Editorial: Is Gundy Doomed to Being Sometime Media Favorite and Sometime Media Target
A long time ago when I was a "cub" reporter at KTVY-TV, later KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City the main news anchor and the matriarch of the newsroom, Linda Cavanaugh, once told me it doesn't matter if it is good or if it bad, just make sure you leave the audience talking. Cavanaugh was using the old theory that no publicity is bad publicity. The worst of all is no publicity at all. I get it and Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy lives it. Gundy conceded to doing a teleconference with media on Tuesday.
You see in times of trouble and the COVID-19 pandemic with it's no vaccine or cure and ability to spread rapidly. The fact that it is a respiratory infection and it is very fatal to older patients and patients with existing health issues makes it a real threat. In times like these America and sports fans want to here from there sports celebrities or heroes.
In a state that is dominated, more times than not, in the media by the University of Oklahoma, Cowboys football coach Mike Gundy is a rebel. He told OU no as a blue chip high school quarterback out of Midwest City. He handed the ball to Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas and threw it to Hart Lee Dykes. He came up through the coaching ranks and rose to become the winningest head coach in Oklahoma State history. Sure, he was aided by a renaissance with Mike Holder as athletic director and Boone Pickens' generosity that established facilities allowing Gundy and the Pokes to compete.
Gundy has definitely used the "Linda Cavanaugh" philosophy of media. Sometimes, and often it is depending on who you ask, Gundy is a media hero with his brash statements and sometimes brutal honesty. Other times he is annoying with his flippant answers and veiled responses to injuries or player status. His 2007 rant became an iconic moment in coach-media history. As a result, nobody has any problems remembering his age. In 2007, he was 40 and a man. Now it is simple, do the math.
The 52-year-old Gundy (he will be 53 this August) wears his politics on his sleeve. He is a big fan of Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and a big fan of the current President Donald Trump. As I said, his first and possibly biggest faux pas on Tuesday in his teleconference was his first reference to the virus being the Chinese virus. Later he injected his desire to get his staff and, later, his players back on campus, even tested and sequestered, if need be, to get football going. Gundy talked about the need to get it going from an economic and budgetary standpoint.
"They are 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22-years old and they are healthy and they have the ability to fight this virus off," Gundy said of his players. "If that is true, then we sequester them, and continue because we need to run money through the state of Oklahoma."
It's not a good look, but if you listened to others, other coaches and athletic directors. Even some of the media brought up playing football and the financial need to play it inside the same sentence. The comments may not have been as aggressive or honest, but Mike Gundy is a football coach, so what do you expect him to say in times like these. He wants to coach football, that is what he does when he is not limited to being on his farm to plant wheat and milo.
He watches the news, but he can't quote statistics when it comes to number of cases of coronavirus, number of hospitalized, number of fatalities, or percentage of patients that have recovered. He is not a doctor or a scientist that can project the curve or the recession of the virus.
Few used his quotes, The Oklahoman, Tulsa World, and Pokes Report but Gundy applauded medical professionals and the general citizenry of Stillwater, Payne County, and Oklahoma for practicing social distancing and staying at home.
When he got past that and complimenting his coaching staff, support staff, and players for doing what they are supposed to during this; then he got into talking about getting back to football and that is what got him into trouble. Enough trouble that an apology had to be crafted.
It is kind of simple, football coaches at the Power Conference level are generally going to take advantage of a media op. They have to recruit and they want to keep their program viable during all this. However, when they talk, expect them to talk football and football coming back soon. It is what they know and what they need. They can do a little endorsing, but much more than that isn't necessary.
For Mike Gundy, it kind of depends who it is and when it is. Gundy can be a breath of fresh air in a world of coach speak or he can be wrong opinion somebody wants to hear. We've seen a history of it both ways and can't see that will be changing anytime soon.
