What we know about Maryland and the death of Jordan McNair

Maryland has two investigations ongoing into the circumstances around McNair’s death. The school has placed head coach DJ Durkin on leave and said it parted ways with strength coach Rick Court.

Maryland redshirt freshman offensive lineman Jordan McNair died June 13, two weeks after he struggled to recover during and after a team workout. McNair’s family announced in July that the cause of his death was heatstroke. His death has led Maryland to put head coach DJ Durkin on administrative leave and cut ties with a top strength coach, Rick Court.

The university commissioned an outside investigation into the circumstances surrounding the workout that led to McNair’s death.

The school expects that review, conducted by athletic consulting firm Walters Inc., to finish by mid-September. University president Wallace Loh has said the results of the review will be made public.

In a press conference on Aug. 14, Loh and athletic director Damon Evans acknowledged errors by Maryland that led to McNair’s death.

“Some of our policies and protocols do not conform to best practices,” Loh said. He added “the university accepts legal and moral responsibility.”

The university has since set up a second, four-person investigation into the operations of the program.

On Aug. 11, following a report by ESPN that included allegations of an abusive culture inside the program, Maryland placed Durkin on administrative leave.

That’s the subject of the second investigation. The timeline on that probe is unclear.

The school has already cut ties with its top football strength coach, Court. It placed Court, Durkin, and reportedly two other members of its athletic training staff on leave following ESPN’s reporting.

Court reportedly reached a settlement with the school.

At first, Maryland declined to name the staff members it had placed on leave, aside from the head coach, Durkin. ESPN reported the staffers on leave were members of Maryland’s strength and training staff: Court, Wes Robinson, and Steve Nordwall. Maryland has yet to confirm the permanent departure of any staffer except Court. Court released a statement on Twitter saying he resigned.

The workout before McNair’s death involved a series of 110-yard sprints on a day when the high in College Park was in the 80s.

Evans said Maryland didn’t properly follow its emergency response plan, including a delay in taking McNair’s temperature and giving him cold immersion treatment. Loh was specific that Maryland’s athletic training staff — and not its coaching staff — erred on May 29.

The Diamondback, Maryland’s independent student newspaper, reviewed 911 recordings and a first-responder incident report that the paper said “suggest medical personnel did not immediately recognize the severity of McNair’s condition.” 911 tapes obtained by the Baltimore Sun indicated McNair was “unable to control his breath” after the workout. McNair was a listed 6’4 and 325 pounds.

A state medical examiner reportedly did not perform an autopsy after McNair died. The school hasn’t commented on the cause of death. Only McNair’s family has.

The known rough timeline from May 29, via Maryland blog Testudo Times:

4:15 p.m. — Workouts begin; team does 15-20 minutes of dynamic workout.

Approximately 4:30-4:35 p.m. — Conditioning tests consisting of 10 110-yard sprints begins.

After conditioning (time undisclosed) — Training staff notices McNair was having some difficulty recovering upon completion of the tests; training staff takes McNair inside football team house for “further observation and continued treatment.”

5:57 p.m. — 911 is called, unidentified caller reports that McNair is “hyperventilating” and “unable to control his breath.”

6:02 p.m. — Ambulance arrives with first-responders.

Approximately 6:07 p.m. — A first responder relays to dispatchers that there is a “male patient with seizure.”

6:08 p.m. — A paramedic crew is on its way to the scene.

6:36 p.m. — McNair arrives at Washington Adventist Hospital, in Takoma Park, per the county’s report.

Later that night — McNair is airlifted to R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.

A current player told ESPN that McNair was visibly exhausted at the workout.

“There were multiple people that said, ‘Wow, Jordan looks f---ed up, he doesn’t look all right,’” the player said. “We knew he was really exhausted, but we didn’t know he was in danger of his life. But that doesn’t mean that a medical professional shouldn’t know to put him in an ice tub.”

Maryland opened the doors in 2017 to a $196 million practice facility that includes an indoor field. But Maryland had McNair and other players running outdoors the day he fell ill.

The McNair family’s lawyer, Billy Murphy, told ESPN that a lawsuit was “likely” coming.

“Our preliminary investigation reveals there is an unexplained one-hour time period when nothing significant was done to avoid the complications of heatstroke,” Murphy said. “Although there is some evidence they allegedly tried to cool him down, he should have been iced immediately. He presented at the hospital with a temperature of 106, which means he was not cooled down.

”We’re very concerned about the unexplained one hour between the time of the seizure and hyperventilating that was observed by a coach, and what happened in that remaining hour before the EMT people were actually called. This points to an utter disregard of the health of this player, and we are extraordinarily concerned that the coaches did not react appropriately to his injury.”

Durkin attended the workout on May 29, the school has said.

It remains unclear whether there’s video of the workout that led to McNair’s death. Evans didn’t answer a question about that at the end of the Aug. 14 presser.

On Aug. 10, as ESPN released its report on Maryland’s “toxic” football culture — the subject of the second investigation related to McNair’s death.

Reporters Heather Dinich, Tom VanHaaren, and Adam Rittenberg detailed a list of stories shared with them by current and former players and others close to the program. Their reporting is worth reading in full, but some of the most notable items:

-There is a coaching environment based on fear and intimidation. In one example, a player holding a meal while in a meeting had the meal slapped out of his hands in front of the team. At other times, small weights and other objects were thrown in the direction of players when [strength coach Rick] Court was angry.

-The belittling, humiliation and embarrassment of players is common. In one example, a player whom coaches wanted to lose weight was forced to eat candy bars as he was made to watch teammates working out.

-Extreme verbal abuse of players occurs often. Players are routinely the targets of obscenity-laced epithets meant to mock their masculinity when they are unable to complete a workout or weight lift, for example. One player was belittled verbally after passing out during a drill.

-Coaches have endorsed unhealthy eating habits and used food punitively; for example, a player said he was forced to overeat or eat to the point of vomiting.

When McNair died, Evans was only Maryland’s interim athletic director. He then got the permanent job, before ESPN’s reporting came out.

Later in June, Maryland gave Evans the long-term athletic directorship and signed him to a six-year contract worth at least $720,000 per year.

Maryland opens its football season against Texas on Sept. 1.

While it mulls a potential lawsuit against the school, McNair’s family has started the Jordan McNair Foundation in his honor.

The foundation says it “seeks to diminish the occurrence of heat-related illnesses and improve player safety.”

“Our plans did not include his death,” Jordan’s father, Martin McNair, wrote in a letter on the foundation’s website. “Our plans included something more. Our plans included him. But God had other plans. Jordan gave us 19 great years, and we will miss him. He was a great son, grandson, cousin, nephew, brother, friend, student, roommate and teammate.”

We’ll update this post as more information becomes available.