The Oklahoma State Cowboys went through a bit of turmoil in recent days after Heisman hopeful Chuba Hubbard warned he might sit out the season after his coach was found photographed wearing an OAN shirt. OAN stands for One American Network and is considered by some to be a right wing fringe site. The school remains a favorite to fare well in 2020 as a -140 favorite to win OVER 8.5 regular season games.
|
|
Head coach Mike Gundy promised on Monday to make changes and appeared alongside Hubbard in a video.
"I will not stand for this," Hubbard wrote upon seeing his coach in the t-shift earlier in the day Monday. "This is completely insensitive to everything going on in society, and it's unacceptable."
Harry Lyles Jr. of ESPN writes:
Players, like many black people across America, are not settling for "good enough" and no longer looking the other way when it comes to racism or injustices. The players' realization of the power they can have lies within this movement, and it has been on display all over the country. That's why, despite seeing black student-athletes being put in this situation before, Hubbard's initial tweet made an important impact.
We aren't talking about Hubbard going to social media and airing out Gundy over a playcall or the way a practice is run. We're talking about a human rights issue. We're talking about a picture Gundy shared that was public enough to end up on social media for Hubbard to see and react to, a picture that shows the coach taking the wrong side on the issue. Gundy had previously praised OAN back in April with regards to the coronavirus pandemic, claiming they "just report the news."
And Hubbard saying he should have done things differently, when he didn't do anything wrong, doesn't make his stance any less important. It was a big deal for him to do what he did, because it led former Oklahoma State players to also speak out and showed it was about a lot more than just a T-shirt. Current NFL players Justice Hill and A.J. Green showed support for Hubbard, and former OSU wide receiver and linebacker LC Greenwood said in a now-deleted tweet, "I was called a hood rat and thug on multiple occasions being threatened to be sent back home all because of wearing a Durag and sleeveless shirts." Greenwood entered the transfer portal in late January.
He adds:
Hubbard's words led Gundy to admit his wrongs, and publicly say that black lives matter. Whether the coach was sincere or not, Hubbard got him to budge when he ordinarily wouldn't have. That's a pretty good sequel to this movie we've seen before, and we'll start seeing different versions of it elsewhere.
- Mary Montgomery, Gambling911.com
