You’ve probably seen the clip from yesterday of Fox News host Eric Bolling coming out in support of fired Rutgers coach Mike Rice who was caught on video throwing basketballs at the heads of his players and calling them faggots.
Today Eric Bolling reiterated his support and lamented the “wussifying” of America and declared that abusive coaches who physically assault their players and yell gay slurs at them are “the best coaches.”
Bolling: Megyn, I’m an athlete. If someone’s a bully, I’ll get in his face too, but I’ve played for coaches like that. I’ve played for a lot of coaches like that, and let me tell you something — the best coaches are coaches like that. [...] Here’s what I’m doing — I’m saying we are so afraid to discipline our kids. We’re so afraid to tell our kids we disagree with what they’re doing.
Everyone gets a trophy. A participation trophy. There’s no winners. There are no losers in life anymore, in America anymore. We are wimping-down, we are wussifying American men and it has to stop.
Can you imagine if a drill sergeant in the Marines wasn’t allowed to get in someone’s face and yell at them? We’d be losing wars all over the place.
The type of behavior depicted in the classic Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket isn’t permitted in the military. You are not allowed to physically abuse recruits. But last time I checked, we didn’t win the Vietnam war anyway. This nostalgic world conservatives pine for where physical and verbal abuse transformed boys into Manly Men and lead them to glorious victories never existed anywhere outside of fiction.
With that said — student athletes aren’t soldiers. They aren’t preparing for war. They’re young adults preparing themselves for the rest of their lives.
Similarly, Sean Hannity declared last night that he’s a fan of that “old fashioned discipline.”
Hannity: I’m watching this, and I’m thinking, alright, I don’t like it. He kicked one player there. But on the other hand, you now what, I kind of like old-fashioned discipline, on the other hand. I mean, have we become that politically incorrect? These are adults. They don’t want to play for that team, they can leave.
No. They can’t leave. These are students attending the university on an athletic scholarship and they aren’t being paid a single dime for their contribution to the billion dollar industry that is the NCAA.
The messages is clear. Some of Fox News’ highest profile personalities are comfortable with what they have seen on video and believe to condemn it is to condemn American men to being wimps. Probably gay, too.