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ESPN.com cover story - “Toxic” football culture at MD under Durkin


scarey1999

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34 minutes ago, Satyr3206 said:

While I feel for the McNair Family, I'm not sure about the other things stated in the story. Have they been verified?

Playing any sport at a high level is tough. And demanding.

I'll wait and see what happens.

Who’s going to verify them? The school? The third-party investigation that’s being treated like a joke, allegedly? Durkin? ESPN’s article drew in multiple sources, both still with the program and not, both athletes and people around the program.

 

Playing any sport at a high level is tough and demanding. What’s described in this piece is a country mile beyond tough and demanding. They worked a kid to death. Court and Durkin at a minimum should be gone. 

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6 hours ago, J.D. said:

Who’s going to verify them? The school? The third-party investigation that’s being treated like a joke, allegedly? Durkin? ESPN’s article drew in multiple sources, both still with the program and not, both athletes and people around the program.

 

Playing any sport at a high level is tough and demanding. What’s described in this piece is a country mile beyond tough and demanding. They worked a kid to death. Court and Durkin at a minimum should be gone. 

Do you really think that any Coach would intentionally "work a kid to death"? I find that hard to believe. Unfortunately, in today's world all people need is someone to blame and then here come the Lawyers.

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2 hours ago, Satyr3206 said:

Do you really think that any Coach would intentionally "work a kid to death"? I find that hard to believe. Unfortunately, in today's world all people need is someone to blame and then here come the Lawyers.

Durkin and the strength coaches are not the victims here.

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3 hours ago, Satyr3206 said:

Do you really think that any Coach would intentionally "work a kid to death"? I find that hard to believe. Unfortunately, in today's world all people need is someone to blame and then here come the Lawyers.

No one said they intentionally "worked a kid to death". 

However, the reality is that the perception changes a lot where they are completely over the top in the name of changing the culture to toughen up the players to win more games when a kid dies as a result.   Whether it is before or after the season, I don't expect Durkins, Evans or Loh to survive.  It is incredible that Evan was hired after this incident. 

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3 hours ago, Satyr3206 said:

Do you really think that any Coach would intentionally "work a kid to death"? I find that hard to believe. Unfortunately, in today's world all people need is someone to blame and then here come the Lawyers.

Negligence has always been the most common tort, even before "today's world," and negligence has never been in "intentional" tort.

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I'm not sure why anybody is able to keep their job.  From the AD all the way down to the S&C coach?  

What has any of them done to where one would say, "Hey, this is bad, but lets not jump to conclusions."  None of them have any clout built up.  The AD does nothing but give out horrible contracts (see Turgeon) and make either horrible hires (see Turgeon again) or hires that are still on the fence but not looking the best (see Durkin).  

When none of the parties have a positive leg to stand on, you don't get to say ,"Oh, and here's a PR disaster for good measure." 

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I've read a lot about this situation and it's pretty sad and disheartening because I thought Durkin had the team going in the right direction. 

As a father of a former University of Maryland athlete (wrestling), I know all about kids being pushed hard, but everything about this situation screams "coaches out of control". I'm not worried about the yelling because all coaches at that level do that sort of things, but if a kid was literally having uncontrolled body actions and the coaching staff was still having him keep going, they are out of control.

This isn't about being soft or not trying to push you athletes to be their best, this is a clear case of not understanding how to identify when a young man's body can no longer keep going. 

That's a coaching problem and considering the lack of success Durkin has had here since he's arrived and the fact he can't even field a team that can even compete with the big boys without getting destroyed, and he still has a culture like this, I don't see how he can survive this situation with his job.

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