Coach Mike Rice: Anger Management

Rutgers University’s Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Mike Rice, was fired Wednesday, April 3rd for video footage that caught him physically and verbally abusing his athletes during practices. This video footage was leaked onto ESPN and many mainstream news channels on Tuesday, April 2nd. 

After watching the video footage of Coach Rice abusing his athletes, one might wonder what was done to try and prevent this behavior. In the videos, Coach Rice can be clearly seen abusing his athletes by hitting them with basketballs and shoving them, while also verbally abusing them using homophobic and vulgar language. Rutgers Athletic Director, Tim Pernetti, said that in the past “he personally reprimanded him, attended Mr. Rice’s practices and even assigned the university’s sports psychologist to work with the team” (Eder, 2013). Two weeks after officials were shown the video footage on November 26th, 2012 Rutgers suspended Mr. Rice for three games and fined him $50,000. Mr. Pernetti did not offer much explanation at the time other than to say that the punishment was related to incidents at practice involving players. 

Eric Murdock, the former Player Development Director at Rutgers University, released video footage of the abusive behavior to ESPN. Murdock had been outspoken about Rice’s behavior and felt that he was fired because of his forthcomings. University officials stated that Murdock left Rutgers University and could have actually kept working there (Associated Press, 2013). It was stated that “after Murdock left, he spoke with university officials about his allegations against Rice. He also used an open public records request to obtain hundreds of hours of videos of basketball practice. It's not clear who shot the original footage, but it was edited into the half-hour video later given to the university that touched off a scandal last week” (Associated Press, 2013). Murdock is filing a law suit against Rutgers for not fulfilling his employment demands and firing him for false reasons. 

After Mike Rice was fired from as Men’s Head Basketball Coach, Athletic Director Pernetti soon resigned his position on April 4th. This abusive situation has ruined many careers and has tarnished the image of Rutgers University. The verbal and mental abuse has surely left a lasting impression on the athletes on the receiving end of Rice’s tirades. Should we review the behavior of our coaches on and off the court and how they interact with their athletes?