So let me ask you a question. If you were Hawkins, wouldn't you be defensive as well if you were putting in 70 hours a week, and doing everything you knew how to get things fixed, and all you kept hearing was fire his ass.
I know I would be defensive. Hell I know of many instances where I HAVE been defensive when I was busting my ass at work and some jackass shows up at a meeting, who hasn't spent 5 minutes trying to help starts pointing fingers at everyone else as to why things are late or not passing qual. I recall a VP calling me from home at 9 pm the night before thanksgiving telling me I had to stay at the office until I got the job done. I won't go into the details of how the entire conversation went, but as I recall at 1 point I asked him why his fat ass was at home with his family if this project was so important to him, rather than being in the office with me trying to get **** done. Needless to say, my upward mobility at that company was severely limited at that point. But screw him.
I know Hawkins is in the public eye and he has to have thicker skin, but I can also admit that I am not so sure I would handle it any better than he has. Most likely I would have handled it worse. I am sure a few FU's would have been thrown towards a few reporters during the press conferences.