As I often so eloquently put it, I don't give a shit about college basketball. The quality of play is just so poor and it's boring and Rutgers is bad (well, worse than others) at it. There's no reason for me to care about it at all. Throw in the fact that basketball destroyed Big East football, and I've grown a down right hatred of the sport. I have no desire to write about basketball what so ever-- the tagline of this blog says "A Rutgers FOOTBALL Blog"-- but I feel compelled to write about this because Rutgers' shithole of a basketball program has led to the downfall of the entire athletic department, and possibly the university itself.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you know what this is about. Video of psychotic former basketball coach Mike Rice abusing his players both physically and verbally was "leaked" to ESPN --by former Rutgers director of player development Eric Murdock (who is using the tapes to extort the university)-- and aired on the network. In the tapes, Rice is shown shoving, kicking, punching and throwing basketballs at players, while also directing homophobic slurs in their direction. It was appalling and just downright disgusting. Rice's actions should not be tolerated from a supposed leader of young men, and he absolutely deserved to be fired for what he did. Quite frankly that should have been done in November/December or in March. My problem with the fallout from this story is the ensuing firestorm from the national media and Trenton that led to Athletic Director Tim Pernetti's (forced) resignation.
The media (and not just ESPN) has a way of sensationalizing pretty much anything that may even ever so slightly over step the bounds of morality in the sports world. Whether it's steroids in baseball or NCAA infractions or Mike Shanahan allowing Robert Griffin III to play on an injured knee or whatever else it may be, minor stories tend to get blown way out of proportion. Rutgers and Tim Pernetti are just the latest victims of the unfortunate reality of today's media world, where page views usually triumph over common sense. Calling for Rice's firing was hardly controversial, so most of the media ire was directed at Pernetti, in order to keep the story alive and get page views. The damnedest thing about this media frenzy is there was very little new information released when the video was made available. Tim Pernetti spoke of the video's contents back in December when Rice was suspended and fined, and they didn't make a peep about it.
This media outcry gave chicken shit politicians like Steve Sweeney --the head of New Jersey's state senate in Trenton-- a platform to draw attention to himself in hopes of advancing his political career. Demanding Pernetti to step down got his name on ESPN.com, so he must be pretty proud of that, since he's obviously an attention whore who doesn't give a fuck about what the people he represents want. Governor Chris Christie also took this opportunity to grandstand --it is an election year after all-- also calling for Pernetti to lose his job. This is in spite of the fact that he told Pernetti he was "there for him." Sadly, this is just the way politics are in New Jersey. A bunch of cowards who only care about political power and don't give a fuck about the well being of the people or institutions in the state make the laws. That's why New Jersey can't be the great state it should be and is the laughing stock of the entire country.
The pressure from the media and Trenton forced Rutgers President Robert Barchi's and the Board of Governor's hands, and they caved in like a spineless worms and forced Pernetti to resign. Less than four months after they praised the way he handled the situation. They basically could have told Christie and Sweeney to go fuck themselves and keep Pernetti, but they didn't want to risk possibly losing some state funding. That line of thinking made little sense, considering Christie may be voted out of office on 8 month and it's not like Rutgers gets that much money from the state anyway. It's truly an embarrassing amount compared to the state funding other flagship state institutions receive. Barchi has more important stuff on his plate --notably the merger with the medical school-- but he really displayed poor leadership throughout this entire ordeal. He did not watch the tapes in November, and he let the supposed "legal process" play out before signing off on the initial punishment for Rice. After Pernetti's resignation, he made an ass of himself in the press conference, and came off looking like a smug academic type who doesn't care about athletics. He knew someone would have to fall on the sword, so he forced Pernetti to be that person, since he is a poor leader.
Tim may not have handled this situation perfectly, but he didn't do anything that should have cost him his job. He is an honorable man, so I will take his word for it when he says in his letter of resignation that his initial reaction was to fire Rice in November (If that is the case, it makes his forced resignation even more of a travesty). Rutgers' attorney's would not let that happen, however, as they would have admitted guilt in the Murdock wrongful termination case. So instead, Pernetti followed "the process" that was laid out for him by the school, and suspend Rice for three games, fined him, and tried to rehabilitate him. Maybe Pernetti should have fought harder to terminate Rice, but he followed what his bosses and lawyers told him to do and seemingly settled the manner. And as I said before, they praised how he handled the situation. Plain and simple, he was scapegoated, just like Bob Mulcahy before him.
Even if it was Pernetti's decision to give Rice a slap on the wrist, it would have been a more drastic punishment than what other abusive college basketball coaches received. Cal's coach fucking hit a player ON THE GOD DAMN COURT DURING A GAME, and only received a "public reprimand" from the Pac 12. Why didn't anyone call for Cal's AD's head then? Morehead State's coach got in a player's face and yelled him to the point of tears on live TV and he only received a brief suspension. Why no faux outrage at that? I also hope the irony of ESPN causing shit about this when they employ Bob Knight isn't lost on anybody. But LOL, he's in Applebees commercials now making fun of how he abused players!
A lot of the media types also seem to think Pernetti left the players in harm's way. That of course, was not the case though. In addition to the anger management training Rice went through, Pernetti assigned someone from the athletic department to monitor Rice's practices and report back to him. Additionally, the players didn't seem uncomfortable with his behavior. It's quite telling that they waited until AFTER he was fired to ask for their release to transfer.
Pernetti did an immeasurable amount of good for Rutgers and there's no chance they find a better person for the job than him. Pernetti is not only an alumnus of the school, but a former athlete whose knowledge of the TV business is second to none as well. He was one of the best athletic directors in the entire country, and was even nominated for the AD of the Year Award. His greatest accomplishment was obviously getting Rutgers to the Big 10, and that should be the most important thing we remember in his legacy. It should also not be forgotten how he greatly improved the financial mess Rutgers' athletic department was in before he took the job, had his athletes perform in the class room, and allowed no NCAA violations on his watch. He legitimately cared about all his athletes, not just the football players. A number of non revenue sports have shown their support for him since he stepped down from his position. He was beloved by the entire Rutgers community, and I'm sad to see him go.
Losing Pernetti's leadership will suck, especially with the upcoming move to the Big 10, but the football program should be fine. The rest of the athletic problem is my concern. The athletic department will likely lose two major donors in wake of this, and the plans to renovate the RAC will probably be put on the back burner for the foreseeable future. There is a reinstate Pernetti movement going on, but it probably won't work. It's worth a shot though, and I encourage you to sign it. You don't have to put your name on it, I signed it a second time under the name Jacques Strape. If more people sign it, it will get more attention from state representatives.
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