Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Fire Mike Rice or Get Rid of Men's Basketball at Rutgers.

It's that simple.

I don't read sports pages when Rutgers isn't playing football and I'm not a big follower of the game of "basket-ball", but this tape on ESPN was brought to my attention today. The asshole shown in these videos reminds me of the kind of fascistic gym teachers who made me hate scholastic sports when I was in Junior High in Los Angeles. If I played for him, I'd lose on purpose.

Not only does he need to be fired immediately, but every player on the team needs a free shot to throw a basketball at his balls before he leaves. I wish one of them would have decked him when he laid hands on them during practice.

Any reader of BeatVisitor.com will know that I'm not a sports fan, I'm a Rutgers fan. But fuck Rutgers Men's Basketball until Mike Rice is gone.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What Mike Rice did was an embarrassment to a great university. I understand the outrage and the desire to get him fired. To say that the athletic department was implicit in covering up this situation is just wrong. What Pernetti did is give professional help to an individual, who this past year has truly tried to change his style. From the punishment, Pernetti sent a message and a productive way for Mike Rice to change. If you view the world in black and white, then Mike Rice is just an evil individual; who deserves a future of rejections and pain. Are individuals truly just black and white, just evil and good? Is the the world more complicated than that? Educating an individual who did something wrong, should be the very first step; and the university did that.

I also realize the world is more complicated than this. The university could have educated Mike Rice and still provided professional help while entirely separating him from his role in the program. This could have been a great opportunity for the university, to educate the public in bullying and abuse; while telling the public that educating those who do wrong is more productive then separating yourself from that individual.

To Mike Rice, I wish you well and hope you learn from this experience; and become a better individual. I hope you continue seeking professional help. I don't wish you any ill will, and hope one day you can return to career in a field you love.

To the university family, I hope we can have an open discussion on the issues. I hope we can create a campaign to educate the public on bullying, inappropriate language, and abuse. Let us not sweep this under a rug, with the axing of Mike Rice. Instead let us be productive. Let us make that outside observer created in December permanent and study the issues that allowed these actions by Mike Rice to continue and go un-noticed for an extended time.