On Monday, a soy filled millennial sportswriter at CBS Sports named Kyle Boone blasted out into the Twittersphere a photo of Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy wearing a t-shirt with the OAN news network logo on it during a private fishing trip. What happened next was literally exactly what you would expect at this very idiotic time in our history.
The most notable response prompted by the Gundy photo was from Chuba Hubbard, a redshirt junior running back at OK State. And when I say response, I more mean an emotional meltdown...over a t-shirt. Hubbard exclaimed that he "WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!" That wearing a t-shirt with a right leaning news network logo is "completely insensitive." He then declared he will not participate in ANYTHING to do Oklahoma State University until things CHANGE! Naturally, a number of Chuba's teammates jumped on board with him.
Putting aside the emotional reaction aside, it does prompt some questions for Chuba. It is fair to say that you known Mike Gundy for about five years. He recruited you, you are the starting running back for his program. You rushed for over 2000 yards last year and could presumably transfer to play anywhere in the country if Gundy was actually a bad guy (what NCAA coach wouldn't die to have that kind of talent at half back?). So is Mike Gundy a bigot or not, Chuba? Is he a man who sees his players on the basis of race or not? Maybe you know Mike Gundy well enough to know that he didn't mean anything by wearing the shirt? Maybe give Bobby Reid a call (more on him later). Maybe there is a crazy problematic culture at OKST that we just don't know about and if that's the case, why haven't we heard about this before? Was a news logo T-Shirt really the thing that required such a vocal response?
Furthermore, its strange (but really not at all), that Chuba Hubbard gave no details about WHY OAN was so offensive and how he has no record of policing ACTUAL shitty racist behavior. One would think Hubbard, an African-Canadian, would have some thoughts about Justin Trudeau and the seemingly endless array of the Canadian Prime Minister galavanting around in black face, and yet. . .
*crickets*
As you can imagine, many were not thrilled with this latest cancellation attempt. Hell, I am hardly an OAN stan (more of a Tucker guy myself) but we can all agree this is fucking ridiculous, right? Most people under the age of 40 don't even really WATCH television anymore - so it's possible Chuba only heard what people on the left have said about OAN and not actually watched it himself. This truly does represent a level of accepted tyranny in our society that we have never really experienced before.
Disappointingly, Gundy quickly capitulated and issued a hostage video style apology. I understand that people are living in fear of losing their livelihoods - but you can never give an inch to these fascists (yeah, they are what they claim to battle). You stand your ground, you defend your convictions especially when there is nothing wrong with them. Remember that nothing you do will ever be good enough anyways so stop ceding ground. Be JK Rowling. Be Dominos.
Ironically enough, the thing that put Mike Gundy on the map was 13 years ago when he went on his infamous "I'm a man! I'm 40!" rant against media members for trying to drag down Bobby Reid after a bad game. Bobby Reid was quarterback for Oklahoma State at the time in 2007. Reid is African American. Mike Gundy views him as an individual. Mike Gundy goes to the mattresses for his guys. Mike Gundy protects people when the mob comes for them. But treating others like unique human beings rather than by group identity simply is not good enough anymore.
We need more men in this world like the "I'm a man! I'm 40!" Mike Gundy and far fewer like the now 52 year old coward that bends the knee.
Its quite unfortunate that Mike Gundy is no longer 40 and thus apparently no longer a man. And at the end of the day, lets all remember this was about a t-shirt. A fucking t-shirt. With a news outlet's logo. Have we really lost all perspective? It is absolutely undeniable that things are going to get a whole lot dumber before they get better but never forget...the best is yet to come!
-JAC