A bill aimed at preventing student athletes' heat-related deaths was proposed Tuesday by Maryland lawmakers.
Introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD), the legislation honors University of Maryland football player Jordan McNair, who died of heatstroke in 2018. It would require college athletic programs to create action plans to avoid heat-related illnesses and deaths.
“With this legislation, it's common sense. It requires all of our colleges to have a plan in place to deal with the realities of heat,” Cardin said.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is an original co-sponsor of the Senate legislation.
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McNair was at a University of Maryland football practice in 2018 when he collapsed from heatstroke. He waited about 90 minutes until he arrived at a nearby hospital in critical condition and died two weeks later. His father, Martin McNair, has been advocating ever since.
"No parent in America sends their student athlete away to college for them to be abused, mentally, physically or in our case worse,” Martin McNair said on Capitol Hill in 2021.
Martin McNair said this legislation creates a standard for heat-related legislation at a federal level.
“We want something that works, it's consistent and we can kind of use this as a template all the way across the board,” McNair said.
Under this new law, college athletic programs would be required to work with local emergency responders to create action plans. They would also need to have cold-water immersion equipment for emergencies.
“I never thought that he’d really be the poster boy for student athlete safety you know, across the nation,” Martin McNair said. “I’m still amazed and humbled by the work that we do.”
According to the Jordan McNair Foundation, at least 34 NCAA athletes have died of heat-related injuries or illnesses since 2000.
