Cale Gundy, the younger brother of Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy and the longest-tenured football coach in the Big 12, resigned Sunday night, saying that he read aloud “a word that I should never — under any circumstance — have uttered” off the screen of a player’s iPad during a film session last week.
Gundy, who was the Oklahoma wide receivers coach, allegedly noticed the player who was to be taking notes during a film session was distracted by his iPad. So the 50-year-old coach took the player’s iPad and began reading the words on the screen.
The word in question isn’t specified in Gundy’s statement nor by anyone else who was in attendance. Three guesses what the word is. It probably starts with the letter “n.”
“The unfortunate reality is that someone in my position can cause harm without ever meaning to do so,” Gundy wrote in a statement posted to his Twitter account. “In that circumstance, a man of character accepts accountability. I take responsibility for this mistake. I apologize.”
Sooner Nation, thank you. pic.twitter.com/BYBOjObGna
— Cale Gundy (@calegundy) August 8, 2022
All of us can likely remember a time in grade school when we were maybe passing notes during class and not paying attention to what we were supposed to. The teacher caught us and either asked us to read whatever the note said out loud or the teacher would read it themself.
Now if anything wild was said on the note the teacher likely wouldn’t repeat it and send us to the principal’s office or give detention and that would be the end of it.
But a grown adult reading the words on a young adult’s iPad out loud to a room full of other young adults? Seems a bit sophomoric.
To be fair we don’t 100 percent know what the word was that Gundy said, but it was enough to make him resign. So it was obviously a bad one or at least one that if it was ever revealed what he said would likely get him fired.
“I want to be very clear: the words I read aloud from that screen were not my words. What I said was not malicious; it wasn’t even intentional,” Gundy wrote. “Still, I am mature enough to know that the word I said was shameful and hurtful, no matter my intentions.”
Still, this incident is similar to behaviors taking place all around America involving primarily white people saying or doing something to Black people, and the subsequent outcry from the public for the offender to lose their job.
Gundy didn’t wait for the mob to come after him, he took the preemptive step in all likelihood to avoid further discussion.
Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon, who was coached by Gundy at Oklahoma, went to bat for his former coach and posted a statement on his Twitter account.
“I owe my education and professional career to him and most importantly I owe who I am as a person to him,” Mixon’s statement read in part. “Most importantly Coach Gundy is not, and I repeat is not a racist in any way nor has a racist bone in his body, mind, or soul.”
Sooner Nation This Ain’t Right‼️ @OU_Football pic.twitter.com/2WoKGrxcXX
— ⚡️Primetime!!!⚡️ (@Joe_MainMixon) August 8, 2022
Mixon was charged with assault while at Oklahoma and entered an Alford plea on the charges. He punched a woman breaking bones in her face. In 2016 he also intimidated a parking attendant after receiving a citation.
We don’t know whether Gundy said anything racist or if he is a racist. All we know is he said something he wish he didn’t and he resigned.
