Reid: Gundy's rant ruined my life

[sportschick]

QB that prompted the infamous "I'm a man. I'm 40" rant speaks, and not positively, about Gundy and the whole situation.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3341578&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab4pos2

 

[Bubbler]

Good read.

 

[Angola!]

Wow, that was a damn good story. I really liked how the writer went and found the part of the story that hasn't been told yet.

 

[ondeadline]

If that's the way the scene with his mom and the food really went down, then the way the columnist wrote that is unfortunate.

I'm not sure I'm buying that Gundy was just putting on a show.

 

[sportschick]

I can buy that Gundy was putting on a show. That rant seemed designed to embarrass the kid involved. It was so over the top and the defense of him as a child when was a senior in college struck me as designed to let the kid know Gundy thought he was weak.

 

[ondeadline]

I can believe he embellished his anger, but to say the whole thing was a show?

I'd like to get somebody outside of Reid's family who is close to the team to agree with them. Alternatively, I'd like to hear somebody close to the team saying there's no way it was a show. Obviously the latter is going to be an somebody quoted anonymously.

Admittedly, I don't follow Oklahoma State football. I'm just guessing.

 

[John]

I wonder how the OSU beat writers feel about the story. If they're "brave enough" to read it.

 

[armageddon]

Well, I've got one question about the kid.

When he doesn't get the last possession against OU he starts cursing and going off, on the sideline and in front of his teammates, but when he is formally demoted to No. 2 he decides to roll with it because he isn't confrontational and that's why his profs and teammates love him?

We talking about the same player?

If that happened on the team I cover that kid would be running the scout team the next week.

 

[BTExpress]

A fine story . . . but this "rant ended my life" is utter bullshirt.

He said it, so writer can't ignore it. But the story sure doesn't indicate it. And making it the headline is the overstatement of the year. His life is going exactly where it would have gone without the rant: Upset about being benched, finally decides he has had enough, eventually transfers.

When I saw the headline and the first paragraph, I kept waiting for some awful things.

Instead, I got a QB controversy (seen at about 2,300 schools across the nation) and a QB who loses out and has to start over elsewhere (never happened to anyone else, except maybe Brent Schaeffer and 1,000 other ones, including about 20 who once played for Steve Spurrier).

"Rant" over.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

Carlson definitely didn't come off looking good from this.

Anybody else think Gundy looks like a Houston Nutt clone?

 

[Johnsonville]

Not buying this story at all. Friend just glosses over that Reid was always hurt and wildly inconsistent. Those are two things a quarterback cannot be. Robinson was the better player and deserved to start. Yes, it hurt Reid, but the coach make the right decision for his team

I also think the "rumors" about Reid need a little more development than simply implying that writers were too scared to print it. Seems like the Reids sold Friend a story and he didn't dig deep enough to really seem what happened.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Well, I've got one question about the kid.

When he doesn't get the last possession against OU he starts cursing and going off, on the sideline and in front of his teammates, but when he is formally demoted to No. 2 he decides to roll with it because he isn't confrontational and that's why his profs and teammates love him?

We talking about the same player?

If that happened on the team I cover that kid would be running the scout team the next week.

Excellent questions. Tom Friend is a really talented writer, but I suspect he Disneyfied this one and because it is such a great read, people who don't know the reality will like the story and buy it. Things are rarely this black and white -- good guy/bad guy. But clean lines like that make for the best magazine stories. I read it and thought it was a great read. It is a great read. Well written, flows perfectly, makes you feel good. But it really is just a single-source story. It's the kids' version. And if you think about it, weigh some of the factual things that were presented with what you know about how things usually are, you should have questions like the ones you have.