By now, most people have heard of or seen Mike Gundy’s reaction to the Jenni Carlson column in Saturday’s Oklahoman. If not, look it up on YouTube; it’s worth the watch.
The O’Collegian is conducting an online poll to see what reaction his tirade garnered from those who saw or read it.
As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, 78 percent supported Gundy and said he was being a good coach by defending his player; 11 percent said Carlson was in the wrong, but Gundy shouldn’t have called her out; and 11 percent thought Gundy completely overreacted.
The editorial-board members agree that Gundy did the right thing to stick up for Bobby Reid and that Carlson was wrong for writing the column without backing up her statements with facts and making severely unwarranted personal attacks on an undeserving player. And we must commend Gundy for refraining from personally attacking Carlson in his response. It would have been an easy thing to do in that situation.
But we don’t believe Gundy should have referred to Reid as a “kid.” He isn’t a kid.
As college students, we’re treated like adults and are expected to act like adults. We can’t expect to suddenly know how to deal with things, like Carlson’s personal attack, upon graduation.
We also believe that Gundy should not face punishment from the university because he neither did nor said anything wrong. As a coach, he should have the right to stand up for his players without fear of punishment.
And if the university chooses to fire Gundy, we at the O’Collegian would warmly welcome him as a newsroom coach. God knows we need someone who will stand up for us as passionately as Gundy did when we’re personally attacked.
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Amazing how a group of college students can see the inappropriateness of the article that the Oklahoman ran. I commend you and hope that nothing like that gets published in this paper. I have been reading the O’Colly for 5 years, and you guys are not afraid to disagree with the school or its officials. Again, it is good to see members of the media supporting Gundy.
Gundy didn’t say anything inappropriate. He raised his voice to insure his point was heard - and he did a fine job of that. Seems the sports columnist are the ones that want to be coddled and treated like babies. I think it would have been more effective if Gundy would have puked on the reporter ~
The coach was right, I am so happy to see a coach stand up for one of his players. We need to make sure that these reporters are held accountable for what they write. I just read an article from some clown that is supporting this lady rips the Coach. We need people to send him emails and blast him for his support of her. His email address is:
editor@harnettcountynews.com
I’m old enough to remember the time when the O’Colly’s editors and news staff were universally and roundly ripped by everyone for running a story about Vernand Morency, a player who at one time had had sexual assault allegations filed against him.
An O’Colly reporter uncovered this event and the paper’s staff ran the story. At the time, we were criticized for “digging up old stuff” despite the fact that the allegations had never been published and had been sealed by a judge.
We were attacked with all the fury that Carlson felt — admittedly on a smaller, more localized scale.
We were right to run the story because it was a story, and Carlson was right to run her column because it was an opinion column. Gundy acted like a clod and embarrassed his team, the school and the state.