Carpenter Claims OSU's Coach Fired Him For Wearing Rival's T-Shirt
By Claire Gordon, Posted Aug 17th 2011 @ 8:14AM


Oklahoma State Cowboys coach Mike Gundy is a passionate man. Since taking the reins of the 8th-ranked football team in the country, he has led it through nine-win consecutive seasons in 2008 and 2009 and a record 11-2 win last year. But Gundy still thinks the team needs to work on its defense, and is setting a personal example, allegedly firing his carpenter for simply showing up to work in an Oklahoma Sooner baseball tee.

The Oklahoma Cowboys and Oklahoma Sooners have a longstanding rivalry known as the Bedlam Series. Bedlam means "noisy uproar and confusion," which is exactly what happened here.

Last Thursday, Brent Loveland filed a breach-of-contract suit against Gundy and his wife Kristen for damages in excess of $10,000, the Tulsa World reported. In February, Gundy hired Loveland in a verbal contract to perform trim installation on his new house in Stillwater. When Loveland showed up for the first day on March 21, he was wearing the logo of Oklahoma University.

Loveland claimed he dressed in the dark.

Gundy did not take well to Loveland's sartorial choice. According to Loveland, Gundy confronted him and said, "How dare you come into my house and offend my wife?" When Loveland asked what he meant, Gundy shot back, "That [expletive] shirt you have on." He then allegedly told Loveland to "pack his [expletive] and get off [his] property."

This kind of impassioned outburst is not totally out-of-character for the former OS star quarterback. In a postgame interview in 2007, Gundy railed on a local columnist in the Daily Oklahoman for writing a piece critical of one of his players.

"That article had to have been written by a person that doesn't have a child," he shouted. "And has never had a child that had his heart broken and come home upset and had to deal with a child when he is upset."

He called the newspaper "garbage" and "the editor who let it come out is garbage."

This time, however, Gundy's fervent defense of his team could cost him real cash.

Loveland claims that he turned down a number of other construction jobs to work on Gundy's estate, losing more than $30,000 in potential income from the debacle.

In a statement released by Gundy's attorney, Willie Baker, an Oklahoma State graduate himself, Gundy is quoted as saying, "While I cannot discuss the specifics of pending litigation, I deny the allegations being made and welcome the opportunity to fully resolve the matter."

Loveland's lawyer, Edward White, insists this is no rivalry taken from the field to the courts. "I'm an OSU guy, so this is not a vendetta," he told the Stillwater News-Press. "This is simply a gentleman who's a small-business owner. He depends on his work for his livelihood and he didn't get paid for a job where he thinks he was unreasonably terminated."

If Gundy's loses the case, at least his bank account can handle the hit. His seven-year contract with Oklahoma State is worth $15.7 million

Good for Gundy

Good for Gundy

Good for Gundy

Good for him that he makes enough money to cover the damages. It's not really even a question of if but how much.

As for the silly college sports swipe, I will only note that Gundy did not destroy millions of dollars of property, set fire to cars, or require riot police to keep him in abeyance, so it looks like the Hick Meatball of Stillwater is more sophisticated than Canuck fans. He will pay contract damages, and so it goes.

If you were a vendor serving lunch at Coca-Cola HQ and you served Pepsi, you would never get another contract from Coca-Cola. If he didn't realize he was wearing the merchandise of the major rival of the head coach of OSU then he is beyond stupid and should be fired on that basis alone. Gundy's career depends, in large part, on how he does against Oklahoma.

If you were a vendor serving lunch at Coca-Cola HQ and you served Pepsi, you would never get another contract from Coca-Cola. If he didn't realize he was wearing the merchandise of the major rival of the head coach of OSU then he is beyond stupid and should be fired on that basis alone. Gundy's career depends, in large part, on how he does against Oklahoma.

As for the silly college sports swipe, I will only note that Gundy did not destroy millions of dollars of property, set fire to cars, or require riot police to keep him in abeyance, so it looks like the Hick Meatball of Stillwater is more sophisticated than Canuck fans. He will pay contract damages, and so it goes.

Complete agree. It was stupid.

Not to mention that if you understand what a rivalry is it is highly unlikely that this was just a random choice of clothing. He probably thought it would be hilarious to tell his friends and family that he wore this shirt to work on the football coaches house.

Big fucking deal. The primary concerns I have for a contractor coming into my house is that he does good work, shows up, isn't drunk or hung over when he does show up, gets the work in on budget and gets the work in on time. You'd be suprised how these factors alone limit who you should hire.

So who do think was the bigger idiot?
a) The carpenter who wore the t-shirt.
or
b) The head coach who fires him and gets sued which I think we'll all agree that he'll end up paying.

Aren't you the same guy that claims that local high school allegiances are constantly used in business in your area? I seem to remember you arguing with me when I was laughing that anyone cares what high school someone attended once you were in college.

The point?

by the way, just had another instance of me being correct just last week with a nice six figure result, but I'm sure you'd like to rehash that argument

The point is that you and the people in your neighborhood care about allegiance as much if not more than this guy. You tried to make it seem like you only care about how he performs his job. However, you seemingly believe that it's alright and acceptable to make business decisions based on high school affiliation. Why not just be concerned with the quality of work?.

[ I think .

Neighborhood? Quit displaying your lack of sophistication with the particulars of this topic.

I wouldn't hire someone if he was completely incapable of performing a job. I would give a person stronger consideration if he could both perform the job and had affiliations that I trusted. I think that was the point of another of your incessant arguments.

Applying that argument appropriately to this case, if the coach really valued affiliation he should have asked the OSU alumni association for a list of alums who were contractors or he could have asked one of the hundreds of boosters if the "had a guy".

You fatigue me.

He tends to have that effect on people.

If you think it's fatiguing to talk to me you should try being me. It's much worse.