It might have taken Rutgers University officials longer than most people would’ve liked, but the decision to fire men’s basketball coach Mike Rice was the correct call.
Last week, ESPN’s Outside the Lines ”“ an award-winning investigative sports journalism program ”“ aired a story regarding alleged abuse of players by former Rutgers’ coach Rice.
The program showed disturbing video of Rice pushing players during practice, throwing balls at their legs and heads, and verbally assaulting them with homophobic slurs. This was apparently done in an effort to motivate his players to play better.
The university originally saw the footage in December and chose at that time to only suspend Rice for three games and fine him. Last Wednesday, the university administration chose to fire Rice after the university listened to the considerable public outcry for his ouster.
The school’s athletic director, Tim Pernetti, two days later stepped down, and said in his official statement to the media that he regretted not overriding school officials in December to fire Rice.
Pernetti said in his press statement that at the time of the initial showing of the videos, “Rutgers chose instead to follow a process involving university lawyers, human resources professionals and outside counsel. The consensus was that the university policy would not justify dismissal. I have regretted my role in, and regret for, that decision.”
Pernetti and all university officials who viewed the tape should be disgraced by their decision not to fire Rice in December. Instead, they allowed him to continue coaching and abusing his players.
We understand that college athletics earn universities millions of dollars, and that these players and coaches are performing at high levels and are under a lot of pressure. That, however, does not condone any coach to use physical force or to verbally abuse any player in the name of winning. There is no place in our society for any of that behavior. We also feel for the students involved because they are essentially at the will of the university, and probably felt they didn’t have a choice but to endure it. Yes, most players on the team are receiving scholarships to play, but most of them feel they have no place to which to turn if they want to continue playing basketball at the collegiate level. They do not want to become black-listed for walking out of a program or appearing undisciplined to other coaches.
Bobby Knight, who coached the Indiana Hoosiers to three National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball titles, was known as a heavy-handed coach who used mental tricks and constant screaming to coach his successful teams.
His career came to an end at Indiana in the early 2000s when video surfaced of him choking one of his players during practice. There was some debate at the time of his firing about whether or not his actions were appropriate and acceptable because Knight was trying to run a top-level basketball program that produced years of winning teams. Many of his supporters at the time blew the episode off as “Knight just being Knight” and instilling discipline in his team.
It is never acceptable for a coach to aggressively put his hands on a player at any time, however, and we as a society should always be vigilant to prevent this. Obviously, there are circumstances where a coach will need to grab or touch a player when demonstrating, in basketball for example, how to set a hard pick or the proper way to box out. Those moments are part of the game, which is a contact sport. Football coaches will need to demonstrate proper blocking and tackling techniques to their players, so contact will be involved. Those are skill-teaching moments, and they’re different from physical abuse.
Rutgers did finally make the right decision to fire Rice, but it’s too bad it took it so long for them to do so.
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Today’s editorial was written by Sports Editor Al Edwards on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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