Sweeney: Rice Should Have Been Fired When Videos Surfaced

New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney said the national attention being paid to Rutgers University over the behavior of basketball coach Mike Rice has given the school a black eye.

The state senator, whose office is located in West Deptford, appeared on the ESPN program Outside The Lines Wednesday afternoon to discuss the dismissal of the coach.

Sweeney was frank in expressing his disappointment that Rice was not terminated in December 2012, when the tapes depicting the coach's apparently abusive practices surfaced.

"Once you have something like that presented to you, there's no gray [area]," Sweeney said. "You don't have to do much of anything except take action to resolve the problem."

Sweeney said it was "troubling" that the university did not take action sooner to dismiss Rice.

"You can't hide something like this; you can't sweep it under the rug," Sweeney said. "You have to address it."

Sweeney did not rule out legislative inquiry to resolve the matter, and implied that Athletic Director Tim Pernetti could be headed for the chop as well.

"I gotta go back to why there wasn't more of a sense of urgency when it came forward," he said. "We're going to look for answers. If hearings are necessary, we're going to go there."

Rutgers University announced the firing of the NCAA coach in a tweet from spokesperson Jason Baum; Pernetti confirmed it in a statement.

Footage of a tearful, halting Rice circulated on ESPN throughout the program, in which the coach called his actions "deeply regrettable" and called himself an embarrassment to his family.

"Right now there's no explanation for what's on this film because there is no excuse for it," Rice said, "because it was wrong."