Oklahoma State coach Gundy blasts Oklahoman columnist

I've been called out in a press conference, though certainly not to that degree.

I just sat there and stared back at him. Never took my eyes off the fucker, and I was proud of myself.

 

I agree Gundy went too far and did a poor job defending his player, but why do so many in our profession think our written words shouldn't be challenged? If her column is on the front page and draws tens of thousands of readers the athlete and Gundy should be entitled to defend themselves. I don't agree he should have responded to this in private because it would have remained there. He wanted his response in the mainstream and he achieved that.

We may not care for his approach (his tone and message should have been more on the actual assertions in the piece), but he obviously didn't care for the writer's approach, which was pretty weak. She didn't substantiate one "rumor" and took a private moment between the player and his mother and blew it out of proportion. I also wonder why she used quotes given to co-workers instead of asking both the player and coach about this before writing the column?

Our word isn't law guys, and we should be held accountable. If you're going to firing bullets as sensitive and accusatory as the ones she did, you better expect return fire. It's only fair.

 

This, more than anything, is something I understand more and more every day.

Even beat guys sometimes fail to be fair, regardless of intent. It shouldn't get personal, but we should let people have their say. If they want to call out one of our stories in a large setting, that's their right. Not every word about these coaches and players in our papers is good for them. We're trying to be the best at what we do, and they're trying to be the best at what they do.

 

I know Jenni. She's done some feature stuff that is damned impressive...if you search, there's an old story about Josh Heupel she did the year OU won the national title with him at QB. This column? (Shrugs indifferently). As for Gundy, everyone in Norman is probably roaring right now at what an ass he made of himself and the program. The fact that he's worried about the mental well-being of an adult on his team due to a newspaper column should let you know what kinds of kids he's recruiting.

 

Or what kids he's taking from other programs (coughBowmancoughStonercough).

 

Yup.

If a kid and his family cannot handle scrutiny, kid shouldn't play football - or any sport - for a team in a BCS conference.

Great meltdown by that coach. An embarrassing classic, that will be posted here and remembered by all when he moves on from Okie State.

 

A) The coach's tirade was an act. Unprofessional and inappropriate. Hopefully someone on the SID staff gave the columnist a head's up this was coming.

B) Every coach and player say "I dont read the newspapers." They think it offends us. Theyre wrong.

C) The column was weak. The only decent detail was the one about the kid laughing on the sideline. Did she do any reporting herself? Far as I could tell, she used everyone else's work to try and prove her point and I'm not sure she pulled it off. If you're gonna write an accusatory column -- and play it up the way they did -- you need MUCH stronger information.

D) The chicken thing is bizarre. I would say it's a cheapshot, but I have no idea what the hell she's trying to say. My guess is she's saying it shows a lack of maturity. That's a pretty big stretch ... But if you're gonna use it,for the love of God, describe it better. How does someone feed someone else chicken? By cutting it off the bone? By making it into a sandwich? By playing the airplane "Open up!" game? ... I'm guessing she didn't witness the scene, which makes the column even worse.

 

Yes, you definitely have to expect a return fire when you write something like that. It's enough when an opposing player calls a guy soft, or a teammate. But a female columnist? Being one myself, I know that I wouldn't write that kind of a thing unless I had it ROCK, SOLID. We'd all like to pretend that being a woman doesn't matter, but on this kind of thing it does. That doesn't mean she shouldn't have written it. If it's true, you go with it. But you've got to hold yourself to an incredibly high standard on that one.

That doesn't excuse the coaches' outburst. I thought the whole you must not be a mother line of reasoning was really offensive. Would he say, you must not be a father to a male columnist?

But he's got a right to fire back. So we should view his outburst as a rebuttal column. At the end, if you were voting, who won the debate?

In my view, Jenni Carlson did. Because the coach resorted to a smear campaign, while Jenni at least provided a few facts. I would've like some more solid facts, but at least she had some evidence. The coach basically said, she's wrong and she's mean, but didn't offer any real defense of his kid's guts.

I know this is going a bit overboard, but what he did was basically the same thing defense attorney's do in he said-she said cases. Instead of refuting what she said with facts/evidence, they just dig up a bunch of dirt on her and say that you shouldn't believe a word she says. Again, that's overboard, but it's the same line of reasoning.

 

Couldn't play the video, but I did stumble across this when searching for it on YouTube ...

 

That was a classic overreaction ... Yeah, the column wasn't well done, but come on, man. That was really nothing.
Your quarterback is not a chubby child getting ridiculed on the playground. It's a 21-YEAR-OLD MAN who can buy a case of Budweiser and who is GETTING A FREE EDUCATION! That means getting PAID tens of thousands of dollars and not having to spend 20 years paying it back!
He wants to talk about what's wrong with society. How about adults coddling kids like they're still in Underoos? I think this fits a theme with the story. Momma feeds him chicken. "Here comes the airplane in the hangar ..." and Daddy (or coach) sticks up for him when someone says something bad about him.

 

Every coach in the Big 12 will see that video today. Every scouting report on a team coached by Gundy for the rest of his life will read "keep it close. They'll crack."
I've had my ass chewed by Hall of Famers. The reason they're Hall of Famers is they did it in private, where they could vent/make their case, and then let it go.
That video screams "I'm a loser."

 

Did this happen in the most recent signing class?