Mike Gundy should read newspapers

Let us, for a minute, consider the circumstances that caused Oklahoma State University football coach Mike Gundy’s exceptional tirade against sports media a few days ago. I’m aware that most of the readers of this site aren’t college football fans, so you might be in the dark as to the incident I am referring to in this post, so here’s a bit of context for you all.

This past Saturday, Jenni Carlson ran an article in The Oklahoman that accused quarterback Bobby Reid of being coddled, soft, and of not having the right kind of winning attitude in order to lead the football team. She claimed that while Reid was still technically the better quarterback on the team, OSU had decided to start sophomore Zac Robinson instead of Reid not because of his talent, but because Reid didn’t have the right attitude to win.

While the Cowboys did go on to beat Texas Tech on Saturday with Robinson at the helm, the only thing on coach Mike Gundy’s mind was Carlson’s article published earlier that day. Instead of talking about the win, Gundy went on a tirade against the sports media, most of which is captured on this video below:

I fear that Gundy’s outburst may have escalated the situation to a public level when it could have been dealt with in a much more subtle and effective way, but I do feel that this is a good time to comment on sports media and student athletics, and the role each of these bodies have to play in concert with each other. As much as I think that Gundy’s histrionics were excessive, I also believe that Carlson (and other members of the media who are not immune to this error) was out of line in her comments.

Columnists are opinionated people

I’ll be the first person to argue that the job of a sports columnist is to have an opinion. Anyone can attend a game and report on what happened: the reason that we value certain sports writers over regular beat reporters is because they have an opinion — an opinion shaped from either experience, research, or insight — that shapes their perspectives, which they then share with us, the spectators and readers.

Whether they are writing about the National Football League, the College Bowl Championship Series, high school Friday night games, or lunchtime pick-up games on the elementary school yard, reporters need to express this opinion in order to make their story unique, engaging, and worth printing. The question of whether or not we agree with that opinion is irrelevant; as long as the insight is expressed, the story is valuable. Sports writers offer a perspective that game statistics alone can never convey.

In that light, you can’t fault Jenni Carlson for speaking her mind: she had an opinion about Bobby Reid, and she conveyed that opinion in her article. Coach Gundy’s assertion that he doesn’t read newspapers because the media has become too critical of athletics is ludicrous. This kind of criticism is the fuel that athletic programs require in order to maintain their prominence in the public sphere: before you get people talking about you, you need to give them something to talk about. If it weren’t for the media speculation — the reporters, the columnists, the fantasy leagues, the analysts — the entire BCS wouldn’t exist, and Gundy would be unemployed.

Gundys’ claim that Reid is “not a professional athlete” might be true, but is completely irrelevant to this argument. Much like a professional athlete, who deserves to be criticized by the people paying his salary, Reid is a scholarship athlete at a state school — his education is being funded by taxpayers and therefore needs to be accountable. While I’m not claiming that all student athletes need to be treated like pros, I do feel that they need to be cognizant of the fact that they are representatives of their academic institutions and athletics programs, and this will involve media speculation and criticism.

Reid may understand this, and has remained mum throughout the whole affair, but his coach must be deluded to think that just because his player is barely old enough to drink alcohol legally, he is immune to public scrutiny. Mike Gundy’s postgame comments, when taken in this context, seem much more childish and immature than his own quarterback’s actions.

Coaches protect their players

Of course, I can still understand Gundy’s fury: Carlson was perhaps unnecessary vitriolic in her assessment of Reid. While I will uphold the journalist’s right to criticize the athletic-related actions of any athlete, I do not agree with making sarcastic and personal jabs at any individual that are completely unrelated to their on-field performance. Stooping to that level is not only unjust, but cruel, and I can therefore understand Gundy’s passion (but still not the content of his response) in his press conference reply. After all, a coach must protect his players against unwarranted personal attacks.

Carlson’s points about Reid’s nervousness and injuries were well-founded — drawing an seemingly unconnected link between his athletic performance and the fact that his mom was feeding him chicken, however, was inappropriate. Indeed, her line questioning Reid’s off-field character — “Or does he want to be coddled, babied, perhaps even fed chicken?” — based on an incident in a parking lot was the perfect example of bad journalism and can not be defended. I understand that Carlson may have been using technique to make her article more evocative, but certain kinds of embellishment — particularly those that lead to unnecessary defamation — have no place in sports reporting. Save that for the politicians and mudslingers.

Gundy’s accusation that many of Carlson’s claims were untrue is an important one. If Carlson was in fact lying, or even just fudging the truth, in order to sell more copies of the paper, the editor of the Oklahoman should be held accountable for publishing untruths. Journalistic integrity is primordial to the profession, and any kind of blemishes to this integrity needs to lead to serious consequences, not only for the writer, but for the entire staff of the publication.

Fans make the final decision

It is clear to see that both parties are in the wrong in this situation: Coach Gundy in his content but not his passion, and Jenni Carlson in her disregard for integrity and civility but not her right to have an opinion. In the end, it is the Oklahoma State University athletics fan that is the final arbiter — disregard Carlson’s journalistic authority or disregard Gundy’s athletic authority? — and will ultimately choose what side of the equation is the correct one.

Going forward, I think the editors of The Oklahoman need to look at what kind of content is being printed in their publication and ask themselves what kind of damage this incident has done to their credibility and act accordingly. I also think that coach Gundy needs to look at the ways he deals with conflict and stress and ask himself what kind of damage his outburst has done to his authority and act accordingly.

I think Nebraska Huskers coach Bill Callahan said it best:

“Whether or not you’re being praised or being criticized, you really have to maintain an even-keel approach. Good or bad — it’s always going to be there.”