Maryland Blames Training Staff For Jordan McNair's Death

At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Maryland president Wallace Loh and athletic director Damon Evans said the death of football player Jordan McNair was the result of a failure by the football training staff, with Loh saying the “training staff misdiagnosed situation.”

The duo said head coach D.J. Durkin will remain suspended but stay on the Maryland payroll as the school continues its investigation. Evans announced toward the end of the presser that strength coach Rick Court is no longer with the program. ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg reported that Court received a financial settlement when he resigned on Monday.

Despite numerous reports of Durkin trying to make spring and summer practices “as hard as we can,” and openly commenting that, “the heat makes cowards out of us all,” both Loh and Evans denied having ever personally witnessed the type of “toxic” behavior detailed by ESPN’s initial report. Loh promised that the university would do its best to prevent players from being killed by football drills moving forward.

Loh said he spoke with McNair’s parents Tuesday morning to officially apologize on the university’s behalf, telling them, “the university accepts legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes our training staff made.”

McNair died on June 13.