Less than a week ago, University of Maryland football fans were getting pumped for their Sept. 1 game against Texas. But last Friday, that excitement has been replaced with a combination of horror and shame.
That was the day ESPN released a scathing report about Maryland’s football team with multiple inside sources detailing harrowing examples of the program’s “toxic culture” and a “coaching environment based on fear and intimidation.”
The ESPN investigation was sparked by the June 13 death of Terrapins offensive lineman Jordan McNair, two weeks after being hospitalized during a team workout. It implicated some of the most prominent leaders of Maryland’s football program, including head coach D.J. Durkin, head strength and conditioning coach Rick Court, and head athletic trainer Wes Robinson.
Maryland fans have now several days to process this news. As a proud Terp who attended the university from 2010-14, I believe the only appropriate retribution for this horrendous situation is to cancel Maryland’s 2018 football season and spend the year scrubbing the program clean of the toxicity that led to this tragedy.
First and foremost, it has become crystal clear that UMD football under Durkin, who replaced Randy Edsall as head coach before the 2016 season, fostered an unhealthy athletic environment that directly led to the death of one of his players. The ESPN report described first-hand accounts of players being pushed beyond their physical limits and being punished for not going hard enough or, on occasion, even being body-shamed by coaches.
The phrase “toxic masculinity” sometimes gets tossed around haphazardly, but it is definitely applicable to UMD’s football culture. That’s a problem that pervades all sports, as boys are told from young ages to “man up” when faced with adversity. That kind of mindset can lead to disaster as an adult — or death, in McNair’s case.
When you are an impressionable college student being constantly told you’re not good enough by the adults who are supposed to be building you up, you begin to internalize that. When your body is both your ticket to attend college and a potentially lucrative post-graduation career, you will do whatever it takes to get playing time, which can only be earned by gaining your coaches’ respect.
It’s a vicious cycle that resulted in Jordan McNair’s death. Canceling the season will allow the team to recalibrate itself and remove the poisonous atmosphere that is currently surrounding the entire program. Consider it the proverbial equivalent of sending a hazmat team in to purify a polluted ecosystem.
In addition to those immediately responsible for creating the environment that led to McNair’s death, both UMD Athletic Director Damon Evans and President Wallace Loh should be scrutinized for either allowing the school’s football program to operate in such a heinous fashion or being ignorant of the monstrous behavior happening under their watch.
Canceling the season would give investigators more time to determine their culpability on this matter. It should not be taken for granted that their jobs are safer than those closer to the football program, especially Loh’s. This tragedy occurred in his university, and thus his ability to keep his students from harm is automatically in question.
To their credit, Loh and Evans quickly put Durkin, Court, and other football officials on administrative leave after the ESPN article was published. On Tuesday, they held a joint press conference where Loh announced that “the university accepts legal and moral responsibility” for McNair’s death.
It’s a good start, but as of today Durkin has not yet been officially fired and Court was reportedly allowed to resign and still be paid two-thirds of what his contract was worth. Loh and Evans need to do more to prove their commitment to removing all traces of Durkin and Court’s regime from the team.
Finally, canceling the season will allow the Maryland community the space it needs to properly assess how these allegations have affected their perceptions of their beloved home or alma mater. It would certainly help my healing process, so I imagine it would do the same for others.
I went to almost every Maryland football game during my four years in College Park. I held football season tickets for two years after graduation, and still frequently tailgate before and attend home games. The Terps are important to me, but it’s tough to decide where to go from here as a fan knowing about these inexcusable transgressions.
Frankly, many Maryland fans won’t know the difference between a season with or without football. Maryland is a basketball school, with the football team previously serving as a fun diversion with perennially low expectations. For context, the school has gone 10-15 with one bowl loss in the Durkin area. Not exactly inspiring stuff.
Maryland fans have stuck with a usually bad football team through thick and thin, but we can’t go back to not knowing what we know now about the way this program functions. I at least need tangible evidence (in whatever form that ends up taking) that the program has purged itself of its toxicity before I consider actively rooting for this team again.
The only caveat to canceling the 2018 season is that the university will also need to take care of its student-athletes. This isn’t their fault, and they should not be punished for their mentors’ misdeeds. Considering that Maryland just spent $155 million on a new indoor practice facility for the team, it should be able to maintain its football players’ scholarships.
This is the reckoning that Maryland brought upon itself the second it hired Durkin, whether school officials were aware of his coaching methods or not. Its football team went from a band of lovable losers to villains overnight, and the only way to begin healing is to take a season off to at least try to undo as much of the damage as possible.
Joshua Axelrod (@jaxel222) is a graduate student in Media and Strategic Communications at George Washington University. Previously he was a web producer and pop politics writer for the Washington Examiner.
