ESPN sports writer blasts Fox News hosts for defending abusive Rutgers basketball coach

Last week, Rutgers announced that the school had fired basketball coach Mike Rice after ESPN aired video tape of him kicking players, throwing balls at the heads of players and shouting slurs like “fucking faggot” and “fucking fairy.”

While condemnation for Rice was nearly universal, Fox News host Eric Bolling argued that his firing was part of the “wussification of America.”

And Fox News host Sean Hannity went even further, praising Rice for was using “old-fashioned discipline.”

“He’s trying to bring the best out of them, put discipline in that team, raise their game, force them to focus, push them become champions and that takes intensity,” Hannity said on Wednesday.

ESPN senior writer Andy Katz on Sunday took Hannity and Bolling:

“It’s ridiculous!” Katz replied. “First of all, they were losing! Okay? So, that tactic wasn’t working.

"You can clearly motivate without physical contact, without slurs. I mean, it’s been proven time and time again at all levels of sports. You do not have to go to that level.”

“You cannot physically hit someone, you can’t throw things at someone and you cannot — I mean, we’re in a different era. You can’t have those homophobic slurs. You can’t!”

I, along with most of America, agree with Katz - a major component of "coaching" is motivating your players. If the only way you feel you can do that is through physically abusing or verbally intimidating your players, then you've got no "game."

Period.

(via RawStory)