I Guess We're Lucky Thats All He Said

For those of us in Oklahoma bombarded by replay upon replay of Mike Gundy ripping "The Oklahoman" writer Jenni Carlson, it's hard to sit on the sidelines. When I first saw it, I had to go find out what she wrote, thinking that it could not have been that bad. Carlson is notorious for not fact checking; I expected to see a lot of eronious claims, rumors, or just made up stories. What I found was, in my opinion, the public castration of the ex-starting quarterback. She called him out on the carpet, and I think that Gundy and Carlson are both lucky that that is all he said. What gets me is that the Oklahoman defends her article, calling it good objective journalism. For those of you that don't know here is some of it-
"By Jenni Carlson, The Oklahoman: STILLWATER — Bobby Reid stood near the team charters last Friday night, using his cell phone, eating his boxed meal. It would've been normal post-game activity but for one thing.
His mother was feeding him chicken.
Which brings us to the quarterback switch-a-roo at Oklahoma State.
Don't see the connection?
Let me explain. Cowboy coaches have gone full-speed ahead with the Zac Attack, opting to start Robinson over Reid a week ago, then sticking with him against Texas Tech today even after an embarrassing loss at Troy. Weren't we being told just last week that Reid was still the guy? All the weight with which Cowboy coaches were backing Reid has totally shifted to Robinson.
The change seems sudden.
Thing is, it may not be as abrupt as it looks. If you believe the rumors and the rumblings, Reid has been pushing coaches that way for quite some time.
Tile up the back stories told on the sly over the past few years, and you see a pattern that hasn't always been pretty.
Word is that Reid has considered transferring a couple different times, the first as early as 2005. Reid, then a redshirt freshman, was facing competition from returner Donovan Woods, and apparently, Reid considered leaving OSU just because he had to compete for the spot.
Reid's nerves have also been an issue. Earlier this year, he told our Andrea Cohen about his game-day emotions.
"I get sweaty palms. I get the butterflies in my stomach. I sweat lot,” he said then. "I've been playing this game for 15 years. And I can honestly say every game I've played in, I've been nervous. It's not so much me being scared; I just get to a point where I start worrying about a lot of things I can't control.”
A lot of guys get nervous, some even puke before games. How you handle the nerves is important, though, and Reid hasn't always managed them well. He has gotten off to some extremely slow starts, putting the Cowboys in some holes. Some, they dug out of, with Reid often wielding the biggest shovel, and some, they couldn't.
Then, there have been the injuries. No doubt some of Reid's ailments have been severe, including an injured shoulder that required surgery and forced him to redshirt. Other times, though, Reid has been nicked in games and sat it out instead of gutting it out.
Injuries are tricky, of course. You don't want a guy to put himself in harm's way if he's really hurt, and yet, football is one of those sports in which everyone plays hurt. Aches and pains, bumps and bruises are part of the gig.
Reid's injury against Florida Atlantic — whatever it was — appeared minor but just might have been the thing that pushed Cowboy coaches over the edge. Even though Mike Gundy said last week that Robinson got the nod because he had the better week of practice, insiders say that the coaches decided to bench Reid early in the week. The bottom line: The switch is less about Robinson's play and more about Reid's attitude.
"The coaches made a decision,” Reid told our Mike Baldwin after the Troy game. "I just have to go with it, get better and get back on the field.”
There's something to be said for not being a malcontent, but you can almost see Reid shrugging his shoulders as he says those words. Does he have the fire in his belly?
Or does he want to be coddled, babied, perhaps even fed chicken? (THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IS WHAT I THINK IS THE WORST PART OF IT)
That scene in the parking lot last week had no bearing on the Cowboys changing quarterbacks, and yet, it said so much about Reid. A 21-year-old letting his mother feed him in public? Most college kids, much less college football players, would just as soon be seen running naked across campus. (WHY DON'T YOU QUESTION HIS SEXUALITY WHILE YOUR'E AT IT)
And what of the scene television cameras captured earlier that evening of Reid on the sidelines laughing with assistant strength coach Trumain Carroll? The same cameras showed him throwing his cap in disgust after a missed play earlier, but to be laughing in the final minutes of an embarrassing loss is bad form."

There are a few more lines to it; the website wanted me to join newsok.com to read it again, I declined. The national media has gotten a hold of Gundy's tirade and broadcast it, saying that he was wrong, and that he looks like a fool. Maybe so, but they don't show what he was angry about. I don't throw my opinion out there a whole lot, at least not publicly, but this whole article is wrong. It is wrong in fact, in principle, and in intent. I have been fairly vocal in my support for Bobby Reid. I think that it was wrong to bench him at Troy, and that it was wrong to bench him against Tech. Let me take you back to the Georgia game. The score was 28-14 in favor of Georgia in the middle of the third period, OSU's ball. Bobby Reid hit the big tight end over the middle for a gain of at least thirty yards. It was first and ten on about the Georgia 48 yard. Offense coordinator Larry Fedora calls a hurry up play, where they run up to the line quickly with no huddle hoping to catch the defense unprepared. They ran the running back up the middle. Instead of catching the Georgia D offguard, OSU's o-line missed a block and the back was tackled for a three yard loss. The next play was run up the middle, which was stopped for a three yard loss. After the big play, there were two plays for negative yards, it's now third and sixteen. On third down, pass protection breaks down and Bobby Reid is sacked for a loss. Those three downs, that had nothing to do with Bobby Reids ability, but with his offensive coordinator's poor judgement, lost the Georgia game. Without a doubt in my mind, it sent Reid on a path that he may never recover from. In my opinion, being quarterback at a division 1-A school is the hardest thing to do in sports. The scrutiny must be unbearable, the pressure unrelenting. It is not for the faint of heart, and sometimes you find people that just cannot handle it. Other times, the signal callers are victim of circumstance, i.e. Cale Gundy getting booed off Owen Field. The events of this season have spiraled out of control for Reid, and very little of it was his own doing.
As an OSU grad, I have become very disalusioned with my alma mater. Boone Pickens large donations are no secret, but during the OSU-Nebraska game last year, Pickens said he was on the take for 40% of the OSU athletic departments net revenue. I didn't realize that NCAA athletic departments were for sale. Before I had tolerated their losing, in football, now it seems a form of karma, that OSU should lose. I wanted to attend the OSU-Tech game with my wife, but when we went to purchase tickets we found that the worst seats in the cost $85. I hope that Pickens money will be enough for OSU because I am not alone when I say that they will not get as much of mine if they had never brought him on board. Also with Pickens money they got his opinion too. He has a large say on who is hired and fired at OSU athletics. I don't like Boone Pickens, I don't like how he got rich, and I don't like that everytime I buy an OSU hat, 40% of OSU's take goes to Boone Pickens. OSU sold their soul to the devil for 300 million, and they better watch out because Pickens has become a millstone around their neck.
I feel sorry for Bobby Reid, who has NFL potential, and will probably never get there, because of offensive coordinator Larry Fedora, and ironically the man that defended him on Saturday.

As for Carlson, I can only hope she gets her up and coming. If we had performed so unethically we would be fired. I cannot ask for any less from "The Oklahoman".