A swarm of media attention has developed this past week regarding Mike Rice and his three-year tenure as head coach of the Rutgers men’s college basketball team, largely due to the circulation of a leaked video, via ESPN’s Outside The Lines program, that showed Rice’s use of vulgar language and abusive actions which ultimately led to his firing.
In the video, Rice is seen throwing basketballs at full force towards his players, hitting their bodies and heads; pushing them around; and using profane and homophobic slurs. Repercussions from the video being leaked have ended the careers of Rice, Rutgers’ men’s basketball assistant coach Jimmy Martelli and Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti.
Martelli was also seen in the same video treating players on the team abusively, which earned him the media nickname of “Mike Rice Jr.” After the scrutiny he received, he resigned. The same action was taken by Pernetti last Friday. Pernetti was also panned due to his knowledge of Rice’s abusive coaching style, handing him only a three-game suspension with a $50,000 fine instead of firing him.
This is an absolute atrocity for college sports.
As seen in the video, Rice’s actions were beyond what is acceptable of a coach at any level. His job is not only to make the men on his team better basketball players, but he is supposed to be a role model to these young men. His behavior only teaches them how to be vulgar and abusive.
Anybody who has played or coached any sport at any level understands the proper conduct between players and coaches. There should be a mutual level of respect between the two. Players should listen, follow instructions and give 100 percent to the team and its cause. The coach should be constructive, teach the players how to grow in their sport, and beyond all, should be trustworthy. It is evident that Rice did not have respect for his players, and it is impossible to think the student athletes he coached at Rutgers could trust him. Even worse than that, there’s no way a player in Rice’s system during his tenure could have felt safe in his presence, on or off the court. His actions in the video are nearly psychotic. The language he uses is worse than a sailor’s. How this man even got a job is beyond my process of thinking.
There are plenty of great coaches out there at the professional, collegiate and high school levels, and Mike Rice gives a bad name to each and every one of them. Because of this fiasco, athletic directors will be on high alert with their sports teams, critical to all coaches and do everything in their power to ensure incidents like this don’t occur at their institution. I wouldn’t be surprised if some athletic directors even went to the extent of giving applicants for coaching positions mental or psychiatric evaluations because of what transpired last week at Rutgers.
People like Mike Rice hurt sports. His actions hurt the morales of humans, especially his former players. A man in his position should never overuse his power, resorting to violence and abuse to mold the minds of collegiate athletes. It’s disgusting. Under no circumstance should a man like this be hired for a coaching position.