At Oklahoma State, Mike Gundy’s love of OAN more likely to earn a raise than a firing
The Big 12 allows ESPN to own and operate The Longhorn Network for the University of Texas, so the conference must permit OAN to do the same for The Oklahoma State Cowboy Channel.
Because you know Okie State sports on One America News Network will not just be watched by coach Mike Gundy.
Gundy does not need the late Oklahoma State University owner T. Boone Pickens to protect him on the this one. Considering the school and its fan base, Gundy is more apt to be offered another extension, and a guest spot on Fox News, too.
When Gundy admitted he appreciates the heavy right-leaning One America News Network, and then wore an OAN T-shirt for a photo during a recent fishing trip, he hardly just represents himself.
Gundy will get fired one day because of his record, not his choice of TV news program. A lot of people agree with Gundy, and you can bet big that most of his fellow Cowboys do, too.
This is Oklahoma State, not Cal State.
Cowboys running back Chuba Hubbard is a great player, and OK State fans love him, but they will also love the next 1,000-yard rusher, too.
There is a quiet majority at play here that too many people want to pretend does not exist. A quiet majority that can’t understand, or cares, how another part of their America lives.
It’s that audience that makes an “OK State Cowboys” Network brought to you by OAN a possibility.
The appalling part is that Gundy, who recruited Dez Bryant — who came from a background in Lufkin that was awful even by NFL standards — doesn’t get it.
Back in April, Gundy said in a Zoom press conference, “I tell you what’s funny is, I was flipping through stations. I found one — I don’t even know if anyone knows about this — it’s called OAN. It’s One America News.”
Yes, Coach, pretty sure we know about OAN. It makes Fox News look like CNN, The New York Times or The Washington Post.
“And it was so refreshing,” he said. “They just report the news. There’s no commentary. There’s no opinion on this. There’s no left. There’s no right.”
But there is plenty of stupid.
Mike Gundy is an educated man, but he’s not that much different than millions and millions of other Americans who earned a college degree from Generic State University X and choose to believe what they want.
Fortunately, there are now countless mainstream media platforms to validate his beliefs, and those of OK State fans, too. If it’s on TV, it must be true.
Hubbard did not notice his coaches’ adoration for OAN until Gundy was seen wearing the network’s shirt in a photo that went viral.
Hubbard made a threat that looked good on Twitter, and essentially issued an ultimatum that unless things changed he was not going back.
Gundy reached out, and the two posed for a 51-second video that was made for social media consumption, and all future Cowboys recruits and their moms and dads.
“I’m looking forward to making some changes, and it starts at the top with me,” he said in the video.
Hubbard apologized when one was not necessary. He’s a nice kid who didn’t realize he didn’t need to say he’s sorry, which he should not be.
He said he should not have voiced his displeasure via Twitter, and gone to coach “As a man.”
Mike Gundy may be a man, but the only way this recorded exchange with his running back happens is because Hubbard went to Twitter rather than directly to his coach.
Social media is abuzz with adoration for college football players exercising all of this untapped leverage, which is great, and a mirage.
They all want to play pro ball, and the best place to do that is a place like Oklahoma State, and the rest of the Power 5 programs.
Hubbard can leave Oklahoma State, but his next coach is not going to be too much different than Mike Gundy.
The parents know it, too.
On Tuesday, after seeing his own lack of apology become a point of criticism, Gundy issued a one-minute statement he read and posted to his Twitter account, @CoachGundy.
“Once I learned how that network felt about Black Lives Matter, I was disgusted, and knew it was completely unacceptable to me,” Gundy said on the video.
He then read an apology for the pain and discomfort his T-shirt caused over the last two days.
So Gundy can talk change, but when he goes home and flips through channels, is he watching OAN again?
Mike Gundy is a middle America American who wants his version of America, but it’s fantastic.
By admitting his love and respect to OAN, Mike Gundy revealed himself.
Perhaps this embarrassing episode will force some change, and improvement.
At his age, and in this job, it should not have taken this.
But it does, and he is hardly alone. He’s just a member of a quiet majority.
It won’t get him fired.
At a place like Oklahoma State, and so many others, it’s more apt to land him an extension.
