Longtime assistant football coach at University of Oklahoma resigned recently for apparently saying the N-word aloud when reading it from a player’s Ipad who was supposed to be taking notes during film study. Former players even acknowledged that they didn’t believe that Coach Gunday was racist. He had been a coach at OU for 23 years and a player there for 4 years.
It seems to me, that the expectation that this person resign because he read the words of someone else is stupid and does nothing to further the cause of anti-racism.
I don’t care how that word got into his mouth, as an adult in the USA in 2022 in a public position he was showing a serious lack of judgement in uttering it. I do believe his apology is sincere. But, in today’s world one falls on one’s sword to avoid contributing to an organizational firestorm.
I don’t know the story and I haven’t read the article (yet), but just on the surface, this seems like something on par with a newscaster reading something on a teleprompter without first processing what it says. You’ll occasionally see pranks get played on the anchors this way.
Are we just using “cancel culture” to mean any event we’re unhappy with? Was there some big push to “cancel” him? Because it doesn’t seem like this was in the news at all until he resigned.
Hmm. Seems like overkill to me, but I say that as a white male, so take my perspective with a grain of salt.
I do believe (subjective opinion only) that many of the “apologies” offered after poor behavior are damage control only, and the perpetrator seems to be a bad actor or sketchy at best.
This one doesn’t seem so, unless there’s more to the story. I don’t think someone’s life needs to be overturned over any misstep. Sometimes a sincere apology should be enough.
Also, I think “cancel culture” is mainly a term used to camouflage poor, malicious behavior. The fringe cases often get highlighted, but my gut (a notoriously unreliable metric) tells me that most often, the “cancelled” person is simply dealing with the consequences of his bad behavior.
Seems way overkill. The university could have just briefly admonished him, “Say it as N-word, not as (actual N-word)” and that would have more than sufficed.
Umm, can we be real clear on one point? According to the article the only person responsible for ““canceling”” Cale Gundy is . . . Cale fucking Gundy.
The only words from anyone formally associated with the Sooner in the article is this,
First-year Sooners head coach Brent Venables, who served as an assistant alongside Gundy from 1999 to 2011 in Norman, issued a corresponding statement Sunday night.
“It’s with sadness that I accept Coach Gundy’s resignation. He’s dedicated more than half his life to Oklahoma Football and has served our program and university well,” Venables said. “We’re thankful for that commitment. We also acknowledge that in stepping aside he’s placed the program and the welfare of our student-athletes first. In coaching and in life, we’re all accountable for our actions and the resulting outcomes.”
The article linked in the OP makes it sound like it was his own idea to resign. Unless I missed it, there was no report of anyone asking or pushing him to resign.
I figure there’s gotta be more to the story, although we may never know it.
This could mean a lot of things, from the harmless to the egregious. I assume “film study” means studying football plays? It sounds like he was annoyed at a player for not paying attention in football class. It could mean he grabbed a Black player’s iPad, and sarcastically and loudly read the rap lyrics for the whole class to hear, including the N-word while looking directly at the player. Who the hell knows from that information.
While this is true, I wouldn’t take the article on it’s face. He was offered the opportunity to resign so the school wouldn’t need to fire him, making both sides look better in the process.
I’d agree it seems to be an overreaction to a minor misstep.
This incident would have been discussed by the Head Coach and the Athletic Director, then the Athletic Director would have discussed it with HR and the University President/Chancellor’s office, and likely legal counsel. The steps and expectations are fairly standard in these cases. The is little chance that any of those in leadership would have resisted whichever path would have led to his no longer being employed. Certainly the University President/Chancellor would not have any desire to justify keeping him on to a Board of Regents or statewide system leadership, let alone any public outcry from the student body, the academic community, or the broader public.
So, he goes, one way or another - and if he’s got half a brain he resigns (which it looks like he has half a brain.)
Or, that’s just the most plausible explanation he’s using to justify what was said. And the people involved have chosen to leave it at that since he’s resigning straight up.
It’s also possible, had he not stepped right into resigning, those present may have felt it necessary to challenge that explanation.
I mean, if it was you, you happened to see N on a screen, would you then just blurt it out? I don’t think you would, to be honest. Assuming there were people of colour present, it seems even less likely you’d be inclined to just blurt it out because you saw it. Like, this fellow has had no familiarity with rap music? Seems very unlikely.
His willingness to cancel himself does not lead me to believe he’s without blame here, whatever actually happened.
Unbelievable. The man accidently said a word and for that he has to resign? This is why progress is so difficult.
What a clever plan. It must have taken months of planning to have that player write an offensive word on his iPad, then make sure this coach grabbed it from him and read off the text containing the offensive word. One slip and the player may have said it himself, or the iPad could have been fumbled when he grabbed it and knocked the text off the screen. An incredible number of things could have gone wrong in pulling this off. This just shows what a great coach he was to organize all this and pull it off flawlessly.