University of Maryland reaches settlement with family of late football player Jordan McNair
Jace Evans
USA TODAY
The University of Maryland and the family of late football player Jordan McNair — who died in June 2018 of heatstroke suffered during a team workout — have reached agreement on a settlement.
The agreed-on settlement, which per The Washington Post requires approval by the Maryland Board of Public Works at the their next meeting (Jan. 27) to be finalized, is for $3.5 million.
McNair, 19, died two weeks after he was hospitalized after he suffered heatstroke during a late-May workout. An independent investigation revealed the offensive lineman failed to receive immediate and appropriate treatment for heat illness by the Maryland medical and training staff.
“Jordan did not receive appropriate medical care, and mistakes were made by athletic training personnel,” Maryland athletic director Damon Evans said in August 2018.
Then-university president Wallace Loh said then that the school “accepts legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes that our training staff made on that fateful workout day of May 29.”
Reports of a toxic culture within the Maryland program emerged in the wake of McNair’s death, prompting a separate investigation. Coach D.J. Durkin was placed on administrative leave but was reinstated in October 2018 on the recommendation of the Maryland Board of Regents after the investigation concluded there was not a “toxic” culture but one “where problems festered because too many players feared speaking out.”
Backlash to the decision to retain Durkin was significant, and Maryland fired the coach the next day.
“This has been a long and painful fight, but we will attempt to find closure even though this is a wound that will never, ever fully heal,” Marty McNair and Tonya Wilson, Jordan’s parents, said of the settlement Friday night in a statement provided to ESPN by their attorney.
“We are focused on honoring Jordan’s legacy so that his death was not in vain. This includes protecting student athletes of all levels of competition, increasing awareness, education, and prevention of all heat related illnesses, empowering student athletes, and introducing legislation nationwide so that no parent should have to wait this long for closure where their child has been treated unfairly or unjustly.”
