“And You’re Probably A Donut-Bumper, Too!”

It certainly looks like Mike Gundy won’t be emceeing any press corps awards ceremonies anytime soon. The Oklahoma State coach ripped into Cowboys beat writer Jenni Carlson during a press conference, directly destroying her for questioning the character of recently benched quarterback Bobby Reid.

As a former sportswriter, I thought it best to read the article (“Reid is still the most talented signal-caller, but attitude is reason for change”) before jumping to any conclusions or picking sides. In the span of Carlson’s article, she criticizes Reid for having his mother feed him, being nervous before games, not playing through injury, not being upset enough about being benched and laughing on the sidelines. Theoretically, Carlson would have been happier if Reid slapped his mother, went on a tirade for being benched, ate a burger he prepared himself while snapping at Carlson herself, threw clipboards on the sideline and jeopardized his well-being by trying to play hurt.

Triangle fans may remember when it was revealed that Duke's Shavlik Randolph had his mommy cut his meat for him and had a Michael Jackson poster on his bedroom wall. They may recall that State’s T.A. McLendon threw up before big games; it was how his teammates recognized the enormity of the contest – and how they knew he would fumble at some point later in the day. The News & Observer is a poorly run outfit and offers some of the worst sports coverage of any “major” newspaper, but even they never went so far as to question Randolph's or McLendon's character in a front-page opinion piece.

With the Interwebs, ESPN 1 through 26, 24-hour sports stations, pay-per-content fan sites and rabid message boards that cater to in-bred non-alums, the performance and conduct of college student-athletes has never been put under a bigger microscope. As a result, tensions run high and confrontations like this become more and more likely. Overreactions tend to happen often, but in this case, Gundy's response was more than warranted.

George Costanza once said, “Always leave them wanting more.” So when Gundy muttered, “Makes me want to puke” and stormed out to applause from the gathered media, he put a beautiful finishing touch on a much-deserved lambasting of at least one sportswriter.