When we were last paying attention to Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, he was reminding us that he’s a man. And that he’s 40. He said those things because he didn’t like the fact that one of his players had been picked on by a reporter.
This time around, Gundy is picking on one of his former players, sort of.
Speaking to the Tulsa World regarding the storm of lawsuits engulfing receiver Dez Bryant, Gundy said, “It saddens me that [Bryant] is in that situation, and it saddens me that a [former] OSU player is tied in with it and it’s negative.”
It possibly saddens Gundy because it pulls his program into a what-did-they-know-and-when-did-they-know-it conundrum with the NCAA regarding Bryant’s alleged receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry while at Oklahoma State. And, of course, Gundy’s answers to those time honored questions currently are “nothing” and “never.”
“The first I heard of it was when you guys heard of it [this week],” Gundy said. “Those issues are very delicate and they’re hard to speak to. . . . When it hit our office, it was news to everybody on our floor.”
We find that hard to believe. Guys get flashy jewelry for one reason -- so that they can flash it. We suspect that, when Bryant did, those within the Oklahoma State program quickly looked the other way.