When you think of Oklahoma State Cowboys football coach Mike Gundy and members of the media, it’s usually not a positive picture that comes to mind. From the infamous “I’m a man, I’m 40!” press conference rant in 2007 through 2014 criticisms (which to be fair, had some merit) of Sports Illustrated‘s attempted investigation into Oklahoma State through this year’s threat to ban media for the rest of the year if they asked players about a player who chose to transfer (and the subsequent conference-call trolling it produced) through rants about Twitter (which, you know, he should probably consider as well), Gundy isn’t exactly known for good interactions with the press. (Unless, perhaps, they also have mullets.) But Gundy took a different step on that front this week, writing a $250 check (along with a personal letter) to reimburse an Oklahoma City radio host who bet that the Cowboys would record more than eight wins (they finished 6-6):
The radio host in question is WWLS’ Rob Benton, and the letter Gundy sent him was quite something:
“I have many H.S. buddies who consume way too much alcohol, which leads to listening to talk radio. The rumor is you bet on our team and lost your money. We came up short so I thought the manly [51] thing to do is reimburse a guy for believing in our TEAM. Thanks for your loyal support!”
Look, Gundy makes $5 million a year on his current contract, so this isn’t exactly ruinous for him, and it can even be seen as a bit of a public relations ploy. But he still didn’t have to do this, and that’s both an interesting outreach and a funny one with the letter he wrote. And while it doesn’t reduce any of Gundy’s previous media fights, it’s still cool to see him do this, especially in funny fashion.