PantherNOW Editorial Board
Football Head Coach Mike MacIntyre has been fired from the team. This is after Macintyre finished the season with a third consecutive 4-8 record and accusations were made by several former players of verbal abuse and throwing a chair that hit a player.
Former team captain Reggie Peterson made the allegations against MacIntyre in a public post on X with other players chiming in. Peterson spoke with PantherNOW in an exclusive interview to offer more detail.
Firing MacIntyre was the right decision, but the reasoning given was purely for on-the-field performance. No word has been given about the allegations from Athletics – the students deserve an answer.
There’s no question about it– he couldn’t remain at the helm of this team. Hitting a player with a chair because you can’t control your temper is inexcusable.
We understand that it’s not an easy job to be the head coach of a team with constant pressure from higher-ups and fans alike to succeed. But that is no excuse to hurt a student.
There are also allegations that Athletic Director Scott Carr was made aware of the chair-throwing incident and ignored it, which is outrageous. If true, this is an absolute failure of the football program and Athletics in protecting its student-athletes from harm, and both should be ashamed.
MacIntyre cultivated a culture of fear within the program, according to Peterson.
The intensity and pressure put on the athletics department isn’t a surprise but it’s not an issue only at FIU, but universities nationwide.
Student-athletes are deathly afraid of speaking out against instances of abuse because they don’t want to be targeted by their own athletic programs or potentially lose their scholarship.
Even if student-athletes are afforded some protections from such retribution, it’s still not enough to make them feel comfortable talking about it.
Being chewed out for a bad play? Sure, it happens all the time. Having a chair thrown at your head during halftime because you are losing? Unacceptable and we shouldn’t treat it as such.
And this isn’t only about football. We’ve seen this ourselves in our reporting of the FIU track team. The majority of the athletes we spoke to were former members of the team. Every current athlete expressed concern about having their name mentioned in the article.
Oftentimes, players only feel comfortable talking about their experiences after they finish their collegiate careers, and by then, years have gone by and the cycle of abuse has run its course.
Current student-athletes should not be afraid to speak out against abuse within their teams and the idea that athletes are soft for doing so because it’s “normal” is draconian.
At its core, this isn’t a sports issue. This is about abuse of power, abuse of students and a university’s negligence in protecting the students that fund the staff with their own tuition.
MacIntyre is gone, but no conclusive word has been given from Athletics on his off-the-field behavior. Carr needs to be held accountable should these allegations be proven true.
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