp in 2001, did the Vikings cancel their season? Of course not.
Axelrod said canceling the season would allow the team to recalibrate itself, “the proverbial equivalent of sending a hazmat team in to purify a polluted ecosystem.” It’s natural to want to take drastic action after a tragedy, but we have to be smart about it. To fix the problems that occurred at Maryland, you need a surgeon’s precision, not a burn-it-all-down approach. The tool of choice should be a scalpel, not dynamite and a chainsaw. What will change in a year that can’t be fixed sooner by removing the right people?
Third, Josh talks about Maryland needing to “take care of its student-athletes.” Canceling the football season will impact every single other student-athlete on campus. Football and men’s basketball are the two primary revenue drivers for athletic departments at the Division I level. The current business model in Division I college athletics means that the revenue from those two sports subsidizes everything else, meaning the “nonrevenue” sports.
Should wrestling, men’s soccer, and women’s lacrosse have to suffer because of the failures of the football team’s athletic training staff? Remember that Maryland athletics cut seven athletic teams in 2012 in order to help offset a budget deficit that ran into the millions of dollars. Canceling the football season could threaten the very existence of some nonrevenue sports at Maryland. In attempting to “help” the football players, Axelrod’s idea would end up hurting hundreds of other student-athletes.
Even normal students would feel the impact of canceling the football season. Football, like men’s basketball, provides invaluable national exposure to colleges and universities when they play nationally televised games. That exposure helps draw in millions of dollars in donations from alumni. A lot of that money isn’t going to athletics. It’s going to the university. There has been a lot of construction on and around the University of Maryland’s campus in the last few years: a $120 million Learning and Teaching Center, a $168 million bioengineering building, a $180 million four-star luxury hotel. a $50 million engineering facility. Construction for the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation is underway. Football is a crucial revenue generator for both the athletic department and the rest of the university.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Loh said, “Based on what [it knows] at this time, the University of Maryland accepts legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes that our training staff made on that fateful workout day of May 29.”
The cynic in me says this is being done in advance of either a settlement with or a lawsuit from the McNair family, but it’s a good start. I think we can all agree the status quo won’t do. Durkin was at the practice where McNair collapsed. We’re going to find out what he knew and when he knew it. Head strength training coach Rick Court, the man at the heart of the deeply unsettling ESPN story, resigned earlier this week. Good riddance.
Does there need to be some soul-searching within the athletic department and the football program? Yes. Do changes need to be made? Without a doubt. This can’t be allowed to ever happen again and hopefully this tragedy will help serve as a powerful warning and help prevent any and all high school and college athletes from ever dying of heatstroke.
But to cancel the entire football season? To abandon due process? To overreact and jump to conclusions before all the facts are in? To punish other student-athletes and even regular students? That idea is the logical equivalent of the butt fumble.
