im sure one in four of you have seen the clip, the other three dont care. but i feel the need to share my thoughts on the matter. if you dont know what happened saturday, see:

Jenni Carlson'* column:
http://newsok.com/article/3131543/1190555866

Coach Gundy'* response:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5VytIZZzee0

first ill address carlsons column and my issues with it.

First and foremost, the column is an opinion piece which was put out the Saturday that Oklahoma State played Texas Tech -- which means that theres a fair chance that Bobby Reid, the quarterback in question, read or heard of this column before going out to play. It should also be noted that The Oklahoman is probably one of the worst places to read unbiased news in oklahoma, especially in the sports. The ******* family [which the university of oklahomas stadium is named for, and has a brand new journalism building named after them], if they dont outright own the oklahoman, come pretty close to it. That said, if this article was going to be released anywhere, it was destined to be in the Oklahoman -- and written by Carlson. Jenni Carlson has never been a columnist to get hung up on things like "facts" or "professionalism" when writing. she can do awesome things on feature columns that tug on your heart-strings, but what shes doing writing about sports, who knows. in the column in question, Carlson opens with BS about Reids mom spoon-feeding her son chicken. you almost get the image of a preteen wearing a bib to prevent dribbling on his nice new uniform. repeatedly in the column, carlson attributed her "facts" to "rumors and rumblings" and "the word". she does say that Bobby Reid is the best signal caller, but that is buried in her painting this athlete as a scared little boy who needs his mom to feed him chicken and who is afraid of being hurt. Carlson went over the line in her article, and is completely unapologetic about it. which is cool, i wouldnt expect someone of carlsons limited integrity to admit any wrongdoing. and for an opinion peice, carlson actually tells very little of her opinions and instead hides behind "rumors" and "the word" to state what i actually suspect is her opinion. but why doesnt she just state it as her opinion? because shes a coward.

now on to Gundys response and my issues with it:
First and foremost, it should be noted that Gundy went on his tirade in a press conference held specifically to discuss the game with the media. and it was quite a game, especially coming off a loss to troy. his tirade took the focus off the big win that his team deserved and instead turned what should have been a celebration into a finger-pointing match. he was correct though, the article was a bit below the belt and completely ignores Bobby Reid as an individual who was just removed from starting position (which has to hurt). But Gundy could have held his complaints in a different manner. perhaps addressing them in todays news conference instead of overshadowing both a big game and next weeks game. He said some things that needed to be said, as there is no excuse for the way Reid was attacked. Im not sure Gundys response helped Reids image of himself, as Gundy seemed to present an image of Reid not much better than carlsons, but at least Gundy was on his side. and thats important, because a coach has to be on the side of his student athletes.

finally, on to Bobby Reid and my issues with people:

no, i dont know him. ive never met him. but when he was recruited, he was hailed as the next Barry Sanders. thats quite a tall order and at this point i dont think even Barry Sanders could stand up to the hype. i do think the citizens of oklahoma and the fans of oklahoma state deserve to know whats going on with oklahoma states football team. if gundy and crew had been open about how they were choosing their starting QB, this whole thing would have been avoided. i do notice a couple of agencies right now trying to turn this into a "Male football coach versus female columnist" angle, and thats bs. this is "Football coach and parents versus columnist". gender has nothing to do with it. im just glad neither of them is a member of a minority. oh, theres an idea. how about "Black athlete versus white columnist"? see how absurd it gets when you try to polarize groups? i will say that i fully believe that tirade on Gundys part was planned. im sure that he was backed into a wall, because Carlson claims to have inside sources with the coaching staff, he very likely had his starting or backup QB come up to him pissed (or better yet, that QB'* overly interfering mom] wanting an explanation for why the coaches were denigrating him -- and Gundy who might not have known what was going on, shared the anger.


now that said, can the news agencys please get on with life? how about the fact that in two weeks, LSU takes on FL (the numbers 2 and 4 teams in the nation) for the first of likely two matchups, and Oklahoma takes on Texas (the numbers 3 and 7 teams in the nation) for one of the biggest and most celebrated rivalries in the nation?