Durkin fired
- Thread starter Purple Pile Driver
- Start date
What a weird series of events. At least there arrived to the right conclusion.
Probably had to do that so they could fire him. Honestly I felt that they would do some deal to buy out his contract. Since they had to reinstate him I doubt they could come up with grounds to make it so they did not have to pay him.
Not. Apparently the Board reacted to pressure from the Governor and the student body otherwise Durkin would still be there. Those University Board members should not get too comfortable. They won't be in those positions for much longer.
Wow, totally stunned by this decision after the decision to reinstate him.
Boards are stupid. See also: Penn State Board...
Boards are stupid. See also: Penn State Board...
The Board was full on pro-Durkin and overruled President Loh who said Durkin needed to go. That's why Loh is retiring next year.
But the backlash today from players, students, politicians has been enormous. Total trainwreck how the board handled this. Board made it seem like football was more important than any other consideration here.
This.
The Board had nothing to do with this. All credit to the students for forcing the issue.
Great job by the students. Amazing that the Board was the only group in the country that couldn't see that this was the only acceptable outcome. The students should now turn their attention to the inept Board.
I’ve lost count of the number of times Maryland has tripped over their own dick on this process.
As opposed to the huge thumbs up the a$$es of the Regents. Embarrassment for my current home state. The outcry was tremendous
The board should be overseeing all of this and provide a check and balance to the nonsense under their purview. As seen at this institution and others, the board tried to, in fact, enable and perpetuate the madness. This needs to be stopped. Fortunately in this case, the people's voice prevailed.
The board failure doesn’t surprise me a bit. Most boards in higher ed are terribly inbred in terms of their thinking.
Wait didn’t Northwestern have pretty much the same thing happen and elected to keep the coach also rather then fire him? Football player goes down during conditioning and the school has an enept medical response before the player dies? Maryland was right to fire Durkin but why did Walker get to stay at NU?
You can call me troll all you want but it doesn’t change the facts in the case. Why did NU lose in court?
If you want to read up, then read up on the facts of that situation:
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/05/sports/football-northwestern-player-dies-at-practice.html
Court (and possibly other coaches) was (were) abusing Maryland's players. Don't compare that to what happened here, which was a tragedy.
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NU was having illegal workouts without qualified medical staff.
http://apps.northbynorthwestern.com/magazine/2016/spring/features/fallen-forgotten/
I’m just a guy that follows the program but this thread is comical people ripping Maryland when NU had the same issue.
That isn't what happened. Yes the NCAA changed the definition of voluntary workouts earlier that year and NU didn't meet that definition.
You're trying to make something that had happened regularly before that seem nefarious, when that isn't the case.
Trying to analogize what happened here to Maryland's situation is a disgrace. A lot of that situation was due to the "wild west" nature of college athletics in the end of the 90s when lots of players were taking supplements (banned with enforcement later). Several players died in those years from similar situations (heatstroke, hypothermia, etc.).
Lol, you may follow the program like I “follow” Michigan. You certainly are not a NU fan, so weigh in on topics you know not what you google.
So by not meeting the definition you mean illegal right? If you couldn’t report results back to the coaching staff why was there a need to film it? The film is embarrassing he is dying in the side of the field while the rest of the team is running wind sprints.
So you can’t be critical of what you follow? I had friends that played on the team in the late 90’s and my father in law is an alumnus so I go to games pretty regularly.
You only input ever is negative, that is called a troll. You sure as hell don’t pay for those tickets or support the team.
Several athletes died that year from similar causes, the only similarity was that they were all taking ephedrine.
Korey Stringer, Devaughn Darling, and Curtis Jones all died that year during practices and had been taking supplements with ephedrine, as had Wheeler.
It was banned by the NFL and NCAA thereafter.
If you actually followed the case, you'd know that Wheeler's mom was forced to accept the settlement from NU because a jury would have probably blamed the supplement maker and not NU. Therefore, the judge forced her to accept a settlement over a jury trial which could have resulted in her receiving nothing from the university.
I'm not going to engage on this further except to say that you're making a fool of yourself to compare the Wheeler situation to what's happening in Maryland.
The board was likely initially bringing him back because it will cost something like $5 mill to get rid of him. THe athletic department has definite money problems and they really don't get much in the way of BIG money for another couple years. Paying him that$5 million plus a new coach....They were hoping to find fault which would have given them an out but when none came out of the investigation....That left them on the hook and looking for a way to minimize their cost. I thought they would try to come up with a buyout. By firing him without cause they are now stuck for the full contract with a new contract for a new coach as well. And again before they get the BIG money. It will be interesting to see who they go after and it is likely to cost them dearly as it will be hard to get someone to come on board.....
This was not just about the death but about the toxic climate that was created. Walker was not at the practice and did not have the res including various forms of abuse.. The situation at NU was not as bad. Plus t happened 15 years ago and things have changed during that time
Ah yes, I forgot. In your opinion putting money ahead of doing what is right is not only acceptable but preferable.
That really isn't what happened at all.
I would urge you to go look at the words of the Board of Regents leaders and see that they went through this process determined to keep Durkin and shift blame away from him.
They talk in glowing terms about him as a young coach and wanting him to lead the team.
This was a football decision, as complex as the matter is, just focus on it as a football decision based on the actions and words of the board (not a legal decision or a monetary decision).
The board started from the endpoint of "we want to keep Durkin as coach" and then worked their way backwards to the result of forcing Loh into retirement to preserve Durkin.
It's only the public response (players, students, politicians) that's forced the board in an emergency reconsideration of that position which became untenable due to the national firestorm that it caused (players walking out on the team, alums to threaten to withhold donations, massive protests on campus, etc.).
There was nothing illegal about the workout in and of itself, both in terms of the nature of the workout or the staff present.
It’s a reflection of how out to touch they really were. They thought this would not be a big deal.