Oklahoma State Football and Mike Gundy Will Need to Block Out Noise to Heal
STILLWATER -- I ran into John Helsley on Saturday at the same YMCA that we both work out at, John was just finishing and told me to take his elliptical machine. He told me it was his favorite in the gym. My favorite was being used, so I took him up on his offer. A minute later I see a man standing in front of me. I took my earbud out and he tells me that he is an Oklahoma State fan and he was disappointed that Chuba Hubbard made his complaint against Mike Gundy public. I assured him that by this point Chuba himself probably felt that way.
I know, I agree that the Cowboys All-American running back has nothing to be apologizing for. Mike Gundy admits he shouldn't have worn the shirt. He should have know more about how the organization on the shirt stood on issues important to his players and to this country. However, Hubbard is not a person that seeks out attention. Doing interviews is not his idea of time well spent. The focus was on Gundy, Oklahoma State football, and Hubbard. That meant Chuba was in high demand.
Let's be perfectly honest here, the media doesn't care if Mike Gundy throws away that shirt, burns it, and then gets in a circle with his players and sings Kumbaya. The story in Stillwater this week was good copy for the folks from ESPN to Sports Illustrated to The Oklahoman and every media outlet in between.
Chuba Hubbard had a sincere reason for doing what he did. On the surface it was about respect, underlying reasons would also include respect, but I believe also relationships.
"I never had an issue and I always enjoyed the coaches that I was with," 2019 team captain and graduated senior Phillip Redwine-Bryant told me this week. "I never had an issue with Coach Gundy and he was always good to me, but then again, I can't speak for everybody."
No, he can't and I remember a conversation that I had with the starting running back before Hubbard. Justice Hill passed up the bowl game in 2018 and passed up his senior season to go to the NFL. Standing on the side watching a late season practice, I asked Justice if everything was okay, and he told me it wasn't. He told me that didn't have a relationship with his head coach. Hill and Hubbard spent about five weeks together this spring during the pandemic and my guess is that subject may have come up.
It has come up before as former record setting Oklahoma State and now Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph told a prayer breakfast crowd in South Carolina that he didn't have much of a relationship with Gundy until his junior season. He said an assistant coach told Gundy that Rudolph wanted more of a presence from Gundy and Rudolph said it kicked in the next day. Rudolph's last two seasons he would meet with Gundy privately during the week.
It used to be not long ago that once a week, this was confirmed by former players, that the coaching staff and their families would eat training table with the players. That function has lost steam in recent years.
The team still eats meals at holidays and the bowl games together with coaches, staff, and families. The Christmas dinner at the Texas Bowl this past season was a huge festive event. It was an event that I witnessed in Houston.
Former Oklahoma State defensive end Richetti Jones, who has said he has looked at Gundy like another father echoed that sentiment this week in a radio interview.
"Believe it or not Coach Gundy, you have black children, Jones said. "You have sons on your team that do not have fathers and do not know what it is like to have male instruction. You are the closest thing they have to a father. I know it's not fair and that any of your other friends could wear that shirt, but you are held to a different standard. You have black sons and they look up to you and they embody everything that you teach them and they trust you. Not only that, but their families trust you."
Well said, Gundy and his coaching staff have black sons and white sons. Next to a father, an athlete will likely look up to his coach more than anyone. I believe players are reaching out and wanting more from the coaches. The Cowboy culture has been working. Redwine-Bryant also said that this week.
"It comes down to how hard you want to work and how well you want to buy into this program and the culture that is set up. If you do that then I think everything will work out for you and everything will be fine."
I may be wrong, but I don't think I am. Oklahoma State does not have a race issue, Mike Gundy and his football program doesn't have a race issue. I've been around too close to too long. I know a lot of former players that would have spoke up if race was an issue. In fact, Jones said this week, if anything, Oklahoma State and Stillwater sheltered him from racial issues.
"Oklahoma State is a safe haven and it almost doesn't prepare you for the real world," Jones said. "In Stillwater and with Coach Gundy and Cowboys football, I really didn't experience any racism or any kind of racial injustice or anything like that because the people in Stillwater are salt of the earth. They are great people. You are always going to have racist people, but in Stillwater, I never experienced that. When I left Stillwater, man, that is when I experienced the harshest and the most racism that I've experienced in my life. I really felt naive when I got out of Stillwater and realized all white people weren't nice and the people weren't as kind and understanding as the people that I dealt with in Stillwater. I never experienced racism in Stillwater and certainly with OSU football because I felt we (black players) had a voice."
There it is. Jones, who played from 2009-11, believed he and his teammates had that voice. This may have been what happened. Now it is time for that voice and the one that responds to it to each be louder and more frequent.
"It is very rare that you can create change unless you are banging on pots and pans and saying 'hey, hey, hey, look at this issue right here,'" added another team captain form 2013 in Imade. "It's unfortunate that Chuba (Hubbard) did not feel comfortable going to him (Gundy). Everything I'm hearing and seeing right now is that they are moving forward in the right direction. That is what is really important now is that they move forward as a team, coaches and players together, in the right direction and make Oklahoma State a better place."
That is something they will need to do from within, working together as players and coaches. The best way to do it and stay together is to work on it everyday and ignore what is said outside the program.
