Health & Fitness
Why was Rutgers University Basketball coach Mike Rice fired?
Why was Rutgers coach fired today? Did the University drop the ball? Can we trust that our student athletes are not being abused by their coaches?
The world just saw the explosive tapes of the Rutgers basketball practices, but theseย tapes are in fact old news. The president of the school and the athletic director viewed these same tapes last year, and Mike Rice was punished for behavior. He was suspended for three games, sent to anger management and fined $50,000. This was the punishment that the University staff deemed appropriate. So what changed? Well, the rest of the world saw the tapes. We saw the coach physically abuse the students and we also heard the coach verbally abuse the students. Some have even said they felt the verbally abuse was worst than the physical abuse. Today, Rice was fired by the school, but isn't this akin to locking the barn door after the horse is out? Why wasn't this action taken when the tapes first surfaced? Why did it take exposure to the world to prompt the University to take action? Is this kind of behavior confined to the Rutgers campus or is the kind of thing that goes on in colleges across the country? Are players afraid of talking about abuse for fear of losing valuable scholarships? To fire Rice now does not show courage it in fact is another act of cowardice. Now the University is bowing to the will of the people, but the people do not govern the University on a daily basis, and the people want to believe, to have faith in the University officials and today they showed they are unworthy ofย the faith of the people.
