McNair family furious after Durkin reinstated as Maryland HC

The family of Jordan McNair is furious after Maryland head coach DJ Durkin was reinstated by the university's board of regents on Tuesday.

McNair was an offensive lineman at Maryland who died on June 13 from heatstroke suffered during a May 29 workout.

Marty McNair, Jordan's father, was outraged by the decision to reinstate Durkin.

"I feel like I've been punched in the stomach, and somebody spit in my face," McNair said, according to ESPN's Heather Dinich and Adam Rittenberg.

"I miss my son every day, and today, it just didn’t help,” McNair’s mother, Tonya Wilson said Tuesday to The Washington Post's Roman Stubbs, Emily Giambalvo, and Sarah Larimer.

"It didn’t help at all."

Durkin was placed on administrative leave on Aug. 11 after an ESPN report surfaced detailing that the football program engineered a toxic culture under his watch.

"We believe that Coach Durkin has been unfairly blamed for the dysfunction in the athletic department," USM board chair James T. Brady said at a Tuesday news conference. "While he bears some responsibility, it is not fair to place all of it at his feet."

Durkin's return to the team was not well-received. During a meeting Tuesday, three players walked out in disgust. Maryland offensive lineman Ellis McKennie also expressed his displeasure with Durkin's reinstatement on Twitter.

"The guy has lost all his power. Nobody respects the guy. I think that’s going to be Durkin’s greatest challenge, is reestablishing himself as a leader," an unnamed source told the Post.

McNair's parents' attorney, Hassan Murphy, also released a statement Tuesday.

"The university has an obligation to protect, to educate and to nurture every one of its students," Murphy said. "... Yet today, the board ratified and validated the heartbreaking actions by Coach Durkin and his staff toward Jordan in May, by continuing the employment of the man who failed in his primary responsibility to Jordan. That is callous and it is indefensible."

"How can a student-athlete be called a p---y as he is in the early stages of death, dying before their eyes, with no action taken, and yet no one be held accountable. The university had an obligation to keep its students safe, and it failed."

The university accepted legal and moral responsibility for McNair's death in August. An independent investigation found the university culpable in McNair's death during a September investigation.