sometimes you have to acknowledge the mistake or the problem gets way worse. Look at how much of a pounding the NFL took for trying to publicly gloss over the Ray Rice incident. People seemed almost as ready to lynch the league over poor PR as they were over the underlying issue.

If coaches only praised in public, the uproar from the fans would be ten times what it currently is. People would complain that the coaches are oblivious. The players would feel the sting every bit as much.