Last week, the University of Maryland made the absolutely shocking and unbelievable announcement that football coach D.J. Durkin was being reinstated from administrative leave. That lasted all of a day before Maryland's president made the decision (on his own) to fire Durkin. Why that decision wasn't reached immediately is beyond me. Just like it's beyond me how any reasonable person could think that there was any other decision to be made.
It shouldn't have even been a question. Durkin had to go. Their own investigation even discovered some disturbing things about the football program and the culture surrounding it (but refused to call it "toxic")! Yet they refused to blame Durkin! In fact, they even went so far as to publicly say "We believe Coach Durkin has been unfairly blamed for the dysfunction in the athletic department. While he bears some responsibility, it is not fair to place it all at his feet." It's unfair? He bears SOME responsibility? He's the freakin' head coach, and a player died during a workout! The fact that he wasn't running the workout is irrelevant.
As if that wasn't screwed up enough, the Board told the university president that if he didn't reinstate Durkin, he would be the one fired! Talk about wrong priorities. For whatever reason, the Board was all in on Durkin and didn't want to admit the obvious. So, they bullied the only guy in the room who knew what had to happen into doing what they wanted.
To his credit, Maryland President Wallace Loh made it clear that reinstating Durkin wasn't his choice. He threw the Board completely under the bus when making the announcement, as if he anticipated the backlash that was coming. At the same time, Loh announced his retirement effective June 30. It's probably safe to say that he was gently pushed out.
Not surprisingly, Durkin's reinstatement didn't go over well. But that's what happens when the only people who think the guy should be brought back are the handful of morons actually making the call. Players walked out of Durkin's first team meeting back. Student groups planned protests. The McNair family threatened further legal action. Politicians made it a campaign issue (and it actually IS politicians' business in this case since Maryland is a state school that gets state funds). Pretty much everyone with a functioning brain criticized them for their idiotic decision.
Idiotic. Embarrassing. Tone-deaf. Choose your adjective. It was the wrong decision all around. Everybody other than a few Maryland Board members knew that. And immediately after Loh made the announcement, the marriage between D.J. Durkin and Maryland was doomed. And is was also destined not to end well.
What surprised me even more than the Board reinstating the coach was what happened next. Durkin was back at work for not even a day before he was fired. This time Loh took it upon himself to do what should've been done all along. The decision to fire Durkin was 100 percent his own. That was abundantly clear. Loh knew what had to be done. He didn't care what the repercussions would be.
Yet the Board continued to be completely clueless about the situation. They argued that Loh "caved to public pressure," but acknowledged that he had the authority to fire Durkin on his own. Loh didn't fire Durkin to make the public happy. He fired him because Durkin deserved to be fired. His statement to the Maryland community that said "a departure is in the best interest of the university" made it seem like that and was very kind to Durkin. But he did what had to be done. Plain and simple. The difference is that the public recognized that and the Board didn't.
When I say "the Board," I really mean Board Chairman Jim Brady. Because the boneheaded decision to retain Durkin was almost entirely at his urging. And Jim Brady was trying to protect "his" guy. Plain and simple. He was looking out for his own interests over those of the university. How could you trust any of his recommendations moving forward?
In the last act of the saga, Brady resigned less than 24 hours after Durkin was fired. His statement, however, was a joke: "In recent days, I have become the public face of both the board and its decision related to these matters. In my estimation, my continued presence on the board will inhibit its ability to move Maryland's higher education agenda forward. And I have no interest in serving as a distraction from that important work."
Please, Jim. You're not the victim here. Jordan McNair is. And the fact that you failed to realize that means you had no business serving as the chairman of a major university's board in the first place. You're right about one thing. You did become the public face of the controversy. But that's because you made yourself that face by threatening the university president into making the wrong decision simply because that's what you wanted. And, if you hadn't resigned, you were likely going to be removed by the governor (who, again, can do that at a state university). For good reason.
Now the University of Maryland can begin the process of moving forward. Jordan McNair didn't get justice. That's not really possible. But the people who needed to be held accountable for his death were. The right thing was done. Even if it took a few days.
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