Maryland officials say mistakes made
University of Maryland president Wallace Loh and the school’s athletic director, Damon Evans, acknowledged Tuesday that team athletic trainers failed to properly diagnose and treat football player Jordan McNair during a May workout, and apologized to the player’s family for the school’s role in his death.
Loh said the staff failed to recognize that McNair was suffering from heatstroke and did not follow prescribed medical steps to treat it. Loh said trainers never took the player’s temperature and did not ice his body to lower its temperature, steps experts have said would likely have saved his life. Instead, McNair died in a hospital 15 days later.
Loh spoke at a news conference in College Park immediately after meeting with McNair’s family. He said the university “accepts legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes that our training staff made on the fateful workout day of May 29.”
Loh said he has received progress reports from an ongoing investigation on the circumstances surrounding McNair’s death, “and based upon what we know at this time, even though the final report is not completed, I said to the family, ‘The university owes you an apology. You entrusted Jordan to our care and he is never returning home again.’ ”
The death of McNair, a 19-year old offensive lineman, has drawn scrutiny to College Park, where some ex-players and staff members have said the football program operates under a culture of abuse and bullying. As a result of recent news reports, the school placed four people on administrative leave, including the team’s head coach, D.J. Durkin. Evans said at Tuesday’s news conference that one of those men — Rick Court, the strength and conditioning coach who was running the workout in May — is no longer employed by the university.
Durkin was not present at Tuesday’s news conference, and Evans would not speculate on when or if Durkin might return to the team.
Evans became emotional as he recounted the Baltimore meeting with McNair’s parents, Tonya Wilson and Martin McNair, on Tuesday afternoon.
“I have looked into the eyes of a grieving mother and father, and there is simply nothing good enough,” he said.
In a statement issued through their attorney, McNair’s parents said they appreciated Loh and Evans meeting with them.
“While Marty and Tonya will never get another day with Jordan, Dr. Loh’s words were meaningful to them and give them some comfort that he will put the University on the path to change the culture of the program so that no Terrapin family will have to endure the heartache and grief that they feel,” attorney Hassan Murphy said in a statement.
Loh and Evans both acknowledged that athletic trainers never properly diagnosed the heatrelated illness suffered by McNair.
Evans said McNair “did not receive appropriate medical care” that day, “and mistakes were made by some of our athletic training personnel.”
2 defensive backs decide to leave UT
Amid intense competition for playing time in the secondary, two Texas defensive backs have decided to transfer out of the program.
Senior safety John Bonney and sophomore cornerback Eric Cuffee both intend to transfer and will not compete for Texas during the coming season.
Bonney, a senior, played in 37 career games and made 15 starts for the Longhorns. He was originally offered a scholarship by Mack Brown and in December graduated with a degree in Corporate Communications.
Texas Tech announced Tuesday that Bonney would join the team as a graduate assistant. He is eligible to play immediately.