On Monday, Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard made a stunning announcement on Twitter in response to seeing a picture of his coach, Mike Gundy, wearing an “OAN” T-shirt. Just a handful of hours later, Hubbard and Gundy appeared in a video together addressing the issue.
Hubbard said he ‘would not be doing anything’ with OSU until real change occurred
Responding to a tweet that showed Gundy wearing the OAN shirt, Hubbard tweeted a promise:
Many other players — current and former — rushed to Hubbard’s defense and backed him all the way.
For those who may not be aware, OAN is a far-right news network that is known for spreading misinformation. It has also excoriated the Black Lives Matter movement as being “a farce.”
So it’s easy to understand why Hubbard was upset to see his head coach wearing an OAN T-shirt on a recent fishing trip.
It’s also worth pointing out that Gundy has, in the past, praised OAN:
So clearly, the OAN thing was a big thing.
The Gundy-Hubbard video response was strange
Here’s a look at the short video the school released, shared by Hubbard.
There are two things that I found odd:
- Gundy doesn’t apologize. Not once. Didn’t talk about OAN, either.
- Hubbard apologized. But he shouldn’t have.
Gundy isn’t sorry about wearing the shirt. He didn’t even bother to say anything concrete will happen going forward, noting only that change will happen “and it starts at the top.”
Hubbard is trying to do the right thing here. He’s a stand-up young man. But in no way did he need to apologize for using his platform to call for change. And he is still trying to do the right thing going forward.
Many had a big problem with how this all went down, and they shared their strong opinions on Twitter.