Out of bounds

Rutgers University is in the market for a new basketball coach.

On Wednesday morning, the New Jersey university announced that it was terminating head basketball coach Mike Rice, after Rice was caught on camera employing highly questionable coaching tactics — including directing homophobic language toward his players.

The school should be commended for taking the action, but this is justice delayed: The videos were taken between 2010-12 and the school was made aware of the situation last year. Rice was reprimanded for his behavior, to the tune of $75,000, a three-game suspension and enrollment in anger-management classes.

While it’s welcome news that Rice no longer helms the team, it’s unfortunate that it took public attention for that decision to be made.

In the videos, Rice repeatedly and viciously pelted players with basketballs from feet away, and pushed and kicked them when they seemingly made mistakes. He was also captured calling several players “fucking fairy” and “fucking faggot.”

The school’s president learned of the videos last year and approved an outside investigator’s recommendations against termination. And, the staffer and former NBA player who began circulating the video said he was fired for insubordination after blowing the whistle on Rice, although the university maintains that his termination was unrelated to the video of Rice.

The situation reeks of the same mentality that led Jerry Sandusky to continue his abuse on Penn State’s campus.

What’s nearly as disturbing as Rice’s behavior is the support he’s received from some corners. Some Rutgers students who’ve been interviewed on television news coverage of the situation have proffered that Rice was simply trying to motivate the players, and some Internet commenters have echoed those sentiments, laughing off Rice’s behavior as horseplay.

Apart from serious anger issues that Rice may or may not be dealing with, his behavior illustrates the “boys will be boys” playground mentality that allows homophobia to flourish. While tremendous strides have been made in recent years to make the sports world more aware of and welcoming to LGBTs, a situation such as this — and the fact that it was allowed to continue for an unknown amount of time with just a slap on the wrist — show the work that still needs to be done.

A national discussion on anti-LGBT bullying and the need for campus communities to stop turning a blind eye to that trend grew largely out of a tragedy at Rutgers University — the suicide of freshman Tyler Clementi. While the Rice incident thankfully did not have as dire consequences, it hopefully can also help raise the national profile of institutional homophobia in sports — and continue the ongoing work of breaking down those barriers.

Newsletter Sign-up