"Boo This Man" Moment of the Week: Mike Rice & Tim Pernetti

(Yeah yeah yeah, I know this all unfolded last week, but you have yet to hear my take and I know that you've been waiting for it because my opinion means soooooo much to you.  Besides, I needed a week to really get my thoughts in order about this mess.  So buckle your seat belts, ladies and gents...)

Imagine sending your 18-year-old son to Rutgers University to play college basketball.  You're excited to see him take his talent to the next level and get a good education while he's at it, whether he decides to go pro or simply wants the experience of playing at a Division I school.  You leave him in the hands of an adult that you assume will not only teach him how to improve upon his game, but will also have your child's best interest at heart overall.  Never would you think that this same adult would utter words like this to your child: "You're a f*ck*ng fairy...you're a f*ck*ng f*gg*t."  Okay...so maybe you didn't make such an assumption because you've heard about coaches cursing out their players.  I'll give you that one concession.  However, I'm sure that you never thought that a supposed leader of young men would shove, kick or punch them; hurl basketballs at their heads, feet or groin areas; or beat them with pads because they didn't perfectly execute a play as it was drawn.  What would you do if you knew that former Rutgers Scarlet Knights Head Coach Mike Rice was verbally and physically abusing your son and other kids over a span of 2-3 years?  Not days...not weeks...not months...years.  I'd put money on your reaction mirroring LeBron James' tweet: "If my son played for Rutgers or a coach like that he would have some real explaining to do and I'm still gone whoop on him afterwards!"

Though I totally understand "putting the paws" on folks when it's absolutely necessary, the best way to get at people who abuse their power is through their pockets.  Mike Rice no longer has a job, and this was his statement after his firing:

As I stated three months ago after I watched the video how deeply regrettable those actions were.  I also stated that I was gonna try to work on changing, and I think I've accomplished a lot of that.  I can't say anything else but I'm sorry.  There will never be a time where I'm going to use any of that as an excuse...I've let so many people down.  My players, my administration, Rutgers University, the fans...my family, who's sitting in their house just huddled around because of the fact that their father was an embarrassment to them.  It's troubling, but I will at some time...maybe I'll try to explain it, but right now, there's no explanation for what's on those films because there's no excuse for it.  I was wrong, and I want to tell everyone who's believed in me that I'm deeply sorry for the pain and hardship that I've caused.

So at least Rice sounds remorseful for his actions.  I personally think that he's more choked up with emotion now than when he was suspended and fined because ESPN exposed what he did and it led to him being relieved of his duties.  However, I digress...

Another man out of a job is former Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti, who "resigned" last Friday after alleging to have had knowledge of the videos since last November.  When ESPN's Outside the Lines broke the story last Tuesday and had Pernetti on a panel, this was part of his response: 

We dealt with the matter with Coach Rice.  I did not have a line out my door of players and coaches or anybody else complaining about the matter, and it was a first offense for him.  It's a very concerning pattern of behavior, and everything that was done is not acceptable to the Rutgers standard.  That's why we suspended him for three games with a fine and, quite frankly, counseling, and monitoring going forward is not an easy situation for any head coach to operate in.

Unlike Rice, Pernetti not only sounded everything but remorseful, but he also carried a very cavalier attitude.  These statements on OTL as well as his admitted knowledge for almost five months about these tapes forced the hands of the powers that be.  Again, I shall dial it down for the moment...

Unfortunately, another man who lost his job was former NBA player and Rutgers Director of Player Development Eric Murdock--the man who was responsible for providing the footage to OTL and who first furnished the video to Pernetti and Rutgers officials.  Murdock first blew the whistle about Rice's verbal and physical abuse of his players in July, but did not have the video evidence at the time.  Next thing you know, Murdock was out the door.  Pernetti claimed that Murdock was not fired as he and his lawyer, Raj Gadhok, assert, but that Murdock's contract was not renewed last July because he spoke at a men's basketball camp that supposedly was in conflict with one of the Rutgers' men's basketball camps after being urged not to do so.  Yeah...totally not buying that, slim.

