Oklahoma City ? Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said Friday he never intended to raise his voice during a postgame tirade at a newspaper columnist that has become an Internet video sensation.
“My voice escalated as it went on because I got angrier when I thought about it,” Gundy told Oklahoma City radio station WWLS in an interview. “Not at any particular person, but when I thought about the way it happened and the embarrassment that it may have made to this young man, it made me angry, and that’s just a fact.”
Gundy’s rant at columnist Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman was sparked by a column suggesting that quarterback Bobby Reid was demoted more because of his attitude than because new starter Zac Robinson was more talented. Reid’s mother has told a Houston television station she is looking into legal action.
“It didn’t have anything to do with football,” Gundy told the radio station. “The majority of it – people talk about the facts of it – the facts were it had discussions about the coaches. I know that some of those didn’t take place because I’m one of the coaches. And it set me off because it was a personal attack on a good kid. That’s all there is to it. That’s all it was.
“And I really didn’t intend on raising my voice.”
Besides being spread through the Internet video site YouTube, the interview has been discussed widely in debates over whether the column was too critical of a college athlete and whether Gundy crossed the line in his postgame comments. It has also fueled jabs at Gundy’s comments (including “Come after me! I’m a man! I’m 40! I’m not a kid!”).
