Mike Rice Fallout Continues: Rutgers AD Gets The Ax.....President of the School On Deck
(A+ Apology in my book by the way)
ESPN – Tim Pernetti is out as Rutgers’ athletic director, a source said Friday, two days after video came to light showing men’s basketball coach Mike Rice shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players and using gay slurs during practice. More than 50 Rutgers faculty members had signed a letter calling for the dismissal of Pernetti for his handling of the Rice situation. Pernetti, with the approval of university president Robert L. Barchi, initially suspended Rice three games in December 2012 and fined him $50,000. However, Stephen Sweeney, the president of the state Senate, still called for Pernetti to step down or be fired. Sweeney said Pernetti deserved credit for getting Rutgers into the Big Ten but he mishandled what Rice had done within the program.”This incident will continue to hang over Rutgers like a dark cloud for weeks, months and perhaps years to come,” the Democratic lawmaker said in a statement Thursday. “It seems pretty clear that things were not handled well from the start.”
First things first. I agree with what KFC said in his blog. If you’re gonna fire the AD you got to fire the President as well. He approved the original 3 game suspension. So if the AD goes then the President has to go to and really anybody who saw the tape. It’s a package deal.
But more importantly I stand by everything I said the first time about this story. I honestly thing it is one of the most overblown things in recent memory. I mean did the President of the NJ State Senate really say this would be a dark cloud that could hang over Rutgers for years to come? Really? I guess this is just how it goes nowadays. It’s always one extreme or the other. Kevin Ware breaks his leg and people act like he literally died and he becomes a national hero. Mike Rice throws balls at his players during practice and he becomes the antichrist. It’s the digital age. Everything gets blown out of proportion. I mean Bobby Knight is considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of college basketball. What Mike Rice did was probably a walk in the park for one of his practices. I get that it’s a different era, but coaches act like this way more than people want to admit. As Jay Bilas said these were open practices. It’s not like he was doing this in private. The players didn’t seem to mind. To a man most of them said it wasn’t personal and he was just trying to make them tougher. Create the mentality that Rutgers would not be bullied anymore in the Big East. I certainly understand how people can say Mike Rice deserved to be fired. I can’t understand why we’re still talking about this and how it has become National news and could take down an entire school.
