ESPN's 'Outside The Lines' Calls Rutgers "A National Embarrassment"

Just getting to watch @OTLonESPN: @BruceFeldmanCFB said it's "not a local story anymore. It's become a national embarrasment." #CHOPNation

— Ryan Dunleavy (@rydunleavy) September 15, 2015

A @JimLitke point:#Rutgers is a program that tried to step itself up athletically in a really short period of time. Ends up taking shortcuts

— Ryan Dunleavy (@rydunleavy) September 15, 2015

A post on @OTLonESPN, which opted for the low hanging fruit -- crazy Mike Rice! -- over Rutgers' real issues now. http://t.co/K7zL6v35Tj

— Steve Politi (@StevePoliti) September 16, 2015

What an informative television program. Did you guys know that a basketball coach physically and verbally abusing his players relates favorably to a bunch of enigmatic 18-22 year old kids going out and making stupid decisions? Pretty obvious to me that they are essentially the same thing. Ray Rice hit a woman in an elevator years after he went to college at Rutgers. How could that not have something to do with Leonte Carroo getting arrested for simple assault and domestic violence while at Rutgers? I bet they studied their abuse of women under the same professor. This is clearly a cultural problem. How dare you try to tell me that three separate instances, over the course of two and half years, that involved either employees, students, or alumni of a University as big as Rutgers doesn't show a lack of institutional control. 

Listen, I am a Rutgers graduate, a Rutgers season ticket holder, and most importantly, a Rutgers fan. I am embarrassed by what has transpired over the last month. I was embarrassed when the video of Mike Rice winging basketballs at his players heads surfaced. I was embarrassed when I saw Ray Rice, a player I used to root for on a weekly basis, drag his fiancées lifeless body out of an elevator. It is embarrassing, there is no doubt about that. However, I don't need someone that has probably never been to the school that I called home for 5 years (no judgement necessary) to tell me how bad of a place it has become. I don't need Bob Ley, and a bunch of people unfamiliar with the university, telling me how corrupt they are from the top down. I don't need a man that has no factual information telling me that the values of Rutgers athletics have undergone a drastic renovation in an effort to become more relevant athletically on a national scale. Does ESPN have some camera behind the scenes that shows that Rutgers has taken shortcuts in building their brand? Do they know for a fact that the practices of the program are at fault for these teenagers, that are experiencing freedom for the first time, breaking the law and soiling that very same brand? Or is it possible that a University that 28,000+ attend annually, and that thousands work for, just happens to have some people of questionable character? Hey, if Rutgers decides to fire Head Coach Kyle Flood then you won't get an argument from me, but it's not because I think he deserves it. Ultimately the illusion of "control"  is just based on student athletes being smart enough to do the right thing. Rutgers is dealing with more controversy than it ever has, but it's not because the state of their athletics programs lends itself to such controversy. It's because people that they put faith in have compromised their trust by making dumb, embarrassing choices.

Pretty funny to hear these things from someone that is employed at ESPN. Hey Bob, was it a national embarrassment when Jameis Winston, an alleged rapist, was standing on an ESPN stage being celebrated for his athletic achievements? Quick question, in your unbridled deep throating of the SEC's dick, do you guys cover any of these schools?

That's so weird that Rutgers, a program that is a "national embarrassment", doesn't even sniff the top 25. In fact, even with the almost comical amount of Rutgers players being taken into police custody over the last few weeks, I am pretty sure we fall closer to the median than to the likes of Florida, Georgia, Florida State, and Alabama. You know, the schools that ESPN constantly lauds for their athletic programs.

I am not saying that the last three years haven't been embarrassing for Rutgers and the State of New Jersey. I would know better than anyone that they have been. However, all I am asking for is unbiased reporting from a group of people that are paid, and given a platform, to discuss social issues in sports. If Rutgers hasn't given the talking heads at ESPN enough newsworthy shit, over the course of the last month, to fill up a 30 minute time slot without having to revert to slandering their past then I don't even know how the show has lasted this long. If Rutgers is, indeed, a "national embarrassment" then college athletics, as a whole, are a national embarrassment. They are no worse than a number of other schools that happen to get more notoriety by the same company that continues to be ever so critical of Rutgers. I know that comes off as a "if your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?" comment. However, maybe I am just tired of Rutgers University, an institution that has continually had one of the highest graduation rates for student athletes, getting thrown to the wolves when there are so many other universities for ESPN to sink their teeth in to.