Actually, this is in praise of Mike Rice's apology.
A rare thing, an apology. I mean a real apology. An act of real and true contrition. Not excuse making. Not a thinly veiled insult at those cry-babies who are hyper-sensitive. Not a passive "mistakes were made" shrug. Not a diversionary attack on the person who called him on his trangression.
I truly believe a real, genuine, contrite apology is as rare as forgiveness. Rarer, actually.
And that coach (nay, former coach) delivered.
Now, I am not a sports fan. I had never even heard of the guy before yesterday. I saw excerpts of the video showing his abusive behavior and I was appalled and angry. I wanted that guy to suffer for his behavior. I had cooked up all sorts of names and labels for him that reduced his humanity and mitigated my ungracious opinion.
The first I heard of the incident was a diary on DailyKos showing a clip of the John Stewart show taking apart Sean Hannity and FoxNews for being apoplectic about the "liberal media" being on a witch hunt about the poor guy. So I was already in the mood to castigate the coach as another hateful rightwing media darling. And then this morning I saw the guy standing in front of the cameras. Apologizing.
How often, in personal relationships, in private interactions, in public displays does a person witness honest, sincere, wholehearted apologizing?
Not, "I'm sorry, but (insert reason why said action or words were actually the right thing)".
I know people still want to make this guy hurt. He was repeatedly physically and verbally abusive to boys under his direction which makes his wrongs that much more awful. But that apology was good.
I hope every human being could do that. It is a great big stick in the spokes of the brokeness cycle.
Peace.