Mike Gundy has strong thoughts about Twitter, says it's 'destroying this country'

Twitter is undoubtedly making Mike Gundy's life more difficult. Other coaches, too. I refuse to regard that as a societal breakdown. Highly positive development IMO.

 

At one of my former papers, it was an ironclad policy that each and every letter to the editor (or letter to reporters), even anonymous or unsigned ones, had to be answered in a "constructive manner in an attempt to address the reader's concerns."

That is, throwing the letter in the trash or saying "you're full of shit" were not acceptable options.

Even something like "I respectfully disagree" could get you written up.

The recommended response to an anonymous letter saying "fuck you" was supposed to be "Sorry to disappoint you; we will try to do better."

That Mr. Publisher is long gone from the biz. God knows how he would want staffers to respond to anonymous tweets or emails, "fuck you and your mother too."

 

Just a decade ago, Gundy was yelling "where are we at in society today" because he didn't like a newspaper article. This Twitter thing is just more of the same.

 

What did the Mike Gundys of the world think was going to step in and replace the media he was railing against a decade ago? They got the world they wanted. It’s Facebook and Twitter and not us as gatekeepers. He can talk to the world unfiltered on his Twitter account. Shut the fuck up and enjoy your new paradigm, mullet man. Turns out you’ll use anything as a shield.

 

As many ways as it makes his life more difficult, he uses it as a tool. He uses it to get the message HE wants out there almost everyday. And delivers it directly to a wide audience. He's also no doubt using it to communicate with and/or keep tabs on recruits and players even more often.

 

I'm not defending Twitter. I really don't use it. I have an account and I never even look at it.
I don't even currently have the app on my work or personal phones.
I've never understood the appeal.

What I don't like are coaches and athletes who think questions, concerns or criticisms from fans or the media are beneath response.
Mike Gundy's skill set, even if he was a better coach, has zero intrinsic value. He makes a very handsome living because people are interested in football as entertainment.
He needs people to not only take an interest in what he does but a very deep, passionate and abiding interest.
Yet he feels that he is better than those who are interested in the sport he coaches and he treats that interest with utter disdain.
It's true of him and many, many other coaches and athletes.

If you are one of the four or five best coaches in the nation with multiple championships or on the brink of a championship every year, maybe you can treat the public with disdain, even though that still makes you a despicable person.
However, if you are not in that former category, and Gundy is a long way from it, then dial down your completely unwarranted, toxic level of ego and answer the question.
And it doesn't matter if that question came from a millennial reporter or a 65-year-old who has covered the program for 40-plus years.
Or whether the question was inspired by a tweet or bar talk or granny at church.

Twitter may or may not be good or bad. It's a trend that will fade. It's effects may or may not linger.
However, mediocre-to-bad coaches and athletes who wield their Col. Jessup like egos as truncheons and expect fans and media alike to thank them for the blanket of football they provide have been around a lot longer than social media.

 

Those last three graphs are constructed in such a way I can’t make heads or tails of them, outside liberal group think.

To top part, it’s odd. Twitter is a hellhole, but for extreme opinions, the intensity can be a pretty helpful gage. It’s often reflected on Facebook, in person. This is of course because fans are dipshits, but most reporters are too on the finer points of football, and it doesn’t stop us. It turns out, knowing what other people think is generally not a good thing, but damn if we can’t shake it.

 

I worry that sports will destroy our ability to use the words mediocre and bad correctly. Maybe other things already had.