ESPN Report: Maryland Terrapins Football Has “Toxic Culture”

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In a report published by ESPN, DJ Durkin and the Maryland Terrapins’ football program has a “toxic culture”.

After 19-year-old offensive lineman Jordan McNair tragically passed away following a Maryland Terrapins football practice, several investigations began to figure out the culture of Terps’ football. One investigation was put in place by ESPN and unfortunately, the findings were disturbing.

In ESPN’s report, released on August 10th, reporters Heather Dinich, Adam Rittenberg and Tom VanHaaren found a “toxic culture” in College Park under head coach DJ Durkin. Current players and people close to the program unveiled several things that were troubling, things that go beyond the normal hard-nosed football culture. Per the report, Maryland’s strength and conditioning coach Rick Court was one of the main culprits.

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Examples of ESPN’s findings:

-“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 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.”

Maryland denied to make Durkin and Court available for a response. However, the university said that “the alleged behaviors raised in the ESPN story are troubling and not consistent with our approach to the coaching”.

Durkin, however, did send a letter to parents of current players making them aware of the ESPN report, per The Baltimore Sun.

McNair collapsed on May 29th after completing several 110-yard sprints. Prior to his collapse, he showed signs of exhaustion, per the report. He was transferred to Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore where he eventually passed away from heatstroke on June 13th. McNair’s body temperature was at 106 after arriving at the hospital.

In the wake of the scandal, Jeff Ermann of Inside MD Sports said “reverberations of this should shake all the way up the totem pole”.

https://twitter.com/Jeff_Ermann/status/1028089173541113857

Before he was announced as Maryland’s coach in December of 2015, Durkin was Jim Harbaugh‘s defensive coordinator at Michigan.

I’ve mentioned on the About What Matters podcast that football is in a tough spot right now — with head injuries and abuse at the forefront. This report, unfortunately, only reinforces my concerns. From the abuse shown recently on the third season of Last Chance U to the several reports over the last few years of player mistreatment, it’s clear that there’s a big problem with the culture of football. Some coaches, of course, do things the right way but it’s stuff like this that will make parents less likely to allow their kids to play the game.