Damn…as Michael Gundy’s unofficial biographer… I forgot this is the 16th anniversary of the infamous Mike Gundy Rant directed at Jenni Carlson. Jenni per Mike Baldwin-Daily Oklahoman assist… wrote the infamous article the week after the horrific road loss at Troy State. A game in which Bobby Reid was replaced as the starter by white quarterback Zac Robinson.
It was alleged by Jenni that after the loss… Bobby Reid’s mother was hand feeding her son fried chicken after the game near the O State bus. Jenni used this snapshot in her piece to illustrate her take on Bobby Reid’s lack of toughness which lead to his benching even though we was being hailed as the next Vince Young.
Both Jenni and Mike Gundy became famous for this rant. So did Bobby Reid, but for all of the wrong reasons.
Bobby Reid was the black quarterback from Texas who was the national high school player of the year, or at least Texas his senior year of high school. This rant not only runied Bobby Reid’s football career… it went viral and became pretty much became Mike Gundy’s national brand moving forward.
Incredible as it may seem…The Rant is going viral again today. Sixteen years later.
This encourages me as the author of Mullet King: The Boone Pickens-Mike Gundy College Football Saga. It makes me think there’s still an audience for my book even though Mike Gundy as the head coach at O State has literally won nothing of note in his almost twenty year tenure at Oklahoma State.
At this summer’s Big 12 Media Week…Mike Gundy picked O State to win the Big 12 Championship. Go figure.
Anyway…Even though I somewhat bleed Crimson…an improbable O state championship at Jerry’s World would be the perfect ending for my story of how Mike Gundy in reality was the one who in fact leveraged T Boone Pickens and now has a current net worth of $16 million and an additional $25 million buyout on his current contact.
Not bad for a blue collar kid from Midwest City.
So…in the end there’s a oart of me which somewhat admires what Mike Gundy and his agent Jimmy Sexton have done here.
You would think after tax considerations and such….what Mike Gundy has in fact done with his New York Yankees job is create fourth generational wealth while never once winning the Big 12 Champion.
That my friends is monetary acumen and Midwest City Bomber hubris.
Note: I’ll shift the Draymond Green-Chris Paul podcast for tomorrow morning.
I’m off to the terrain bike, the weight room and basketball court. Have a great college football week-end.
MJ