The parents of Jordan McNair told “Good Morning America” Thursday that University of Maryland football coach DJ Durkin “shouldn’t be able to work with anybody else’s kid” after McNair collapsed during a team workout and later died.
Durkin is currently on administrative leave as the university continues an investigation into the events leading up to McNair’s heatstroke death in June.
Maryland took full “legal and moral” responsibility for McNair’s death, according to university President Wallace D. Loh at a press conference Tuesday.
It isn’t enough for the grieving parents. McNair’s father, Martin, said he wants Durkin to be fired.
“You send your kid away to college for them to be developed into young people — and that’s physically, emotionally and spiritually,” Mr. McNair said. “And teach our young kids, our young people that we worked so hard to get there, to, ’Hey, I’m giving my child to you. Keep him safe.’ They did anything but that, so of course he should be fired.”
The player’s mother, Tonya Wilson, referred to allegations of a “toxic” team culture reported by ESPN in explaining that her son would have pushed himself to the limit to please his coaches.
“Jordan was the type of person who would give his all, give his best, because someone asked him to do something,” she said. “He would always give his all. He wouldn’t have stopped. He wouldn’t have stopped. If that’s the culture, he didn’t want to be called any names, things that they say they’ve been called.”
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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