While nobody tops the New York City Police Department in terms of this year's top offenders thus far, Mike Rice by himself beats out Consequence and Kanye West combined.  With that said, I fervently make the following statement to Rice as well as Pernetti:

So many places to start, but let's tackle Pernetti's idea of the "first offense".  When discussing this situation with Mrs. Scribbler, she said, "Well, they can look at it like 'this is the first time that we found out about it, so it's technically his first offense'."  Fair enough, I suppose.  Additionally, if a case like this went before a criminal judge, they could look at it the same way.  However, as much as it depends on the judge, it also depends on the nature of the crime and there are some crimes for which any judge would send a criminal up the river--unless that judge is in a criminal's back pocket.  If we're talking about somebody's first offense being a nickel bag of weed or riding around without a driver's license, then a simple slap on the wrist is understandable.  If we're talking about somebody's first offense being under police surveillance for 2-3 years while running a drug empire and/or conspiring in murders, then that person would suffer more punitive consequences because he or she's involved in weightier crimes.

Now I have no idea what else Eric Murdock did wrong in his time as Director of Player Development.  Nevertheless, I find it very suspicious that Murdock's "first offense" of going against his superiors' wishes and speaking to that men's basketball camp was such an unforgivable, "insubordinate" act that it warranted his contract not being renewed.  On the flip side, Mike Rice's "first offense" involved hurling basketballs and screaming homophobic slurs at young men over a period of 2-3 years, but he merely incurred a three-game suspension, a $50,000 fine and anger management classes as a means of "rehabilitation".  Let's just call it one of the many things that this situation really is: Eric Murdock obviously wasn't a part of Rice and Pernetti's "good ol' boy network" and violated the unspoken code when he aired Rice's dirty laundry to Pernetti.  There is no way that Rice's offense isn't a fireable offense IMM-MEED-CHET-LEE--especially once you have the clear-cut evidence--but Pernetti considers Murdock's offense as "insubordination" and an excuse to let Murdock's contract expire.  Maybe I'm the crazy one, but one would think that being abusive to the players who are responsible for bringing your university those coveted dollars should far outweigh an allegedly "insubordinate" employee.  Furthermore, I try not to play the race card, but Murdock's a "brotha" and Rice is a white man...conjure up your own conspiracy theories as you see fit.

Let's dig into another angle: college sports politics.  In November, Rutgers announced that they were moving from the Big East to the Big Ten, which is supposed to take effect in 2014.  Although that's a significant move for their football program, it's even more pivotal for their basketball program.  In a conference that already has the largest media draw out of any other conference in the NCAA, Rutgers being in the New York City media market can potentially put even more money in the Big Ten pot--and we all know that college sports is all about how much money your school brings to the table.  Pernetti repeatedly admitted that he found out about Rice's actions in November, but in doing so, he indicted himself as to why he didn't enforce harsher penalties or make this situation more public: he knew that it could potentially jeopardize the school's move to the more alluring conference.  After what just happened to Penn State University in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, I'm sure that Pernetti thought that his "penalties" would be enough damage control.  However, as it states in Luke 8:17, "For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest".  Murdock's mixtape of Rice's worst moments made it to the hands of ESPN, and Rule #1 in avoiding a public relations nightmare as the leader of any sports program is never let someone else uncover what you should have handled better yourself--especially the media.  All this makes it hard for someone not to think that the Big Ten move had little to do with Pernetti's decision-making process.  What harm would it have done to let Rice go in November when you first saw the video?  It's not like he was the architect of a winning program or the sole reason why Rutgers was moving to the Big Ten anyway.

