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STILLWATER, OK – Thanks to the social backlash over wearing the shirt of far-right media network, One America News and drawing the ire of star running back, Chuba Hubbard, embattled Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy and his recent apology was both tone-deaf and not enough to save his job down in Stillwater.

Gundy, 52, played for his beloved home-state Cowboys from 1986-89 as a quarterback before coaching his alma mater in 2005. During his tenure, he would play alongside fellow two future black NFL Hall of Famers in RB Thurman Thomas (Buffalo Bills) and Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) and win the 1987 Sun Bowl and 1988 Holiday Bowl alongside them.

While his career record at Oklahoma State is an impressive 129-64 (77-52 in conference play) along with New Year’s Day bowl wins over Stanford, Gundy is quickly becoming more infamous for his choice of wardrobe and 2-13 mark vs. that school in Norman more instead of being known for his much beloved mullet and first rounders such as WR’s Dez Bryant and Justin Blackmon, QB Brandon Weeden and Super Bowl champion in DE Emmanuelle Ogbah.

It’s also a funny coincidence that former Cowboys QB and current Pittsburgh Steelers backup, Mason Rudolph was also accused using similar racist language in what was now the most infamous use of a helmet in football history by DE Myles Garrett during the Steelers loss to the Cleveland Browns.

Clearly, there is a culture of ingrained racist behavior that has been enabled down in Stillwater, and it all starts at the top with Gundy.

In watching his “apology” following the media firestorm that he would be the center of, you could tell that Gundy looked robotic and felt more like a Al-Qaeda hostage reading a ransom letter from his captors that was forced to read a statement, most likely prepared by the Athletic Department and the school’s public relations department, instead of genuinely speaking from the heart.

Nothing is worse than a fake non-apology, and with new allegations of him uttering the n-word in a game vs. Colorado back in the late 1980’s by former Buffaloes linebacker Alfred Williams, it may be wise for Oklahoma State to risk angering their die-hard pro-Trump donors and boosters in terminating Gundy if the school hopes to save any face and not risk seeing five-star recruits decommit and current players enter the transfer portal.

If there was ever a time to fire Gundy and cut their losses down in Stillwater, now is the moment where Oklahoma State can not only make a statement but also send a message that in this new era of anti-racism and social justice that such actions and language will not be tolerated and should never be accepted.

 

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