Now, hear me out. I don't doubt for one second that this got taken up above the football program's head, and that was the right thing to do. Regardless of how innocent the mistake was (and I personally do think it was a genuine mistake that Gundy deeply regrets) nobody wants to make it look like the football program is trying to cover up racism. And, even more so, the worst possible thing would be not addressing it, letting the rumors swirl, and then the OU Daily or some other media runs a piece of "investigative journalism" in a few months that cites anonymous sources and blows the facts way out of proportion. It sounds like Cale understood this, both from a moral perspective of wanting to take accountability for his mistake, and PR perspective and reported it to the appropriate authorities himself.
But, once it got to the administration, it was going to blow up, no matter how it was handled. There are people within the OU community that hold the opinion that this is the appropriate punishment, and with the history of SAE, the blackface incidents a few years back, I can't say I totally blame them. There was going to be protest if he was kept on. The national media was going to cover this. Stephen A. Smith was going to be on ESPN giving whatever BS take would get him the most clicks. There would likely be sit ins on campus, and players would be forced in a very difficult spot of either having to defend him or speak out against their own coach. Just look at how big the "Mike Gundy wears OAN shirt" story blew up. This would've been 10x worse. I don't think Cale wanted to put the team and his players through that, and I think he decided the best option out of all the bad options was exactly what he said in his statement: step down, take accountability for a mistake that while innocent, was very serious and unacceptable from a person in his position, and use it as an example to his players and to all of us on taking responsibility for your own actions. It sucks that this happened, but I do think this was Cale's decision, not the admin strong-arming him.
But, once it got to the administration, it was going to blow up, no matter how it was handled. There are people within the OU community that hold the opinion that this is the appropriate punishment, and with the history of SAE, the blackface incidents a few years back, I can't say I totally blame them. There was going to be protest if he was kept on. The national media was going to cover this. Stephen A. Smith was going to be on ESPN giving whatever BS take would get him the most clicks. There would likely be sit ins on campus, and players would be forced in a very difficult spot of either having to defend him or speak out against their own coach. Just look at how big the "Mike Gundy wears OAN shirt" story blew up. This would've been 10x worse. I don't think Cale wanted to put the team and his players through that, and I think he decided the best option out of all the bad options was exactly what he said in his statement: step down, take accountability for a mistake that while innocent, was very serious and unacceptable from a person in his position, and use it as an example to his players and to all of us on taking responsibility for your own actions. It sucks that this happened, but I do think this was Cale's decision, not the admin strong-arming him.
