Does anyone think he'd have been fired for what he said if they were winning? It was certainly a lot tamer than some things I've heard from other coaches.

Don't get me wrong - I don't talk like that, and never have, but compared to some stuff I've heard from, say, Bo Pelini or Mike Leach, it was pretty tame, and they still have jobs. I really think 11-46 had more to do with the firing than this tape.

Of course it is, from an employment law standpoint, and from a standpoint of negotiating a settlement on the terminated employment contract, and things like whether he could collect unemployment right away.

Who gets more leeway:  coach losing record or coach winning record.

Well, I listened to the tape as best I could and I heard some "sh*t football," some "MFs," and some "bitches" but I didn't hear a clear "homosexual slur."  Anything of that order, from what I was able to make out, would be more in the ear of the beholder than the intent of the speaker.  I must admit that I get more and more worried these days about the "thought police" and the lack of respect for the First Amendment in our society today.  Americans should be able to say what they want in most circumstances without fear of reprisal.  It's prejudicial actions that should be crimes not what we say with our mouths, with rare exception as when one would cry "fire" falsely in a crowded theater and cause a panic where folks get trampled to death.  I'm not saying that I like what I heard or that I would personally use the language that I heard English use on that tape; however, I really don't see a fireable offense there.  Now if he was talking about smoking crack with Carl Pelini at a coaches convention that would be something else.  Then, of course, the firing wouldn't be for the speech but for the action that the speech revealed.      

I see no problem with a coach screaming and swearing in response to a team's attitude or effort, but you run into issues when you start using slurs and personal attacks. It's the difference between footage I've heard from Mike Leach/Bob Knight and Mike Rice/Ron English.

Do you really think the words English used represent the way he actually treats people?  He was having a rant using words that I would never use; however, I respect his right to have a rant without it costing him his job.  Now, if he'd actually treated people the way his rant would suggest he wanted to, that would be an entirely different thing.  We need to have a much higher level of respect for the rights of individuals to express themselves in this society than currently appears to be the case. 

Yes, because that's what he did.



He doesn't have that right.



I guess we were due for you crying about the First Amendment; it had been a while. The Amendment does not protect people from all consequence. Never has and is only true in your head, it seems. And spare us the drama about society; the US is one of the most permissive (if not THE most) countries in the world when it comes to speech.

To shift the discussion a bit... one of EMU's regents is questioning the viability of the program. An interesting and blunt look at EMU's future:

Anyone want to talk about the government shutdown?

It's worth pointing out that the Constitution only applies to what the Federal Government does. It doesn't apply to what EMU does. I'm sure they could fire him for this, or they could have not fired him for it; and taken some other action.