Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/what-i-learned-from-sharing-that-mike-gundy-photo-and-how-it-changed-my-career/
A reflection on the last month of madness.
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I would reconsider your desire to have a redo and not post the picture. The problem in this situation has to do with power creating a blind spot. Blind spots are much easier to find in todayâs social media environment.
Gundy has surrounded himself with those that wouldnât post that picture and that played a large role in developing his blind spot. Based upon the OAN comments Gundy living in a bubble wasnât going to go away. You may have brought the pimple to a head, but it was always a zit. If it wasnât a zit then there might be room for regret.
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Boone,
I know this wonât satisfy the masses who may forever be angry with you for âdamaging the brandâ, but this was an extremely impressive article. Is sharing a photo on twitter truly what passes as journalism these days? I wonder. I do think that quite a bit of positive can come from this. Oklahoma State University needs to always be a place of equality and comfort for folks of all races. Particularly student-athletes the majority of whom are black/African-American. No matter how uncomfortable this process may be, it can be an opportunity for growth. We all want to see a better OSU in all facets. I think in a roundabout way, thatâs what you were trying to accomplish. Great job, KB.
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Well said Kyle. And well put, tomg. While Iâm not necessarily in favor of digging up old articles/posts in an effort to âcancelâ an individual, this is nowhere near that. This was especially relevant after Gundy brought up OAN in April.
While not the intended result, it appears your post was a launching board of sorts for much needed dialogue within the University.
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Well put. Keep write Kyle. You do a great job
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Maybe learn to spell and punctuation and proper grammar and your posts wonât get flagged.
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And yet you write for cbs an organization that by all accounts uses its liberal bias to push a progressive agenda. The same organizations that rank oan, interestingly Iâd never heard of them before this, as mixed, also gives that same rating to cbs.
You had an agenda, you pushed it through, good for you, but save the rest, itâs old and tired.
At least now we and you know why Gundy never gives you guys access, just spitballing here but I donât think itâs going to get any better. âI canât tell you why, weâve triedâ.
As for the sarcastic, itâs all our fault stuff, no it wasnât all your fault, I mean how could it be, all you did was post a picture of a guy going fishing with his dad.
There was no question why you posted it, the question was would you man up and admit why, not surprisingly, that answer was a resounding no.
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Interesting you make no mention of your âGundy didnât apologizeâ tweet, which IMO, was far worse and clear intent of attempting to be divisive than just tweeting out the photo.
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I give it up to You boon for the apology for damming a guys beliefs because that is what you did. Iâm not to sure how apologetic it was or if it was more of the fall out around you. The problem is your business and your job is to spread gossip. Proverbs 16:28 A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. 
The good book talks about gossip and how bad it can be and says not to. You might be a non believer and thatâs fine Iâm not going to condemn you for it or blast you on the internet all around the world because you have that right. I hear you and others on this site saying good things came out of this and I just donât know how you know this because these things havenât left the building and itâs all in house. I would like to know the positives that has come from this and the things that Chuba has changed.
Iâm sorry? Last time I checked he apologized not once but twiceâŚ2âŚtwiceâŚ2
Actually it doesnât appear you learned much, because there you go again with the attacks on OAN, and the use of far left-leaning outlets as your source. What does this have to do with sports anyway? This is why I no longer contribute to PFB. I will gladly do so again when PFB returns to being a sports blog
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Boone did not dress Gundy, have him have his picture taken wearing the shirt so that he could then post the picture online. The Man took care of the first 2 items himself. Any number of people could have seen the picture and posted it (except maybe Robert Allen).
Boone, you should forgive yourself for this thing that should not require forgiveness. Consider yourself to have been an integral part of an unintended intervention. For the last few years, Gundy has been gaining speed in his eventual drive off the cliff. What if some time before Coach Suttonâs accident someone had posted a picture of him with a bottle in his hand? As cruel as that would have seemed, maybe that would have been the hitting bottom push he needed to again seek help. Maybe this has saved Gundy (and the football program) from a really unfortunate ending.
The truth finds its way out. Just sometimes sooner and sometimes later.
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This is the question I had. It seemed very unnecessary at that point.
I could feel the anger radiating from PFB after Gundy did not allow them in the coronavirus presser he hosted. I can understand why that would anger you guys, it affects your source of income and all that, which is understandable if you have kids to feed of course.
But this and the articles written in response to that presser felt like a direct vendetta to him limiting access. I donât think that was 100% the motivation behind all of this - I believe what you wrote in this article Kyle and I donât want to put words in your mouth. I just want to know if my hunch has any truth to it. was none of this putting Gundy on blast done honestly done (at least partially) in response to the access limitations on PFB?
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This was just a small part of recent events that have ruined sports for me. I think we all understand on some level how silly it is to invest mental energy worrying about college sports, but it has now become crystal clear to me. I will probably keep up with wrestling some, but OSU sports will not be the same for me (and that is probably a good thing).
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Even in the first minutes of the âfallout,â I simply looked at this as Boone doing his job. I still feel that way because it is his profession. If a US politician wore a shirt that said âRussia is #1â and got photographed in it, wouldnât people on both sides of the political spectrum want to know about it? OAN should report that, because they cover politics. CNN should report that, because they cover politics. Boone was DOING his job, and those in the same profession covering the same beat should have done the same had they had the first crack at it.
Politics or beliefs aside, I hope this is Gundyâs âpost-rehab-Kentucky Eddie Suttonâ moment. Seeing how players said he was much more engaged the season following rehab was inspiring. If Gundy shows that kind of improvement, just think how special this team, and program, can be moving forward.
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I would like to ask Boone or anyone else on this chat have any of you ever watched OAN? If not weâre just taking what people say for granted without doing any research on our own. Before this incident I never knew OAN was a thing, after all this curiosity got the best of me so I started watching it of the mornings to see what it was all about. For the better part of a month now Iâve been waiting for them to say how great Trump is and how liberals are stupid and pathetic and BLM is the devil. Guess what, Iâve never heard any of that on there, I watch a lot of news and I tune in to different channels to get both sides, ( Fox and CNN) from what I can tell OAN is the only one without an agenda, they give the news like a local news channel they just tell you what happened that day without any political bias and itâs up to you to make up your own mind. So next time before everyone gets all up in arms and condemns a man and news network just because somebody said itâs bad do some research and look for yourself.
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Kyle your description of OAN in comparison with CNN and MSNBC is laughable. I knew Porter was triggered by the shirt. His subsequent blogs reflected that. You can claim innocence but this is an over-reaction by a student athlete who unfortunately has more power on social media than a coach, football program, and our university.
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Iâm glad you posted the picture. Itâs obvious there was some internal problems and those problems werenât going to get addressed. Itâs also obvious wearing that shirt is a problem because if it wasnât, this would have never blown up. Some people say Gundy can wear what he wants. He can wear a confederate flag shirt, he can wear a Nazi Swastika too I suppose but expect the blowback as well. The vast majority of kids are going to say no thanks and move on to another program as are some fans. I hope Gundy learned something from this because if he has, it will do nothing but help the program. If the picture hadnât been shared, all it would have done is allow the internal problems to continue longer.
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Why was this flagged???
I thought you posting the picture was odd, but also thought thatâs just the nature of your job. Your subsequent tweets on the matter is what made me question your intentions. I think insight into your thought process behind those decisions would go a long way.