Wow, and taking the reins in the battle for worst off season imaginable, University of Maryland's head coach, head football trainer, and two other staff members have been put on administrative leave effective immediately as a very "prompt" and very thorough investigation is launched into the toxic team atmosphere that resulted in a player's death back in June following liver failure from extreme dehydration and heat stroke, a failed liver transplant, and a two week coma. Head football trainer Wes Robinson is quoted to have said of the player, who was struggling to maintain consciousness during 110 yard sprints, "drag his ass across that field!" After the "walk it off method" failed to lower his body temperature, EMTs who were called to the facility called the hospital for a player experiencing a seizure. The player's seizure was unreported by the coaching and training staff in any report made to the university regarding the incident.
Other reports from current and former staff members and players describe players being forced to eat until they puke in an attempt to get them to gain weight, then eat some more; players who were deemed to be overweight being forced to sit and watch workouts while being force fed candy bars to humiliate them for being fat; players being called thieves for having been awarded scholarships and deemed to be underperforming or "not good enough" to deserve the university's money; and being called racial slurs by coaching staff and trainers alike.
You know, I remember this movie. It came out in 1998. Really dumb movie, but poignant to me at the time, because it reminded me so much of my own school sports career (we had a coach just like Kilmer, and everyone idolized him like he was GOD himself). He was driven off in a similar fashion as well - got too cruel one season and the team quit on him and stopped hiding his abuse. I would ask how we got to a place like this, but I think I know the answer pretty well by now. Money and power.