Oklahoma State coach Gundy blasts Oklahoman columnist

Gundy has as much a right to criticize that reporter as she has to criticize the player.
Plus, I think the reporter went a little overboard over here. She criticized the player's mother. You can ciritcize his play and all that, but when you make it personal, don't expect nothing'll gonna' happen. I completely understand why the coach would come out and do something like this.

 

It may be just me, but the worst part of all this is that it took away from what should have been a positive conference.
If Gundy had any sense, he would have tore through the rant, then took questions on the game. I know there would have been a lot of questions about the column, but like quality coaches, he wouldn't have to answer them.
He doesn't need to take that out on everybody, just that one reporter. I don't defend either of the parties involved, but him storming out like that without talking about THE GAME at all is just a little childish.

 

All fine and good, but my rants are about the writer taking notes about a mother/son relationship as the team is loading a bus.

Nothing to do with a practice field.

 

Exactly. Say all you want about his playing ability. But going after his mother like that was unnecessary. Why did she have to make it personal? Now does she have the freedom to say what she wants? Yes. But don't expect everything to be fine and dandy after saying something like that.

 

Everything is everything.

 

From Forde's column...

Coaches Losing It
Congratulations to Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy (16), who showed he can be Bob Knight without the titles after his tantrum in response to a column by the Oklahoman's Jenni Carlson. In the Saturday paper, she questioned the toughness of quarterback Bobby Reid, who'd been benched by Gundy the previous week. Gundy responded by losing his mind after one of the few big victories in his 28-game career as a head coach, a shootout upset of Texas Tech.

On Monday, a completely unapologetic Gundy said it was "unfortunate" that his 3-minute, 20-second tirade took away from his team's victory. Of course, that was his fault, since he deemed trashing a reporter more important than acknowledging the Cowboys' performance.


Coaches have the right to take issue with journalists, and to do it in public. That's part of the job for a columnist to take what he/she dishes out. But this was such a shrill overreaction that the message was lost amid the screaming.


One of Gundy's big complaints was negative treatment of a "kid" who is not being paid to play the game. But coaches never object to the tens of thousands of fans fawning over that kid, the tutors arranged to help him maintain minimum eligibility standards, the training table meals he eats, the tricked-up locker room he changes in -- or the positive press most players receive most of the time. Hero worship is expected and encouraged; criticism is child abuse. It's quite the double standard.


(For the record, Reid is 21 years old. He was old enough to vote in the 2004 presidential election or to die in Iraq. But few people are afforded the means to grow up more slowly than major-college athletes.)


"Come after me!" Gundy bellowed directly at Carlson. "I'm a man! I'm 40!"

OK, if you insist. The Dash will go after Gundy.

The great orator said that the column in question was shown to him, "by a mother. A mother of children."

As opposed to a mother of walruses, presumably.

Gundy went on to say that 75 percent of the column was fabricated. He took issue with two points in the column. So maybe math isn't his specialty.

Anyway, The Dash hopes Gundy felt like a big man when it was over. Next time an ounce of professional decorum would be appreciated. Until then, try to worry more about improving that 13-15 career record that includes seven victories over Sun Belt and I-AA opposition.

(By the way: Gundy says he doesn't read the newspapers. It's The Dash's experience that the majority of coaches who say they don't read the newspapers are lying.)

On the undercard, don't overlook the exchange between Navy coach Paul Johnson (17) and a reporter after practice one day last week. This was from a transcript on the Navy Web site:

Reporter: Can I ask you something without making you mad?

Johnson: Maybe. I don't know.

Byron Hetzler/S PRESSWIRE

Navy's Paul Johnson could draw a crowd at the city dock.


Reporter: I was talking to a Navy fan and he said he follows the coverage and that he noticed something and I'm just going to put it to you. He says that it seems like when Navy loses you blame the players, i.e., we can't execute fundamental plays, but that the success of the team the last four years has been attributed to brilliant coaching. How do you respond to that?


Johnson: Whatever he thinks. I don't go down to McDonald's and start second-guessing his job so he ought to leave me alone.

Reporter: But do you feel like it can't be both ways?

Johnson: You know what? I could care less. I'm old enough where I could give a crap what the fans think or what you think to put it in a nutshell.

Reporter: Wins and losses are evenly distributed as far as credit and blame, right?

Johnson: If you could ever find one time that I said we won the game because of brilliant strategy I will kiss your butt at city dock and give you two days to draw a crowd. Find it and bring it to me. Tell that guy that if he wants to talk to me I live at [address given but deleted for the transcript] I will be right there. Come ring my doorbell and I will be glad to talk to him.

No word on whether the guy rang Johnson's doorbell. Or whether a crowd has gathered at the city dock.

 

Enter Songbird, giving unity to an increasingly convoluted debate with a mystical tautology.

Ommmm.....

 

Funny, w_i,

I was driving up to NYC yesterday, listening to a quote-unquote black station that had a great dialogue about Jena 6. D.L. Hughley piped up in the convo, as did another gentleman. Man, I wish I remember their names. The D.J., who I guess organized the Jena 6 march, was smooth. His name is Michael something (along the lines of Bazin; I just can't remember).

But there's a song called "Everything is Everything," and it's a cool song and been on my mind, which is why I inserted said words into the last response.

And I'm ALL about tautology

 

I love Paul Johnson.

He really wouldn't care if they published his address.

 

She's didn't?

"These were not wild accusations. They are facts that came from sources and observations."

"No, the reason for my column Saturday was because of one lingering question -- why have the Cowboys, who so adamantly backed Reid, suddenly switched course, benched the biggest recruit to ever sign with the program and jumped full speed ahead with sophomore Zac Robinson?
Again, my answer came from sources and observations."

What is she to do? Should she name her sources to prove she has them?

 

I made the piss-poor decision to read some of the comments following the story. I was so sick of idiot fans to begin with and this just made it worse. Up here, where the local nine is on the verge of it's first winning season in 15 years despite blowing a pretty healthy lead in the division, all people have done this summer is bitch about the manager. His every move is chastised these days and since he blows off the blame pretty easily, the focus has now turned to the regular writers. Fans have accused us of not doing enough to question the manager and challenege his decision-making skills enough.

I find it funny that many of these people are now saying Gundy's tirade was just desserts for media members who do nothing but raise a fuss and brew up controversies for our own benefit.

Morons.

 

Take a different approach.

What did he do on the field? Ask the qb coach if he was reading coverages incorrectly. Was the throwing off his back foot? Did he miss meetings?