(photo via wikipedia, edited with photoshop)
It was announced yesterday that the Board of Directors for the University of Maryland had decided to reinstate their Head Football Coach, D.J. Durkin, effective immediately. There has been an uproar from students, families and communities alike due to this decision. And rightfully so.
D.J. Durkin was placed on administrative leave due to the fact that one of his student athletes, Jordan McNair, experienced heatstroke during a practice and subsequently died from the effects.
It was released after a thorough examination that not only did the team doctors not effectively give aid to McNair when he was experiencing the symptoms, but Durkin and his staff did not as well. They continued to push him, thus resulting in his untimely death.
After the Board of Directors studied the situation, they felt that the best course of action was to reinstate Durkin. And I believe this decision was based on one thing alone: Money.
It is a travesty that the University has decided to do this. One of the main objectives of the Head Coach for a football team; hell a coach at any level, is to make sure that the safety of one his players is priority one. Not winning games. Not making a name for himself. Safety.
Coaches go into the homes of prospective athletes and tell the parents of the child that not only are they the right coach and right university to help their child succeed, but also that they will protect them from harms way. There are some things, obviously, that they cannot prevent. There are tragic car accidents, homicides, etc. that a coach would have no way to prevent. However, when an athlete is showing signs of possibly dying, your first instinct should not be to push them harder. Safety is paramount.
It is a shame that the University has come to this decision and the family of McNair and his fellow teammates are outraged, and rightfully so. It is rumored that many players walked out of the first meeting with Durkin back in the helm. I commend the family and athletes for doing something that the supposed adults should be doing: standing up for an injustice.
I truly hope the University will see the err in their ways and make the right decision. Everyone deserves a second chance. But someone who is culpable in the death of an athlete should not be afforded the opportunity to be a leader of young men when they refused to protect them in the first place. How will he be able to go into homes and tell the families of future athletes that he will be able to protect them and make sure they are safe? He cannot.
If you are looking for a link to the article, you can find it here:
http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/25133811/demand-justice-jordan-mcnair
so many stopped posting the last few months, looked at your account and it looks like you are not really active anymore as well. Hope you still come online sometimes to look at my NBA posts.
If you like you can always at me to autovote so you will get some return on your upovotes longterm, have a good one
@heyitshaas yeah, I'll definitely check it out. I've been doing some traveling and have been quite busy at my day-to-day job. But trust me, I'm not gone. I've been quite wrong in how I expected the season to go so far, especially in regards to Toronto and Utah.