With the video out there there is no way he would win. None. And by fighting it it would show that he thinks he did nothing wrong, something other potential schools that would hire him would look down on. His only play is to make up some crappy "sincere apology" and hope he gets another gig. He can't win this fight.
Like I said, he was already suspended and punished. Unless there is new information that comes out, to fire him due to overwhelming public sentiment will give him his money any way you slice it. And I don't think he should apologize. He can win here. Just needs to do it the right way.
You know, the thing that really bothers me about all this is the fact that none of the sports radio shows today are going to talk about anything else other than how terrible Mike Rice is. Yay--9 straight hours of self-righteous blowhards villifying someone who doesn't hold to the same standards they do. Why couldn't OTL have released this video on a Friday night--didn't they consider how it would affect me?
Pretty dumb on his part. When I was in school coaches could get away with that. Today is a different era though.
It's fucked, but not surprising, that the usual suspects would defend the indefensible. I am glad to see a lot of guys (I think you are all guys?) that don't. NO ONE should have to put up with verbal and physical abuse. NO ONE. Ever. I don't care what your job is or where you go to school. Saying kicking, shoving a person from behind, throwing balls at his head or crotch is not physical abuse is like, well, it's not torture if we do it. And racist, sexist and homophobic rants are abusive. It's not just anger management, anyone can lose his/her temper, but if you attack someone's nationality and make it clear comparisons to a woman or implications a man is gay are the worst possible insults (expressed in the most vulgar possible language) you are saying what kind of person you are. And that's not a good person. I sure never saw this from Rice Sr. although of course I don't know his life history. This is the behavior of an overseer on a plantation or an SS officer at a concentration camp. Not a coach trying to help and inspire young adults. Great coaches have all kinds of style, some are nurturing, some intellectual and some will take you skin off, metaphorically. (I used to have a fantasy about the Blazers hiring Pat Summitt as coach, she turns her famous glare on Rasheed Wallace and he meekly replies "yes, ma'am". And believe me, he would!) But they go after the play, not the person, that's what one young man said, that he asked the coach to criticize his play, not attack him as a person. Good coaches don't try to destroy people. And if he's so damn good, where was Rutgers in the NCAA? Were they even in the stupid NIT? And how many blue chip recruits will want to go to Rutgers now? How many parents will want their sons there? Daughters yes, but Rice is not fit to share a program with classy, winning, Vivian Stringer. She's in the Hall of Fame, he belongs in hall of shame. I do agree some sports media are sanctimonious - not necessarily ESPN, but I bet a lot of these sports talk radio jerks call people ***gots and ****s every day of their lives.
The behavior in that video wouldn't be allowed by a drill sergeant in the modern US military, and yet our armed forces are world class. Coaches wield the power of playing time, they can make you run laps, they have lots of ways to influence your behavior without childish antics like this. Honestly, I just couldn't respect a person who tried to pull this kind of crap on me, a teammate or a family member. It just demonstrates a lack of imagination and leadership. If you find yourself acting like a 3rd grade playground bully, you are probably doing it the wrong way. I will say that I can see somewhat of an exception with something like football. The fundamental nature of that game is physical. It's all about hitting and shoving. Seems perfectly natural to coach that way. Again, though, I would expect them to leave the juvenile homophobic/racist language at home, and throwing balls at people just seems childish.
His only hope for another gig is to resign, say he is seeking counseling for anger management, apologize for his actions in public to his players and the university, and hope nobody remembers it in a few years. This won't 'blow over in 3 days', especially if he refuses to leave Rutgers. It will stick with him for the rest of his coaching career, and he's going to have to try and re-invent himself. I've had hardass coaches, but none who were as out of control as this prick. I would have punched him at some point, or whipped the ball at his face to see how he liked it. I'm actually surprised none of his players did that, and the fact that none are backing their coach right now in public tells me all I need to know about this brand of 'coaching'.
It would have been much better for him had he resigned, at least in terms of his future career. He wouldn't get paid then, but he probably could have resigned with some sort of severance package. The guy has completely blown up his coaching career.
They should have fired him back in December, but they didn't. They had to fire him now. I have no problem with that, but they need to give him back his $50k because it's fucked up that they punished him four months ago and now they're punishing him again with no new evidence of abuse. That's like finding someone guilty of a crime, fining them, and then four months later the public finds out and now the city wants to throw you in jail. They should have made the right call, they're covering their own asses, but they need to reimburse the man.
No, because he got paid for the remainder of the season. Had they fired him in December, it would have been with cause, and he wouldn't have been paid anything more. He came out ahead this way.
That's not his fault. It is not his fault the team didn't fire him. That was their stupid blunder. They made a decision, they approved it with the President of the school, and they enforced the punishment. Now the story is big news and they are caving to pressure to fire him. That's fine. I get it, but you can't punish someone for the same thing twice. The guy's career is most likely over, they need to give him his money back. Would you think it's acceptable if the punishment now was: Anger management 50k fine and termination Would any of that make sense? No. So they need to rescind the first punishment and just fire him.
Very good points, and without any new findings, I have no doubts any arbitrator or any type of legal proceedings would agree with you.
This from someone that has always been a big supporter of Rasheed Wallace, knowing full well that he abused his girlfriend. I don't agree with what Rice did, and I don't have a problem with Rutgers firing him. Go Blazers
