The strange world of Mike Rice

Mike Rice is who he is, no sugarcoating, no fake persona. This Jonathan Mahler article on the former Rutgers head coach actually evokes some sympathy for him -- not for his firing as the obscene treatment of his players justified his being let go -- but because he is so unaware of any sort of boundaries in life and he apparently lacks even the tiniest of filters between what his his brain thinks and mouth speaks. He resides in a black and white world with no acknowledgment of the existence of gray.

Call him uber competitive but to the extreme that he needs to be limited to his participating in solo sports and coaching himself. Otherwise, Rice remains too toxic.

Rice's retort "I was an idiot, but I never abused anybody,” is so telling. His self awareness quotient frozen at zero, he remains clueless, seeming having to remain supremely invulnerable, at least on the outside.