Jim Boeheim Apology: Syracuse Coach Right to Regret Initial Bernie Fine Defense

The public must accept Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim's apology for his initial defense of former assistant Bernie Fine and move on.

Boeheim was backing up his friend, which most of us would do in many cases, but in this situation, it was irresponsible to come to Fine's defense so quickly before knowing all the information and facts of the allegations.

Here is a bit of what Boeheim said at his press conference after his team beat Florida on Friday night, via CBS Sports:

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"I shouldn’t have questioned what the accusers expressed or their motives. I am really sorry that I did that, and I regret any harm that I caused. It was insensitive to the individuals involved, and especially to the overall issue of child abuse."

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Later saying:

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"What I said last week was out of loyalty. I reacted without thinking. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’m trying to learn from my mistake, and this has been a hard time.

"That’s all I can say. There’s an investigation going on that I fully support, because we all need to know, as much as we can, what happened.”

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Boeheim was right to regret his initial comments when defending his friend; they negatively affected many people. 

However, Boeheim's apology was emotional, and it was sincere. He's realized he did something wrong and he's apologized.

Give him credit for apologizing, though; Boeheim knows he was wrong and the best thing we can all do is move on and wait for the ongoing investigation to finish.

Boeheim remains the right coach to lead the men's basketball program at Syracuse, and his apology on Friday night was sincere and we should accept it.