McNair’s death highlighted on HBO ‘Real Sports’ investigation
The death of Maryland football player Jordan McNair played a central part in a report by HBO’s “Real Sports” looking into the role of college football strength coaches.
The 21-minute report, one of three stories that aired on the HBO show Tuesday night, started and ended with McNair’s parents, Martin McNair and Tonya Wilson, being interviewed.
Their19-year-old son, a redshirt freshman offensive lineman, died June 13, 15 days after suffering heatstroke during a team condi- tioning test.
The McNairs, who have created a foundation in their son’s name, have also appeared on ABC, CNN and ESPN to speak out about his death.
The HBO report never mentioned DJ Durkin by name, identifying him only as “the head coach of the University of Maryland” who recruited McNair out of McDonogh.
Wilson said the coach “made a promise that he would treat Jordan as one of his kids and make sure nothing happens to him and make sure he’s OK.”
The report said McNair died after an “intensive conditioning session” in which “he and and his teammates were made to run sprints of 100 yards over and over and over.”
According to initial reports from the university, which were confirmed Friday in a 74-page external review conducted by Walters Inc., a South Carolina-based sports medicine consulting firm, the test consisted of 10 110-yard sprints.
Martin McNair said his son went from “a healthy kid Tuesday to you’re talking about a liver transplant Wednesday afternoon and we’re still trying to grapple with, ‘What happened?’ I didn’t even know what a heatstroke was.”
The HBO report said Jordan McNair was “heckled” by a trainer as he struggled to finish the drill. Though not identified by name on either HBO or the external review, Walters identified the person to be Maryland’s head football trainer.
Football trainer Wes Robinson and Steve Nordwall, the associate athletic director for football performance, have been on administrative leave since Aug. 10. Durkin has been on leave since Aug. 11, a day after ESPN published a damning story on its website about Maryland’s “toxic” football culture.