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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Michelle R. Martinelli

Cale Gundy’s Oklahoma resignation and its subsequent conflicting statements, explained

Cale Gundy Mike Gundy Brent Venables Oklahoma (Organization) Sooners Football Sooner Nation

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. If you’ve been reading the latest college football headlines this week, you’ve no doubt come across the news that longtime Oklahoma assistant coach Cale Gundy resigned from his post suddenly, and you’re wondering what the deal is. We’ve got you covered.

Cale Gundy is no longer an assistant coach with the Oklahoma football team. He resigned Sunday, and in a statement he tweeted late Sunday night, he admitted to using an unspecified but “shameful and hurtful” word during a film session last week.

Gundy’s statement led first-year Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables to release his own statement Sunday night about accepting his assistant’s resignation.

However, Venables then offered another statement Monday afternoon, which most notably says that Gundy “chose to read aloud to his players, not once but multiple times, a racially charged word that is objectionable to everyone”. Venables’ second statement implies Gundy’s use of the offensive word in question was less of an error than Gundy and co. initially suggested.

Let’s take a look at what we know and how these statements seem to tell varying versions of the situation.

Cale Gundy's explanation for why he resigned from Oklahoma

The 50-year-old younger brother of Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, Cale Gundy had been with the Sooners in some capacity for decades. He was Oklahoma’s quarterback from 1990 to 1993 and returned to the team in 1999 under former Sooners coach Bob Stoops. Gundy started as the running backs coach before eventually becoming the inside receivers coach and ultimately the wide receivers coach under Venables, as The Oklahoman noted.

But after more than two decades with the Sooners, Gundy is no longer on the team after resigning Sunday night.

In Gundy’s lengthy statement on Twitter, he explained the situation and why he felt it warranted such a reaction, saying: “I owe it to Sooner Nation to be transparent about what led to this decision”.

His statement reads, in part:

“Last week, during a film session, I instructed my players to take notes. I noticed a player was distracted and picked up his iPad and read aloud the words that were written on his screen. The words displayed had nothing to do with football. One particular word that I should never — under any circumstance — have uttered was displayed on that screen. In the moment, I did not even realized what I was reading and, as soon as I did, I was horrified.

“I want to be very clear: the words I read aloud from that screen were not my words. What I said was not malicious; it wasn’t even intentional. Still, I am mature enough to know that the word I said was shameful and hurtful, no matter my intentions. The unfortunate reality is that someone in my position can cause harm without ever meaning to do so. In that circumstance, a man of character accepts accountability. I take responsibility for my mistake. I apologize.”

Gundy went on to note how much he loves the program and that he didn’t want to be a distraction. So he acknowledged he said something he shouldn’t have, loosely touched (but could have expanded) on why the unspecified word is “hurtful,” apologized and resigned.

Room for interpretation on whether Gundy used this unspecified word once or more than once

Although it’s not explicitly explained either way, Gundy’s statement suggests he used the word he shouldn’t have once, though there’s some room for interpretation.

He wrote that “the words” he read to the players “were not [his] words” — plural. But then he wrote that “the word” — singular — he “said was shameful and hurtful”.

Further implying Gundy used the word once and not multiple times, his statement noted that he didn’t “even realize what [he] was reading”, and he was “horrified” immediately afterward.

Again, it’s not explicitly explained either way, but saying he was horrified by what he read certainly implies he used this offensive word once and not more than once.

Venables' original statement on Gundy's resignation

In Venables’ original statement Sunday night about Gundy’s resignation, he kept it brief and offered far fewer details than the departing coach himself.

Venables’ Sunday statement, in part, read:

“In coaching and in life, we’re all accountable for our actions and the resulting outcomes.

“The culture we’re building in our program is based on mutual respect. Our staff is here to develop successful student-athletes, but also young men of character. As the leaders of this program, it’s essential that we hold ourselves to the highest standards as we model for our players the type of men we want them to become.”

It was a fairly simple and predictable statement from the first-year Sooners head coach. There was no mention of Gundy’s language or conduct or the overall situation that led to his resignation. And most of his comments are centered around the type of program he hopes to have at Oklahoma, rather than why a longtime coach is leaving.

It’s a polite and almost courteous statement from Venables and one that seems like it could have been written about any coach in any program with questionable-to-offensive behavior.

Venables' second statement on Gundy took a completely different tone

It’s unclear why Venables released a second statement, but it certainly seems like he realized — or others made him painfully aware — that he had left too much unsaid in the first.

Compared with his original statement about Gundy’s resignation, the head coach’s second one released Monday afternoon did a 180 on tone, acknowledged the harm caused to players, added way more details and noted Gundy said the unspecified “racially charged” word “multiple times”.

His second statement read, in part:

“As painful as it has been dealing with Coach Gundy resigning from the program, it doesn’t touch the experience of pain felt by a room full of young men I am charged to protect, lead and love. There are a few things I would like to address.

“Coach Gundy resigned from the program because he knows what he did was wrong. He chose to read aloud to his players, not once but multiple times, a racially charged word that is objectionable to everyone, and does not reflect the attitude and values of our university or our football program. This is not acceptable. Period. Coach Gundy did the right thing in resigning.”

Along with the shifted tone and players’ reactions, the part that so clearly stands out the most is the phrase “multiple times”. And it calls into serious question Gundy’s attempt “to be transparent about what led to this decision”.

Although it remains unclear exactly what “racially charged” — or racist, to call a spade a spade — word Gundy said, saying it once can seldom, if ever, be categorized as a mistake. But saying it more than once is definitely not. And if Gundy’s reaction really was “horrified”, as he put it, surely he would have stopped after saying the word once and not “multiple times,” as Venables claimed.

Either way, these three statements appear to contradict each other in terms of what exactly happened in that film session, which could suggest that this situation is about to get messier.

And college football fans noticed...

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