Maryland prepares $3.5 million payout to McNair parents

Updated Jan. 16, 2021 1:54 p.m. ET

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — The University of Maryland has agreed to a $3.5 million settlement with the parents of football player Jordan McNair, who died of heatstroke following a workout in 2018.

The amount was made public on Friday in a meeting agenda released by the Maryland Board of Public Works. It must be approved at the board’s meeting on Jan. 27.

The payout will be given to McNair's parents, Marty McNair and Tonya Wilson.

Jordan McNair collapsed during an outdoor conditioning practice held by the team on May 29, 2018. The 19-year-old was treated at the team training complex before being transported to the hospital, where he died two weeks later, on June 13.

Wallace Loh, who was then president of the school, acknowledged that Maryland handled the treatment of Jordan McNair poorly.

“The university accepts legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes that our training staff made on that fateful day of May 29th,” Loh told reporters in August 2018. “They basically misdiagnosed the situation. No vital signs were taken. Other safeguarding actions were not taken. For me, that’s enough for me to say I need to come to personally apologize (to the McNair family)."

The death prompted an investigation into the details of McNair's treatment on the day he collapsed.

“There was a failure to identify escalating symptoms associated with exertional heat illness,” said Rod Walters, a sports medicine consultant, “including assessing vital signs, identifying the condition and aggressively treating the patient’s elevated core temperature. No apparatus was used for prompt cooling of the patient.”

The University eventually fired football coach DJ Durkin after accepting the resignation of Rick Court, the team's strength and conditioning coach.

Maryland also put in stringent guidelines for practices to assure such a mishap would not occur again.

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