In case you really have no idea what I'm talking about, Rutgers Men's Basketball coach Mike Rice was recently fired due to practice footage that surfaced on ESPN's Outside The Lines that showed him verbally and physically abusing his players. The fallout from the situation also led to the "resignation" of Tim Pernetti from his position as Athletic Director. Now that you've gotten the (very) abridged version of the story, I'll go into why I am so upset.
In typical Rutgers fashion, this could not have been handled any worse than it has already been. From beginning to end, it has been nothing short of an embarrassing disaster. According to the timeline that we all have, Tim was made known of the practice tape in November. Tim said that he initially wanted to fire Coach Rice on the spot and be done with it. However, the University called in an outside team of investigators to evaluate the best course of action. Okay, I guess this is protocol, so it's something that has to be done. Whatever. They came back and recommended that Rice be suspended, fined, and made to go to anger management classes. Even though Tim wanted to fire Rice, he went along with the punishment that was given out to him: a 3-game suspension, $75,000 fine, and mandatory anger management classes. This is the only place in the whole thing where I have a problem with Tim's actions. He should have gone to President Barchi and stated his case to fire Rice on the spot. If Barchi had seen the tape, Rice would have been fired in November and this wouldn't even be an issue right now.
Fast forward to this past Tuesday. ESPN's Outside The Lines releases the practice footage and all hell breaks loose. All of the sudden, seemingly the only thing anyone is talking about is the "Mike Rice Tape." Great, yet ANOTHER black eye Rutgers. As an alum, I'm getting sick and tired of the bad press that, nine times out of ten, is brought upon ourselves as a school. At this point, everyone and their mothers knows Rice going to be fired and will probably never been employed as a head coach ever again. Fine, that needs to happen. Then, we can move on to finding a new coach. Hopefully, it's Danny Hurley. He would be the perfect hire for Rutgers right now. But, in the words of the great Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend!"
Wednesday comes around and Rice is fired as expected. We also hear that Tim's job is safe for the time being while a more thorough investigation into the situation goes on. All the while, I feel that both Tim and Barchi are going to keep their jobs and be given a chance to see Rutgers through this now disaster. Even my coworkers agreed that those two wouldn't be going anywhere. But all the while, Rutgers alumni are taking to Twitter to show their support for Tim with the hashtag, #keeppernetti. I didn't think much of it because I was sure he wasn't going anywhere.
Thursday hits and there are numerous people calling for Tim's head; state assemblymen, faculty members, and some alumni. At this point, I felt indifferent towards his job status. I stayed relatively quiet on this subject. For those who know me, that is a VERY uncommon thing for me to do because I am very quick to add my two cents into just about any discussion. More and more people were taking to Twitter showing support for Tim. This time, more of the prominent football alumni were speaking out. It made me think about Tim's job security once more, but I was still confident that he was going to be the one to get us out of this mess.
I woke up today at around 9:30 in the morning. My dad worked from home today, so I was talking to him about the whole thing. I went back to my room to check my phone, and that's when I saw the tweet from Brett McMurphy of ESPN that said, "Tim Pernetti out as Rutgers athletic director, source told ESPN." I couldn't believe it actually happened. I still can't, but I'll get to that later. I didn't think that this decision was going to be made this quickly. I couldn't get away from the coverage either. Everywhere I looked, they were talking about Rutgers. I played some Xbox until the scheduled presser from President Barchi at about 1 o'clock just so I didn't have hear about it.
When I say that I had to turn off the presser because it was making me furious, I am not exaggerating. I think I may have watched fifteen minutes of it before I just couldn't take it any more. I could not believe that Barchi was so ready to throw Tim right under the bus and pass the buck off on him! That's what got me so upset. How could he do that to Tim? Tim followed protocol and everything else, and he essentially gave Rice a second chance to make fix things as they stood. Yet, he's the one that is now looking for work and Barchi still has his position (for now). I find it EXTREMELY hard to believe that Barchi only saw the tape after it was released on OTL. Why didn't he ask to see it after the suspension if indeed that was the case? Wouldn't you want to see WHY you're suspending your men's basketball coach? And then you have the balls to stand up to the media and say Tim "resigned" per an agreement you two had. Please! That is the biggest load of crap! Tim is the kind of guy to face a challenge like this head-on and see Rutgers through it. Barchi didn't give Tim a choice. Tim was fired, but it will be written in the papers as "resigned." Anyone with any knowledge of the people involved can see right through that.
I can't believe that the "Keep Rutgers Horrible at Sports" faction got what they wanted. Barchi let the pressure from State Assemblymen (that have no inside knowledge of the situation), the media, and a vocal minority of alumni make his choice for him! Barchi unfairly pushed all accountability away from himself and onto Tim. What should have happened is that Barchi should have been canned and Tim should still be the AD. Barchi's lack of leadership is deplorable for a university president. He should be ashamed of how he embarrassed himself and the university today! After everything Tim did for the athletic department as a whole, not just football, this is treatment he gets. It's shameful, but has unfortunately become commonplace at my alma mater. My friend (and ticket rep at Rutgers) put it best when he tweeted, "I feel like this week has been a bad dream." Spot on. Right now, I am embarrassed to say that I'm a Rutgers grad. This whole thing has been a total disaster and I just hope that we can get through this stronger than we were before.
President Barchi made quip during his presser along the lines of, "I think about resigning everyday because I have no contract to adhere to." Well then, Mr. President, maybe you should have walked out the door with Tim. The school would be better off.
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