BY MARTIN KICH

“The NCAA, the presidents of the universities, the Power 5 conference commissioners, the athletic directors need to be meeting right now and we need to start coming up with answers. In my opinion, if we have to bring our players back, test them. They’re all in good shape. They’re all 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22-year-olds. They’re healthy. A lot of them can fight it off with their natural body, the antibodies and the build that they have. There’s some people that are asymptomatic. If that’s true, then we sequester them. And people say that’s crazy. No, it’s not crazy because we need to continue and budget and run money through the state of Oklahoma.”

After noting that Oklahoma State’s football program generates $36 million annually, he added, “So when you’re talking about continuing the economy in this state, if you have to play—plus, you need to play anyway. Everybody needs to see football. Even if you just watch it on TV, it’s going to make people feel better.”

The blowback was so immediate and intense that Gundy fairly quickly apologized, though he did so in a couched manner that has now become so familiar that it has become something of a running joke—suggesting that if “some” people were offended, well, he should have taken into account that such people exist: “I have been made aware that comments from my press conference have offended some. It was never my intention to offend anyone, and I apologize. My first priority is and will always be the student-athletes and doing what is best for the program and the university.” Given what precedes it, the last sentence is not just disingenuous but offensively so. It makes it fairly conclusive that the tone deafness was not just some sort of unfortunate, momentary slip up.

But, if you think that this post is a little hard on Gundy, please read Part Forde’s article for Sports Illustrated. I have let him off easy by largely just quoting what he said and letting that speak for itself.