However, this situation is most egregious because it affected the players on a conscious and/or subconscious level  Granted, several players have come to Rice's defense and at least six current and former players found nothing wrong with Rice's coaching "techniques".  Junior forward Wally Judge said, "You can't let those individual moments define what he was...I have grown from the moment I stepped in these doors, not only as a player but also as a person because of how he has treated me."  Sophomore forward Austin Johnson echoed Judge's overall sentiments:

He did a lot for us off the court, academically, socially...I feel if people had a chance to see the other portions of practice, or had been at practice, their judgment would not be as severe.  I am not saying what he did wasn't wrong, because I do believe it was wrong.  But it is also tough because it was a highlight reel of his worst moments.

Former Rutgers guard Tyree Graham, now a student at UNC-Wilmington, said that he "understood why Rice used those tactics, because people 'disrespected' Rutgers in the Big East and he wanted to simulate opponents' disrespectful attitudes during practice."  Graham also said, "He was just trying to motivate you."  Pittsburgh Panthers guard Travon Woodall, whom Rice helped to recruit as an assistant coach at Pitt, said that Rice was "not the only coach to put his hands on a player, or talk the way he did."  Woodall added, "He's the reason I came to Pitt."  While I won't take away whatever positives that Rice offered these particular players, I find a lot troubling about what they've said in his defense for four main reasons.

First, why does it take a coach screaming obscenities, homophobic slurs, and throwing basketballs at you to get you motivated?  I don't think that a coach should be the college basketball equivalent to Norv Turner, but I also don't think that "pushing" somebody to play more disciplined should be taken literally.  If you need that kind of "push" to get your motor going, then maybe it's possible that Rice isn't the biggest problem after all; maybe you're the one with bigger psychological issues of your own.  Maybe you think it's cool to be called these kinds of names or get physically abused, or even worse, maybe you don't equate these types of actions with "abuse".  That sounds like the battered wife who goes around her family and friends trying to hide her black eyes behind dark sunglasses while saying, "I know it looks bad, but y'all don't see all the good things he does."  She gets so used to being beaten that she 1) defends her oppressor and 2) appears to be quite delusional and jaded regarding the abuse.  Same thing with a parent who physically and verbally abuses his or her children, and it's often easier for kids to defend their parents because their parents are largely responsible for their existence and they don't want to do anything that perceptibly falls into the category of dishonoring them.  So show me a woman who is a better wife because her husband is doing an Ike Turner impersonation or show me a child who had no issues as an adult because their parent(s) beat the crap out of them like a game of Street Fighter, and I'll show you a $100 million beachfront property in Boise, Idaho that has the girl of your dreams serving you ice cold lemonade in a string bikini.

Second, needing this kind of "motivation" brings another possibility to light: maybe some of these players rushing to his defense just aren't exceptional athletes.  With storied programs like Louisville, Georgetown, Connecticut, Villanova, Syracuse and Pittsburgh in a conference struggling to compete with the appeal and success of the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), top prospects are prone to drive by Piscataway, New Jersey with ease.  Hence, Rutgers gets a lot of marginal players and coaches, which is evidenced by the fact that Rutgers has only had three winning seasons in the past 12 years.  However, here's the more salient point: I doubt that a great player like Michael Jordan needed Dean Smith to call him a "f*ck*ng fairy" in order to "push" him to hit the game-winning shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship against Georgetown.  I doubt that Jordan needed Phil Jackson to hurl basketballs at his knees to finally beat the Detroit Pistons in the 1991 Eastern Conference Championship en route to winning the first of six NBA championships.  Did either coach take it easy on him?  Of course they didn't, but overall, they knew how to cultivate his greatness constructively as well as that of their other players.  Simply put, great players don't need Rice's destructive brand of "motivation" to be greater, and exceptional coaches don't need to literally push their players to be better.

As a "B-side" to my second point, the reason why Rutgers wasn't respected in the Big East was because they weren't a very good basketball team--due in large part to having a head coach with now-documented anger issues.  There is an inevitable division among Rutgers' players.  On one side, there are players who tolerate and defend their "leader" and his coaching style.  On the other side, there are players who have a hard time dealing with being cussed out and physically assaulted.  No matter the side, all of these players are affected, whether they care to admit it or not.  When the majority of the team doesn't buy into the overarching philosophy or tactics, then it's prone to lead to records of 15-17, 14-18 and 16-16--and an even worse record in the Big East--over Rice's three seasons as HC.  Therefore, it's easy for the rest of the Big East to abuse them in actual games because abuse is what they're used to in practice.

