Oklahoma State coach’s rant targets KU graduate

Jenni Carlon receives tongue-lashing from Gundy at press conference Saturday

By Thor Nystrom

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy’s three and a half minute long post-game tirade on Saturday hit close to home for a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism.

Jenni Carlson, a former University Daily Kansan columnist and sports editor, was the reporter on the receiving end of Gundy’s rant.

Carlson wrote a column, printed last Saturday in The Oklahoman, suggesting OSU quarterback Bobby Reid was benched for his attitude and not his play. The column insinuated, through an anecdote about Reid’s mother feeding him chicken near the team charter, that Reid was coddled and didn’t possess the mental or physical toughness for the position.

Gundy lashed out at Carlson at a press conference after OSU’s 49-45 victory against Texas Tech. When he was finished, he stormed out of the room without taking any questions.

In the clip, which can be found on YouTube, Gundy said three-fourths of the column was “fiction” and called the newspaper “garbage.”

On Monday, Carlson had her first chance to ask Gundy for a clarification. During the coach’s Monday news conference, Carlson asked, “You contended three-fourths of that column was inaccurate; could you tell me what those factual errors were?”

Gundy responded, “I don’t have to.”

Carlson continued by saying, “Our paper has a policy of correcting errors, and I can’t do that if I don’t know what the errors were.”

“I don’t have to,” Gundy said again. “I’d rather just let it go.”

Lawrence Journal-World sports reporter Tom Keegan, who covered Major League Baseball for 18 years and now writes about KU sports, said Gundy’s overreaction showed how much the coach had been spoiled by local media.

“I think it’s interesting that he said three-fourths of the story is wrong, she asks him what the errors are, and he isn’t able to come up with anything,” Keegan said. “His inability to point to one single thing shows that not one thing in the story was wrong.”

Keegan said Gundy’s actions were “completely out of bounds.” He did say, however, that he doesn’t cover amateur athletes in the same way as professional athletes.

“Right or wrong, my way of doing it, I am not as critical of the college athlete as a professional athlete because they aren’t getting paid,” Keegan said. “I’m analytical and critical of the performances, but I do it a different way.”

Keegan is no stranger to tongue lashings. While covering the Dodgers, Tommy Lasorda once chewed him out while, ironically, eating chicken.

“I actually swallowed some of Tommy Lasarda’s chicken spittle,” Keegan said.

Gundy said in Monday’s press conference that he was just “shooting from the hip.” He took issue with Carlson’s portrayal of a “good kid” who had been “doing everything right,” both on and off the field.

On Saturday, Gundy called the editor of the article “garbage,” and said the situation “makes me want to puke.”

Carlson responded in a front-page Tuesday column in The Oklahoman by writing, “I will not stand on the sidelines and allow someone to attack my credibility.”

She also wrote, “I feel as adamant about the facts in that column as Gundy did in his belief that his player shouldn’t have been so scrutinized.”

Carlson declined The University Daily Kansan requests for comment.

In a Tuesday interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, Carlson said, “It was unbelievable that this was happening. I just was really not expecting that there was going to be this sort of outrage.”

The Oklahoman has stood behind Carlson and the column.

— Edited by Rachel Bock

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