Mike Gundy’s tone-deaf comments on Ollie Gordon’s DUI couldn't send a worse message

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy said all the wrong things addressing the DUI arrest of Cowboys star rusher Ollie Gordon.

Gordon, who turned 20 in January and is not of legal drinking age, won't be suspended this coming season after being arrested on suspicion of DUI at the end of June.

Not only is Gundy choosing not to punish his running back. He cracked a joke about the whole thing at Big 12 Media days.

"If there's any punishment, it's making him carry the ball 50 times in the first game," Gundy said.

And that wasn't even the worst thing Gundy uttered on Tuesday.

Mike Gundy excused Ollie Gordon's DUI by appearing to cite his own drunk driving

"I looked it up on my phone- what would be the legal limit? In Oklahoma it's .08 and Ollie was .10 ... it was, based on body weight, ... really two or three beers, or four. I'm not justifying what Ollie did; I'm telling you what decision I made. Well, I thought, I've probably done that a thousand times in my life. And it's just fine. So I got lucky. People get lucky."

Feel free to listen to those comments or read them again. It might take a few times for what he was saying to truly sink in.

Gundy acknowledges that Gordon was above the legal limit. Except that legal limit applies to adults of drinking age. There is no legal limit for someone under the age of 21.

In any case, he tried to brush off Gordon's underage drinking by minimizing it to just a few beers. Gordon is 6-foot-2, 225 pounds. It would take more than two or three or even four beers to put him at .10 BAC.

And then he said the most astonishing thing of all: "Well, I thought, I've probably done that a thousand times in my life. And it's just fine. So I got lucky. People get lucky."

A college football head coach really just excused the illegal behavior of one of his players because he's done the same thing "a thousand times."

Gundy tried to walk that particular statement back on Twitter later.

"My intended point today at Big 12 media days was that we are all guilty of making bad decisions. It was not a reference to something specific," Gundy said.

Sorry Mike, no one should buy that either.

Gundy's comments were beyond immature. They were dangerous.

Drunk driving killed 13,524 people in 2022, per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Just three days before Gundy put his foot in his mouth, former Oregon cornerback Khyree Jackson, former Charlotte and Maryland defensive back Isaiah Hazel and a high school teammate of the two were killed by an alleged drunk driver.

Gundy made his statements in Las Vegas, where Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs killed a 23-year-old woman while driving intoxicated.

Drunk driving is not something to shrug at. It's not something to make jokes about. It's not something to excuse.

No one is saying Gordon should lose his scholarship or be subjected to a lengthy suspension. But most coaches like to send a message to their players that certain behaviors won't be tolerated. Gundy just signaled the opposite.