Oklahoma State's football coach apologized Saturday for comments he made about the coronavirus pandemic—which is only fueling a fresh round of eye-rolls from critics. "I have been made aware that comments from my press conference have offended some," Mike Gundy said in a statement, per USA Today. "It was never my intention to offend anyone and I apologize. My first priority is and will always be the student-athletes and doing what is best for the program and the university." So, why apologize? Gundy had released a plan Tuesday saying he wanted to restart the Cowboys program on schedule, starting May 1 for staff. Players, he said, could "fight [the virus] off with their natural body, the antibodies and build that they have."
"There's some people that are asymptomatic," he went on. "If that's true, then yeah, we sequester them. And people say, 'That's crazy.' No, it's not crazy, because we need to continue to budget and run money through the state of Oklahoma." Critics jumped on Gundy, with one
columnist wryly calling him "Dr. Gundy" and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn)
tweeting that "sometimes the secret is said out loud: college football isn't about 'student-athletes.' It's about the money." Even Gundy's apology is being raked over the coals on social media,
MSN reports, with one Twitter user
posting: "I love that Mike Gundy here says that 'some' people were offended. I'm offended at this pathetic and lazy excuse of an apology from Gundy. This is just weak."
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