Bravo to Mike Gundy

I am a sports fan, I love competition, and believe that sports have a vital and educational place within our society. That being said, it is time for Americans to step back from their sports-obsession and evaluate their actions. (I wish this statement were only true of sports, as opposed to just about every form of popular entertainment available to us.)

Oklahoma State Football Coach Mike Gundy recently presented such a reminder to the press, criticizing them for their virulent attacks on young athletes. Here's a youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoMmbUmKN0E

The spineless have criticized Coach Gundy, perhaps too fragile in their populist assumptions to see the righteous (and many-layered!) truth such a well-deserved tirade illuminates. Gundy is a football man, and he reacted as a football man should. Is it really so painful to have the mirror turned on you?

We take our athletics way too seriously, and when this spills over into the amateur realm, the sort of criticisms that Gundy rightly vilifies can only hurt young players. These are not professionals, but amateurs. If a professional wide-receiver drops half his passes and he's making 5 million dollars a year, by all means criticize a man for not doing his job. To criticize a high-school or college athlete -- an amateur, and still a child -- in this way is the same as yelling at your kid for getting a 'B' on his chemistry exam, or for having difficulty in a certain subject. It is a heartless, brainless, and ultimately damaging action towards the fragile generation who we should be trying to rear into leaders. A nation which attacks its young is a nation doomed to fail.

Bravo, Mike Gundy. May other coaches take your brave example to heart. This is ONLY college football -- ONLY a game. As Gundy left the press-room, a loose smattering of applause could be heard. May it be echoed on Saturday by the loudest cheering in the history of Oklahoma State Football.