Sports

Fail of the tape: Rutgers AD gutless for not firing tyrant Rice immediately

The video isn’t just shocking, it’s appalling.

There, unmistakably, despite the grainy quality, you see an angry little tyrant named Mike Rice acting like a petulant, profane child, putting his hands on the athletes who play basketball for him at Rutgers, kicking them, throwing basketballs at them, assaulting them with homophobic and sexist slurs.

This isn’t just a man who deserves to be fired; he needs professional help. This isn’t just the momentary fury that inhabits coaches at all levels, it’s the rantings and ragings and ravings of an out-of-control despot. The one thing he never actually screams is this: “PLEASE FIRE ME AT ONCE!” But the message is pretty clear to anyone who sees it.

Anyone, that is, but Tim Pernetti, the athletic director at Rutgers, the man who hired Rice, the man who saw this video evidence long before anyone else did, the man who, if he had a shred of decency and an inkling of decorum, would have honored Rice’s subliminal plea and fired him at once.

But Pernetti didn’t do that. Seeing the same indefensible behavior everyone else has now seen, hearing the same vile verbal spatter, Pernetti’s idea of discipline was to suspend Rice for three games in December, fine him $50,000, assign a monitor to, in essence, baby-sit his coaching brat at practice.

That’s what he did. That’s all he did. Yesterday, attempting to get out ahead of the story before ESPN could, Pernetti showed the video to reporters, which would have been an appropriate prelude to announcing Rice’s dismissal. Instead, he told those assembled reporters he wasn’t firing Rice.

“Mike understands and signed up for what the Rutgers standard is, which is all about accountability,” Pernetti told ESPN. “He understands as he holds his players accountable, I hold him accountable.”

But who holds Pernetti accountable for this profound absence of common sense and decency? Who holds Pernetti accountable for seeing what we have all now seen and being, perhaps, the one person alive who thought, “Three games! That’ll show him!” Who holds Pernetti accountable for one more time bringing Rutgers basketball into the mud pit of scandal and abject folly?

A few years ago, it was former coach Kevin Bannon, who would force his players to strip if they missed practice free throws. His successor, Gary Waters, another Type-A beauty, decided it would be a good idea to attend a ceremony honoring his inclusion in the Kent State Hall of Fame despite weather that threatened to keep — and ultimately kept — him away from a game against Marquette.

And now this. And here’s the thing: This shouldn’t have been a tough call. Firing a coach for wins and losses is a subjective thing at a place like Rutgers, which hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1991. But when you witness the behavior, it’s easy. When you hear Rice use terms like “fairy” and “f—-t” — especially at a school such as Rutgers, where a freshman jumped off the George Washington Bridge a few years ago after a classmate had videotaped and publicized a gay encounter — it isn’t even close.

Rice has to go. He had to go in December. It was Pernetti’s call then, and that he was either too blind or too weak to make it calls into question whether he has the stomach for the job, or the soul, regardless of whatever skill he used to gain Rutgers admission to the Big Ten. It is the public’s call now, and Pernetti finally fired Rice on Wednesday morning.

But after this absurd, awful performance, he should really start worrying about his own job.

michael.vaccaro@nypost.com