Last week, University of Rutgers’ men’s basketball coach, Mike Rice was fired for deplorable conduct against his team’s players.
A video first released by the ESPN program, Outside the Lines, captured Rice physically and verbally abusing his players. Rice is seen throwing basketballs at players, shoving and hitting them. In audio from the tape, Rice can be heard using homophobic slurs to belittle the players on the court for not performing to his standards.
The footage was rather shocking and led to Rice’s dismissal. University of Rutgers’ Athletic Director Tim Pernetti was also removed from the program for failing to properly deal with the evidence after it was presented to him, choosing to handle the matter internally instead of reporting the incident through the proper NCAA channels.
Coaching is an emotional ride. The extreme highs and lows generated from wins and losses can easily affect one’s judgment in search of success. But it is clear that Rice has more than crossed the boundary of motivating players into harassment.
This is not the first high profile case of questionable conduct by men’s college basketball coaches. Bob Knight once threw a chair onto the court because he disagreed with a call and once choked one of his players on the sidelines.
More recently, former Texas Tech coach Billy Gillispie left his post as head basketball coach citing health concerns. Though his concerns were valid, he also was under investigation for allegations by multiple people in the program of player and staff misconduct. So although the footage from Rutgers was unfortunate, it is hard to say that it should surprise the public that this type of thing occurs.
I have played soccer since I was four years old and have played at highly competitive levels since I was about 14. I have been chewed out and screamed at for underperforming, but that was only to motivate me to perform my best. At no point have I been threatened physically by a coach. This is something that no player, especially a student athlete, should have to fear while representing their team.
Coaches are constantly in the hot seat. If they do not win, they do not have a job. Their livelihoods are on the line, and some will do just about anything to get a victory.
That is why we have the Mike Rices, Bob Knights and Billy Gillispies – they cannot see the difference between winning and what is morally incorrect. Would they take back what they did? One would hope. But the NCAA needs to figure out a way to better monitor coaches so these problems can be avoided.
