Abusive Rutgers Basketball Coach Mike Rice

[Robbie]

Recently, there was a lot of talk as to whether Rutgers Basketball Coach Mike Rice should be fired for abusing his players. There were opposing views. Obviously, the abuse was not sexual so by no means does it fall in the same category as Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno and their crimes. Rice's abuse were in the form of verbal and physical.

In a university environment, if a professor throws a book at a student, then there's a good chance that he will be fired, suspended, or at least a severe warning and reprimand. But in the athletic field, there's slightly more leeway because it's in a competitive environment and to an extent it's okay for coaches to yell at their players. What's considered crossing the line? Perhaps obscenities in the form racial or gay slurs. And in the case of Rice, shoving and throwing balls at them.

And these are not young boys, they are strong young men so I highly doubt they were hurt physically although their pride would certainly be at stake.

I suppose that's still the case of military drill instructors and their recruits. Is it okay for football and basketball coaches to act like drill instructors?

Personally, I think it right for Rutgers to fire Rice because of the continuous warnings in the form of suspensions and fines that were given to him. Firing him after just one incident might be going to far, but he had more than a few chances and according to the university, Rutgers believed in rehabilitation. But in the end, I guess Rutgers President Robert Barchi let Rice go to avoid another incident like an irresponsible superior in the form of Joe Paterno.

[WestCoastJoe]

Times change, Robbie.

Bobby Knight was a complete a**hole with his players, with the media, and even with fans. It took a long time for him to get fired.

Too much power. No accountability. "Power corrupts." I agree. At least it corrupts a good percentage of the people given great power. Athletes. Movie stars. Musicians. Politicians. Coaches. Religious leaders. Even teachers and scout leaders, et cetera. Managers. Bosses. Male and female. All are vulnerable.

I looked at the tape of Mike Rice. He should have been fired for sure.

Forty years ago managers of stores could get away with abusive behaviour. Lining all the workers up before the store opened and ripping into them all. Making the young female workers cry, and laughing about it later.

Ego trips. Well it is less and less tolerated. And that is a good thing about the evolution of our society.

Many issues remain in the evolution of the human species ...

Stop bullying. Stop war mongering. Stop prescribing too many drugs. Stop racism. Stop sexism. Stop violence. Stop making people want to buy things they don't need. Stop feeding people too much sugar. Stop making people feel inferior if they don't have, or do, or whatever ...
..............

Here is one issue ... I occasionally ask people who favour medical research on animals for the benefit of humans: "Doesn't that imply that if a species superior to humans developed on this planet (unlikely of course), or came from another planet (possible?), that they would be justified "morally" in doing medical reseach on humans for their benefit?" I am not sure that we have the "right" to do such research. My feeling is that we do not have that "right."

[TheLionKing]

The Sports Director became a casuality when he resigned. He knew of the video back in November but did nothing.

[Toppy Vann]

The only reason people take crap from coaches like this is the control they have over them in college combined at times with the thinking that it can get you to the pros (espec. if the univer. and coach have a good record that way. Rutgers is a bit surprising.

One of my soccer players was offered a youth contract in Eng with a Premier League Club with a youth coach who slapped players and roughly handled them all the time. Why it was tolerated that the players felt they had no choice and this same coach the prior year had got 6 youth players sold to other top EPL teams where they made the top team!

I never saw this in youth sports nor in senior amateur - beyond a coach yelling nor at SFU and not in wrestling, football, soccer or basketball or swimming where I knew both coaches and athletes. Wrestling at SFU under Mike Jones had to be the best team on campus with coaches and players highly supportive of all.

Henrik Larssen says it is bad in the EPL and he heard this homophobic stuff all the time- he's straight. I am not sure why their teams and team mates support this stuff. Fans in some places are bad as know but the teams should be better.

Marco Iannuzz is doing his part

http://www.straight.com/life/367141/you ... y-athletes

I retweeted this and got a very nice exchange of messages from Marco thanking me. He is a terrific person.

[cromartie]

The only reason Bobby Knight got away with what he did for as long as he did was because he won. Mike Rice didn't, so it should have been an easy decision to dismiss him.

The Sports Director became a casuality when he resigned. He knew of the video back in November but did nothing.

This isn't true. The Athletic Director, along with the University President, fined Rice $50k suspended him for three games, and ordered him to anger management counseling after viewing the tape. The clear intent was to send Rice a message and sweep this under the rug.

Once the tape was leaked, however, the ADs fate was sealed, if for no other reason than the University President was going to throw him under the bus to save his own behind. Whether this is the end of it or not, we don't know.

It's one thing to criticize a person for their performance, even in a derogatory manner. It's another thing to insult a person by calling them 'faggots' or any other type of discriminatory slur and hurl basketballs or other objects at them in anger. Rice should know better.

Probably the best thing that can happen for the Rutgers program now is for Lawrence Frank to get out of his job coaching the Pistons to take over that program. It would do both plenty of good. He's a New Jersey guy, his family still lives there, and the Pistons are going nowhere fast with him.

[Sir Purrcival]

Times change is right.

Coaches have two very distinct roles both of which are equally important.

1. They are there to instruct athletes in the finer points of whatever discipline they are coaching
2. They are there to teach young people the broader values of respect, sportsmanship and teamwork.

Unfortunately, the power of the position can also result in what i consider to be extortion. If you are a hopeful professional athlete in training, you don't have much of a leg to stand on when your coach goes over the line. If you defend yourself, you find yourself benched, off the team, blackballed, maybe lose your scholarship and there is nothing you can do about it. If anyone remembers the Tom Cruise movie, "All the Right Moves", you had one of these in your face, shout and intimidate coaches very nearly ruin the future of a young athlete. His crime? He had of all things the temerity to criticize his coach in defense of one of his fellow team mates who was upset about a big loss. Of course it was over dramatized so that even a dead horse might "get it" but in some ways it rings very true of today's young athlete. They are still beholden to their coaches good opinion and for many, they have their all riding on getting through to the next level. In short, the coach is in a position of power and if they can't self manage, then it is up to the administrations of the schools and leagues to make sure their behaviour is appropriate. Aside from possibly the military, I can't think of a single workplace where that kind of behaviour would be acceptable. In fact, someone behaving like that would not only not have a job, but would likely be escorted from the building and maybe taken to the local hospital for assessment or arrested for uttering threats.

In short, it is disgusting behaviour for a grown individual to wantonly display in the name of success (he had a sub 500 record at Rutgers by the way). As long as Coaches are allowed to have a more lax standard on their behaviour than anyone else, we will continue to see the Penn State type situation occur where things that should not have been allowed to continue did. As a father, you might wonder how he would react if he saw his children being bullied the way he treated his charges.