A Closer look at Coaches' Actions and Antics

As usual, I was watching Sportscenter and something began to itch my mind.

Bruce Pearl, the men's head basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, was shown dressed up with an orange and white checkered suit jacket, wearing sunglasses, and rapping on stage with what I would assume to be his players. He was jumping all over the place, getting quite animated.

'What a coach,' I thought to myself. I'm thinking, 'this guy's kids probably love him. They'd probably do anything for their coach.' And I'm probably not far from the truth.

It is not the first time Coach Pearl has been doing "ridiculous" things. A few seasons ago ESPN got some shots of him, topless, painted up in Tennessee orange and white in the rowdy student section at a Tennessee women's basketball game. 'Wow!' was my thought process when I first saw that, but I loved it. I'm thinking, 'what a great way to support your school and connect with the most important part of that school, its students.' What a guy, right? Absolutely.

My mind started to wander, and I thought about another coach who I thought to be equally as admired by his kids. His team wears similar colors, but with a little more black. I'm talking about Oklahoma State's head football coach, Mike Gundy. Gundy was made famous thanks in part to youtube, but mostly because of his "ridiculous" behavior at a press conference when he was standing up for his athlete that was slammed by a local columnist.

Mike Gundy has his own Wikipedia page. Oh yeah, it got that ridiculous. At the press conference, he called out Jenni Carlson for her article that made what he thought to be unfair criticisms of his quarterback, who Carlson spotted after the game being hand-fed pieces of chicken by his mother. Hand to mouth, from his mom.

Check out the article. After that, check out Gundy at the press conference. Now think about things. Think about the fairness of everything. Personally as a sports writer, if I was Carlson, I'd be pretty happy about my name becoming pretty damn big. But that's only if I was Carlson. I'm not, and while I envy the fact that she has a job right now, I'm glad I'm not her.

When I first saw that press conference as it woke me up one morning on the TV that I left on from the night before, I was in awe. Any coach that goes to bat for his kids is a good guy. Any coach that takes it to that extreme, he's a great guy. Any athlete should feel honored for a coach to react that way after being pissed off over someone bad-talking him.

So Carlson wrote this article and was torn apart for it. She and her editor formulated a defense, but what's done is done. She wrote, Gundy flipped shit. So who is at fault? As is the case with these kinds of things, they are both right and wrong. Carlson was just doing her job as a columnist, calling out a player, which media do, especially to football players in places like Stillwater, Oklahoma. Collegiate athletes at that level are amateurs, sure, but when they join a program with such vaunted status, they welcome the scrutiny of the media, local and national. Carlson got a bit too personal though. Go ahead and call out a player's play, but save the mom stuff.

What about Gundy? He certainly was animated and had every right to be upset, but that kind of outburst is slightly unsolicited. He needs to accept the fact that the media will do things like what Carlson did, and that he and his players need to accept that, but he had the right to be mad. As a former student-athlete and sports writer, I can sympathize with both parties.

Oh, and what about Pearl? Well since Sportscenter airs a million times a day, in writing this post I got a second glance at his mess of a rap concert, and he was wearing his signature orange suspenders under that orange and white checkered jacket. He also wasn't wearing a shirt. I'll let you decide who is right and wrong with that one.