There is no question that Mike Rice's behavior was inexcusable. He berated players in a manner that the NCAA and a university and athletic director should not tolerate. He exercised poor judgment and demonstrated a line of values in his actions that those in leadership positions, of any capacity, should repudiate.
Though the truth of the matter is: It's not surprising at all. The people who are most outraged are those who have not been involved in athletics. Those privy to the world of sports are aware that Rice's conduct is generally commonplace throughout collegiate and professional sports and is prevalent even at the high school level and below as well.
While we think Rice's behavior is more widespread than the mainstream media has been portraying it, we are not suggesting he should not be abdicated of responsibility for his actions. What he did was wrong and he should be made an example of for the rest of the athletic community.
It is in no way acceptable to utter homophobic slurs, shove players forcefully from their blindside or peg them with a basketball. Simply stated, Rice's termination as head coach was appropriate and justified.
What needs to be brought to the public's attention, however, is the current climate of sports. There is a chain of ethos that demands players be trained for toughness and groomed as machismo. When a coach demeans a player or criticizes him harshly, the coach is engaging in a process that is designed to weed out those who can't handle the intensity of the sport and level of competition.
Consider it this way - when one becomes a Marine, he or she has to endure the grueling training at Parris Island, S.C. Would it be wise for anyone to suggest that a serviceman be deployed to Afghanistan without having experienced the rigorous training part of the mental and psychological preparation for combat?
Much like military installation training, the purpose of athletic practice is to serve as a prelude to action. So, it should be understandable why a coach would want to exert techniques and strategies that facilitate his or her players' general preparation and also build camaraderie that helps develop a more cohesive unit - as Ursula K. LeGuin observed, "brotherhood begins with shared pain."
There is a common concept shared by many coaches, much to the chagrin of protective parents, that by subjecting athletes to forms of suffering and challenge, they are building character and bringing them together.
That may be true, and many of us have participated on sports teams and understand that this can be an important part of the process, but there are also levels of extremity that need to be avoided. The level of aggression that Rice reached was unmistakably inappropriate. It is also important to recognize, however, that it was an extreme case of something that happens a lot.
It is fine for a coach to put players through a difficult process and embody an intimidating persona for the sake of molding a team to achieve its concrete goals, though there are several things we posit unacceptable for coaches to do in the future.
First, no type of derogatory comments, whether relating to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc., should ever be said by anyone let alone a coach in a role to influence younger people. Our society is becoming increasingly sensitive to these issues and advocates political correctness. This is a sign of progress and no coach should allow his or her language to reflect an outlook contradictory to this improvement and advancement.
Second, there should be a statute of limitations toward how a coach can interact physically with a player. We understand there is a physicality central to athletic competition, but nothing more than mild contact that is designed to help a player improve in some way should be exercised. The more logical question may be: Why would a coach risk the possibility of injuring a player? Though we will leave that to someone like Mike Rice.
In the spirit of Bob Dylan's recent visit to UB, it is important for those in athletics to recognize that "the times they are a-changin'." Coaches need to be more cognizant of recent changes in culture that are bleeding into sports and have altered people's perception of the type of behavior deemed acceptable. It affects them, too, off the court and on.
Email: editorial@ubspectrum.com
