Without more specifics, I’m not seeing how the incidents identified justify the article’s tone or conclusions. Did he handle some things poorly over the last 10 years? Sure. Does it explain why Cal hasn’t gone far in the tournament? Maybe. Should he have done a better job managing different personalities to avoid a minor mutiny by a few players? Yes. But do his actions constitute abuse? It doesn’t seem close to me unless there’s a lot more than what is described in the piece.
Articles like this are frustrating because they reach severe conclusions of “physical and emotional abuse” based on minimal substance that doesn’t really support the conclusion. In fact, I get the distinct impression the authors reached a conclusion first and then tried to backfill it with “facts” that don’t measure up, so they loaded the article up with a lot of hyperbole.
For example, I didn’t see a single fact identifying what was said to justify the fat shaming allegation. WRT the “physical abuse”, there’s an allegation that one player felt dizzy running sprints, complained, and he brought the trainer. Big deal. And there’s the hyperbolically named “raingate” in which he allegedly overworked players once for disregarding his instruction not to practice in the rain. It doesn’t appear anyone passed out, no one apparently puked, no one needed medical attention and, despite some of their allegations that the AD never did anything about any of their complaints, the article says it did and it found it to be in compliance. This is the centerpiece incident of an article that claims a coach is physically abusive? C’mon.
The term “emotional abuse” is slippery and often in the eye of the beholder, but I don’t think the allegations here get close to that standard. One silly example used to support “emotional abuse” is he punished the entire team for engaging in a hazing incident with 50 hours of community service (good right?), but also included the freshmen. Was that a bad idea? Maybe, although I can see why he would, especially if the article isn’t telling the full story about this hazing/party. But is that emotional abuse? No. Is being moody, dropping an f bomb, yelling during a half time speech, yelling at a player who didn’t seem to be paying attention during film study, and blaming a player for costing them the game poor coaching? Probably some if it. Was it counter-productive as a means to motivate them? Obviously. Was it emotionally abusive? I don’t see it that way especially since that’s the worst the tv station’s year long investigation spanning a 10 year period “uncovered”. Seriously, if that is the worst of his behavior in 10 years and he gets fired over it, pretty much every coach in every sport also needs to go and Greg Baker deserves the electric chair.
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