Oklahoma Sooners assistant football coach Cale Gundy has resigned from his position after he used a “shameful” word during a team meeting.
The 50-year-old, whose brother Mike Gundy is the head coach at rival Oklahoma State, released a lengthy statement on social media Sunday night, announcing his resignation and apologizing for using the word, which he says he read off of a player’s iPad.
“I owe it to Sooner Nation to be transparent about what led to this decision: Last week, during a film session, I instructed my players to take notes,” the statement read.
“I noticed a player was distracted and picked up his iPad and read aloud the words that were written on his screen. The words displayed had nothing to do with football. One particular word that I should never — under any circumstance — have uttered was displayed on that screen. In the moment, I did not even realize what I was reading and, as soon as I did, I was horrified.
“I want to be very clear: the words I read aloud from that screen were not my words. What I said was not malicious; it wasn’t even intentional. Still, I am mature enough to know that the word I said was shameful and hurtful, no matter my intentions.”
Before his resignation, Gundy had been working as the wide receivers coach and assistant head coach. L’Damian Washington will take over his position.
It remains unclear exactly what word was said, though former Sooners running back Joe Mixon appeared to imply that it had racial undertones. Mixon released a statement defending Gundy after his resignation:
“I know racists, I have witnessed both obvious and discreet forms of racism and have known and detested even more actual racist[s],” Mixon’s statement wrote. “Coach Gundy is the farthest thing from this type of person. I spent every day for the 1,000 days I was in Norman with him, and I never saw anything that would lead anyone to believe this or think this.”