Tom Izzo is an embarrassment

Here is what all of college basketball Twitter is talking about right now.

Watch this video a couple of times. Take off the matching outfits. This is a 66 year old man physically accosting a 21 year old. How does this play out on the street? In what other circumstance in society would this be ok? Where else can an old white man grab a young black man hard enough to spin him around?

The argument will be that this is coaching, or that Brown somehow disrespected Izzo, or that people need to “be men.” Those are all on their face stupid. For starters, all Izzo is doing is using his position to do whatever he pleases physically. If you have a job are you ok with your boss snatching you up when you do something he doesn’t like? Seems unreasonable at best, a crime at worst.

Letting trash behavior like this go in the name of “being men,” or respect for a position is gross. If Izzo holds a position of moral authority, he should act like it. He has abandoned that at this point. His authority is now staked solely in the title before his name, he merits no respect for anything other than that. Once people in a position of authority, either moral or granted, start using their position to puts hands on whomever they want, whenever they want, problems are forthcoming. If Allie LaForce asks Izzo a question like that after the game is he allowed to grab her like that? What if a trainer says something he doesn’t like? Snatch her up, right? After all, he’s the coach and he should be respected.

Michigan State makes no effort to protect anything other than their profit margin and the people that are the face of that. The NCAA won’t protect Gabe Brown despite his being the person that actually creates the product. Izzo knows that, and he knows that he is essentially untouchable.

Go back to that video again. Watch the whole thing, but drop it onto a street near you. They physical aggressor is a 66 year old white man aggressively pursuing a 21 year old black man. Were this just “being men” how would it end? Would Tom Izzo deserve anything less than what he would likely get? What isn’t acceptable anywhere else becomes less acceptable when it is someone in a position of power doing it to someone who has no recourse. Tom Izzo is a bully and a coward who hides behind his title and privilege. Nothing more, nothing less.