Mike Rice, the Rutgers men’s basketball coach, was fired today because a video of him throwing basketballs at and verbally abusing his players went viral. The school probably figures we should all just move along now, there’s nothing more to see here.
Except there is. Let’s see some real accountability.
Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti said that he erred by not firing Rice in December after the university investigated the incidents. Rutgers President Robert Barchi said he agreed with the independent investigator’s recommendation that Rice be suspended, fined and get counseling for anger management.
OK, so what wasn’t a firing offense in December suddenly is in April when the university gets embarrassed by a video supplied by Eric Murdock, formerly the director of player development on Rice’s staff. Murdock is no longer a Rutgers’ employee because his contract was not renewed after coming forward with the original complaint. The school said his firing was unrelated, the result of “insubordination.” Meanwhile, the literal whistleblower went on his merry way until the school started to sing a different tune Wednesday.
This saga is disturbing on so many fronts.
As a parent of two boys in college, I would expect that any school would readily rid itself of an employee who would abuse kids. And make no mistake, it is abuse. Don’t get sidetracked by factoring in that these are scholarship athletes, the coach is paid to win games and the basketball team is there to promote the brand. They still are young men. How long would it take for a chemistry professor to be canned for throwing a beaker at a student or grabbing him by the collar in an effort to get him to focus?
If students exhibited the same boorish behavior by Rice in a public setting, they’d be called thugs. Hot-headed coaches are celebrated; hot-headed athletes are angry and ostracized. Coaches get a pass because they effectively wield their power as generally the highest-paid employee on campus and because of the outdated uber-macho mindset prevalent in sports. There is no manual that says a coach must abuse his players in order to be effective, and student-athletes should not have to accept that behavior as normal.
