There is a little more to the story of Cale Gundy’s resignation as an assistant football coach at Oklahoma.
Gundy, 50, left the Sooners on Sunday after saying he mistakenly used “a word that I should never — under any circumstance — have uttered” off an iPad belonging to a players at a team film session. First-year Oklahoma coach Brent Venables took things a step further in a statement on Monday.
“He chose to read aloud to his players, not once but multiple times, a racially charged word that is objectionable to everyone, and does not reflect the attitude and values of our university or our football program,” Venable said. “This is not acceptable. Period. Coach Gundy did the right thing in resigning. He knows our goals for excellence and that coaches have special responsibilities to set an example.”
Gundy, who spent 23 years as an assistant at Oklahoma and is the brother of Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, received support from current and former Sooners on social media, including NFL stars Joe Mixon and Adrian Peterson.
The coach said in a statement he “did not realize” what he was reading after taking the tablet from a player in the meeting he believed was distracted. He made it a point to say the words on the screen “were not my words.” It remains unclear the offensive word he used.
“What I said was not malicious; it wasn’t even intentional,” Gundy wrote. “Still, I am mature enough to know that the word I said was shameful and hurtful, no matter my intentions.”
Venable called Gundy’s resignation “painful” but necessary because of the the hurt “felt by a room full of young men I am charged to protect, lead and love.”
“He also knows that, while he will always be a part of the OU family, that his words affected many of us and did not represent the principles of our university,” Venables said. “Again, his resignation was the right thing to do, and we will move forward positively.”