Donate Life Month Press Conference, April 8, 2013 (Transcript Below)
Governor Christie: I don't think that any rational person would look at what Coach Rice was doing on those videos and Coach Martelli y by the way, let's not let him off the hook, okay both of them. And would say listen if they win, that's acceptable conduct. Win or lose that is completely reprehensible, unacceptable conduct. To be using homophobic slurs and to be having the physical contact with young men that he was having is simply unacceptable. And just take my word for it, you heard it this weekend from folks like John Thompson, and Lou Carnesecca and Jim Calhoun, guys who were extraordinarily successful, as successful as any coaches in college basketball history. Who said the rule is you don't lay a hand on a student athlete. The John Thompson quote was great, he said don't tell me this was the old way, this was never the way. And so to me I think we have an out of proportion view of this as it relates to this type of conduct. I think this kind of conduct -- and that is why I was so shocked that anybody can review this tape, whether it was a member of the board, whether it was the athletic director, general counsel, can review this tape and come to any other conclusion then we need to get this guy off campus immediately. I can tell you this, if I had been shown this tape in November, I would have used my persuasive powers to make sure that Coach Rice was gone as best I could. It's just unacceptable. And nobody -- I've heard some people who try to minimize this conduct, see if you have a child at a school who's playing college athletics where you would think that it was overblown to have your child treated that way. We've got to remember, these are young student athletes, 18, 19, 20, 21 year old young men hopefully becoming mature men, they have a role model who they spend most of their time in college with, more time than with any professor or any resident assistant or anybody else if you're playing Division 1 athletics. You know my son has practiced six days a week, practice or games, six days a week, he spends more time with Coach Bradley than he spends with any other person at Princeton University. They're supposed to be a role model. Who could actually look at that tape and say that you'd want to entrust your child to Mike Rice? To me, once you answer that question, there's no other question to ask. I don't care about the legalities or the niceties, I don't even know why they got outside counsel to look at this. Fire him and let him sue you, and let the courts decide. But get him away from the student athletes. That would have been my call on it if I had seen the video tape back in November. But you know, everybody has different judgments but those people have to be held accountable for their judgments and they have been.