That leads to my third point: at least three players have transferred from the program and two more have reportedly decided not to return to Rutgers after the end of this school year.  (Although those two particular players gave no specific reasons, the writing's on the wall.)  Last time I checked, player retention is important for a successful coaching regime, especially in college sports. One of those players who left was Lithuanian-born forward Gilvydas Biruta, who played his high school basketball in New Jersey and is a recent transfer to the University of Rhode Island.  According to Eric Murdock, Rice constantly lambasted Biruta with offensive insults like "soft-a** Lithuanian b*tch" or "Lithuanian f*gg*t".  In a classy move after the airing of the OTL episode, Biruta tweeted, "Understand that I enjoyed my time at Rutgers and formed a great relationship with Tim Pernetti and students.  I made many friends at RU."  Notice that he mentioned Pernetti in his more positive tweet, not Rice.  When Biruta actually spoke with ESPN, he said that his time at Rutgers was "difficult and disappointing" and that the reason he left was "because of the way [Rice] was leading the team."  He also added, "It wasn't about my game, it was about me as a person."  To use someone's nationality as a way to insult them and pile homophobic slurs on top of it all is nothing more than the actions of a bully, and though people may fear a bully, nobody truly respects one.  (Again, check his overall record at Rutgers for proof.)

Fourth, I take the most issue with the assertion that Rice is "not the only coach to put his hands on a player, or talk the way he did".  Granted, he's not the only one because the legendary Bobby Knight had his transgressions at Indiana, which included choking out players.  However, going back to my crime reference, saying that Rice isn't the only coach to do what he did is like saying a drug kingpin isn't the only one to destroy his community by selling crack cocaine or killing innocent bystanders, rival crew members and anyone who dares to take the stand in court or snitch to the cops.  No, Rice is not the only one to ever do it, but in the viral video era, he's one of the only coaches that got caught doing it for almost his entire coaching tenure at Rutgers.  More important, saying that he's not the only one to do it is essentially excusing his actions.  Just because he's not the only one to do it doesn't make it right, and the chain of bad behavior has to be broken somehow.  Bottom line, what Rice did to these players that are people and young men first was an egregrious, inexcusable and  fireable series of offenses, and no one can deny that.

Many of us believe that both Rice and Pernetti had to go, but also think that Pernetti should get a second chance well before Rice.  Pernetti may have botched the situation as Rice's boss, but Rice was the main culprit.  Some people may assert that Rice should never coach college basketball ever again--as a head coach or as an assistant.  While I don't know about him being a head coach ever again, I'm not one of those people that think he shouldn't coach on any level because I believe in forgiveness.  However, if I were an AD at a school and his name came up as a potential hire, there are several things that would made clear upon his hiring.  First, he would not only have to have certified anger management training, but cultural sensitivity training as well.  In an age where gays and lesbians are fighting for more civil rights, there is no room for the other "F" word being thrown around so freely.  Additionally, if he felt the need to berate Biruta because he was Lithuanian, who's to say that an African-American player wouldn't get the "N" word thrown at him a time or two?  Second, I would make every player feel comfortable enough to inform me if Rice gets out of line and to keep a paper trail of any occurrence.  Third, I'd sit down with whoever tapes the practices and stress to them to inform me immediately if his history of abusive behavior repeats itself even once.  Finally, I'd have a candid sit down with Rice and make the following statement, "Looka here, Mikey, my boy: I'm not Tim Pernetti.  If you even so much as look at one of these players in a manner that I find remotely abusive, you're gone before I next blink my eyes.  If a parent comes to me looking for blood, I might just hand them a shank...you won't bleed me or this university.  Oh yeah...and win while you're at it.  I heard it cures everything."