As Rutgers alumni, the Mike Rice situation is disturbing. Unfortunately, this behavior is not uncommon and is becoming emblematic of college sports today. More and more we are seeing individuals in college athletics who should not be in leadership roles. For background, Mike Rice, the Head Men’s basketball coach, was videotaped violently shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at his players along with using gay slurs. The athletic director, Tim Pernetti, was given the information and the university conducted an investigation. Ultimately, they fined Mike Rice $50,000 and ordered him to go to anger management classes. Recently, the incident took center stage when ESPN’s 'Outside the Lines' aired the video footage. The outrage was palpable across the country with many politicians, including the NJ governor Chris Christie, speaking out due to the violent, abusive and racist behavior of Mike Rice.
I can write pages and pages on how college sports have issues that are hugely problematic. It is unacceptable to have this violent, racist behavior especially when the money to pay the Rutgers employees comes mostly by the state taxpayers. These types of issues and cover-ups happen in politics and corporations frequently. Many people are outraged when it happens but at least the people are grown adults and not young men and women in the formative years of their lives. In college athletics, the focus should be on the student’s education and personal growth. Having people such as Mike Rice and Tim Pernetti try to cover up and sweep under the rug this type of behavior is more reprehensible because we entrust these individuals to care for these students like they were their own children. Did we also not learn from Penn State that lying and covering up incidents is the worst thing you can do? Getting paid millions of dollars to be a racist bully is a disgrace for Rutgers and overall college athletics.
Let’s try to restore the confidence people have in college athletics and let’s start with firing the whole Rutgers athletic administration.