meltdown
09/24/2007
Oklahoma State University Coach Goes On Tirade To Defend Player
When Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy arrived at his press conference on Saturday, after his Cowboys prevailed in a wild 49-45 shootout over Texas Tech, the media expected him to praise the effort of his student-athletes. What they got, instead, was a highly-charged meltdown directed towards the newspapermen gathered at the conference.
Gundy, seething about a Daily Oklahoman columnist's scathing and cowardly attack on one of his players regarding last week's blowout loss to Troy State, delivers an impassioned speech defending the character and integrity of his kids. Yes, his "kids." During his meltdown, Coach Gundy reminds us all that when we scrutinize the level of play and the quality of character of college football players, we are skewering nineteen and twenty-year-olds. We are damaging kids, most of whom did little to deserve such malice from the local community aside from drop a pass or two on Saturday afternoon.
As a nation, we obsess about sports and often ignore the "college" in college football. It's become such a financial juggernaut that we can hardly distinguish amateur from professional. We assume every player suiting up on the gridiron on Saturday is built and custom-made to eventually suit up on Sundays. We get carried away. And in the heat of the moment, we sacrifice our decency when we maliciously attack a recent high school graduate for throwing an incomplete pass. College athletes, while high profile in some cases, are not paid (allegedly). They, by and large, are not professionals expected to deal with the personal attacks that come with intense media scrutiny. This is what Coach Mike Gundy reminds us of when he courageously and correctly slays the local paper in Stillwater, Oklahoma for its highly inaccurate and cowardly "reporting" -- a term that Coach Gundy might suggest is being used loosely in this instance.
It should surprise no one that Mike Gundy, after saying nothing of his Oklahoma State team's win that day, left the room to applause. I would not be surprised to see an increase in interest in Oklahoma State University football from parents of soon-to-be high school graduates, either.
