University with a spotty football history (perhaps attributable to Bear Bryant's leaving the place over 60 years ago) and an unquenched thirst to hit the bigtime.
Hires aggressive young coach with pedigree. University hires aggressive strength and conditioning coach. All universities do it -- musclehead motivators who are employed by the athletic department and can have contact with the players all year round. In contrast, team coaches have limits as to when they may be in contact with players. Strength and conditioning coaches are well paid; I would submit that there are a few out there who make more than their university presidents. They have a lot of power, in essence serving as the eyes and ears and factotums for the head coaches when the head coaches are not permitted to be in contact with players. These strength and conditioning coaches are not shrinking violets.
Young kid is big, gets a reputation for being able to move opponents around against their will on a football field. Many coaches sweet talk his parents. If the parents have been around the block, they realize that their kids' reality will change markedly once they join a football program. They will go from the romanced to bound by a strict regimen, a class schedule that must not conflict with football and a commitment to be on campus year-round so that they can benefit from the oversight of the nutrition and fitness efforts of the university. They get a full scholarship for this commitment, a laughably tiny stipend for incidentals, all the while the head coach makes millions, the assistant coaches make very nice livings and at times the kids don't have money for pizza. Each recruiter, including many a head coach, promises the parents -- and at times there is only one in the picture -- that he will take care of their son and help him grow into a better person through the development of strong habits and character. So goes the story line.
Jordan McNair died on a practice field in blistering Maryland summer heat in the summer of 2018. He was 19 years old. He wasn't feeling well in practice. Instead of adhering to protocols to make sure that he was not suffering from dehydration or an overly high body temperature, the athletic trainers were absent and the strength and conditioning coach bullied him. He died a few weeks later in a hospital. The university suspended the head football coach, head athletic trainer and strength and conditioning coach. They subsequently let go the strength and conditioning coach, paying him a settlement to take his talents elsewhere.
Yesterday, the University of Maryland shocked the world. The university president wanted to terminate the athletic director and head coach after a 192-page report that the board of regents had commissioned painted a dire picture of the culture within the football program at Maryland. The board of regents felt otherwise. Perhaps because they love the head coach and think he is a good fit and that what happened was a lamentable aberration. Perhaps because they got legal advice that they do not have a case for terminating the head coach for cause and that they would have to pay him over $10 million to part company were they to want to negotiate a settlement. Perhaps because in this day and age they figure that the next scandal will eclipse this one, everyone will forget about their decision and the storm will pass and that they have enough power and support to weather it. Perhaps because, while football parents protested and several players walked out of a meeting with the newly reinstated head coach, a larger core threatened to pull their kids out of school and off the team if the head coach were not reinstated. It is hard to know. The university president, by the way, lost the political and was forced out, announcing his retirement at the end of the year. He should have quit on the spot and sued the university for everything it has.
This episode further buttresses my long-standing maxim that I never wanted to send my kids to a school where a coach has too much power and makes more than the university president. Universities are supposed to educate kids meaningfully and to set standards for good behavior and the building of better character. What happened yesterday with the decision of the board of regents abandoned those lofty goals and revealed that the board of regents does not have much character at all. The death of a player -- in a toxic culture -- happened on the watch of this athletic director and this head football coach. It should not have happened. The entire football program owes a responsibility to all its players and it let not only the family of the deceased player down, but also the players who remain and their families. How can they trust this athletic director, this coach, this board of regents?
The answer is that they cannot. The University of Maryland has made a mess of this situation and has demonstrated that something is rotten within it and its culture. They should have cleaned house, they should have read the report more carefully and they should have realized that the culture this head coach created was so bad that someone died. Yes, this coach is worth a second chance somewhere in some type of job -- he made a grave mistake, many grave mistakes. Just not at Maryland and not right now.
The very sad truth right now is that had the head football coach put his hand on the breast of a cheerleader he would have lost his job. But create a harassing culture that causes a death?
He gets to keep it.
How does that make any sense at all?
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