Mike Gundy’s pandemic plan for Oklahoma State football roasted on social media
Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy might want to stay off social media for a few days. His comments on his desired plan amid the coronavirus pandemic created a stir on Tuesday.
Gundy said he’d like he and his staff to return to the football offices on May 1, something that is off the table for now. The Big 12 has said schools can have no organized, in-person team activities of any type, in any location until June 1 at the earliest.
But Gundy threw out the idea that tests for the coronavirus could be more readily available for staff and players in a few weeks, which would make it realistic to resume sooner than expected.
“How fast that can happen based on the tests that are available, I can’t say right now, but that’s the plan,” Gundy said. “We have to have a plan, and the plan right now is for them to start on May 1. It might get backed up two weeks. I don’t know. I can’t make that call, but if it does, we’ll start with the employees of this company, the ones that come in this building.
“Then we’ll bring the players in, and slowly but surely we’ll test them all in.”
Gundy’s really controversial remarks centered on why football season must go on as scheduled and bringing players back on campus.
“The NCAA, the Presidents of the universities, the Power Five conference commissioners, the athletic directors need to be meeting right now and we need to start coming up with answers,” Gundy told reporters on a conference call, via Robert Allen of SI.com. “In my opinion, we need to bring our players back. They are 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 years old and they are healthy and they have the ability to fight this virus off.
“If that is true, then we sequester them, and continue because we need to run money through the state of Oklahoma.”
Oklahoma State released a statement later Tuesday in response to Gundy’s comments, saying the university would adhere to the advice of public health experts and follow Big 12 guidelines.
“We will not compromise the health and well-being of our campus community,” the statement said. “This virus is deadly and we will do our part at Oklahoma State to help blunt the spread.”
Gundy also said Tuesday: “I’m not taking away from the danger of people getting sick. You have the virus, stay healthy, try to do what we can to help people that are sick, and we’re losing lives, which is just terrible.
“The second part of it is that we still have to schedule and continue to move forward as life goes on and help those people.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 5:30 PM.
