Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard and coach Mike Gundy posted a video together to talk about change Monday after the Canadian star suggested he may boycott the program in the aftermath of a photograph where the coach wore a T-shirt promoting a far-right news channel.
Hubbard, from Sherwood Park, Alta., and Gundy shook hands and had a quick embrace on the video posted Monday night after the latter was photographed wearing a One America News Network T-shirt. The channel has been praised by United States President Donald Trump.
“Change is coming I promise you that,” Hubbard tweeted with the video.
“In light of today’s tweet with the T-shirt I was wearing, I met with some players and realized it’s a very sensitive issue with what’s going on in today’s society,” Gundy said.
“We had a great meeting and made aware of some things that players feel like can make our organization and our culture even better than it is here at Oklahoma State. I’m looking forward to making some changes and it starts at the top with me and we’ve got good days ahead.”
Hubbard then apologized for going on social media with his criticism.
“I’ll start off by first saying I went about it the wrong way by tweeting,” Hubbard said.
“I’m not someone that has to tweet something to bring change. I should have went to him as a man. I’m more about action so that was bad on my part. From now on, we’re going to focus on bringing change and that’s the most important thing.”
Gundy is seen in a photograph on Twitter wearing the shirt with the letters OAN. In a tweet responding to the photo, Hubbard said: “I will not stand for this. This is completely insensitive to everything going on in society, and it’s unacceptable. I will not be doing anything with Oklahoma State until things CHANGE.”
I will not stand for this.. This is completely insensitive to everything going on in society, and it’s unacceptable. I will not be doing anything with Oklahoma State until things CHANGE. https://t.co/psxPn4Khoq
His comments led the school’s president and athletic director to issue statements of concern and support.
Hubbard, who is Black, has been more active on social media since George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for several minutes. Hubbard has been supportive of protests that erupted around the world after Floyd’s death.
Several current and former Oklahoma State athletes backed up Hubbard’s tweet. Teammate linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga, a fellow Albertan from Calgary, shared the same sentiment in a retweet that said, “I stand with him!”
Former Cowboys running back Justice Hill, now with the Baltimore Ravens, tweeted: “OSU Athletics and University need major change. 100% support brotha.”
Ogbongbemiga later suggested he was pleased with what happened later Monday.
“By voicing our opinion we are happy to have came to a conclusion and opened a gateway to create some serious CHANGE around Oklahoma State,” he tweeted.
“My teammates and I have all agreed we will go ahead and resume all workouts and activities. We’re all in this together.”2
Hubbard’s comments sent ripples all the way to the top of the university.
“I hear and respect the concerns expressed by our Black student-athletes,” Oklahoma State President Burns Hargis said in a statement. “This is a time for unity of purpose to confront racial inequities and injustice.
“We will not tolerate insensitive behaviour by anyone at Oklahoma State.”
The discussion also got the attention of Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder.
“This afternoon has been very disturbing,” Holder said in a statement. “The tweets from the current and former players are of grave concern.”
An OAN commentator, Liz Wheeler, recently described the Black Lives Matter movement as a “farce” that speaks for “oppression” and “revenge.”
Gundy spoke about his fondness for OAN during a conference call with reporters in April that mostly focused on the coronavirus pandemic.
“I was flipping through stations,” he said. “I found one — I don’t even know if anyone knows about this. It’s called OAN. It’s called One America News. And it was so refreshing. They just report the news. There’s no commentary, there’s no opinions on this. There’s no left, there’s no right. They just reported the news.”
His praise for OAN followed several minutes explaining how he felt the “mainstream media” had been too negative in its coverage of what he called the “Chinese virus.” He apologized a few days later.
“I have been made aware that comments from my press conference have offended some,” Gundy said in a statement. “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.”
In that same interview, Gundy said he favoured a speedy reopening of the school’s facilities, but Oklahoma State disagreed with his timetable. The school recently reopened its facilities, only to have several players test positive for the coronavirus. Ogbongbemiga said on Twitter that he tested positive after he attended a protest in Tulsa.
Gundy addressed Floyd’s death and the subsequent civil unrest in a statement on Twitter: “I’m thankful to be in an environment with Oklahoma State football and our Cowboy Culture where we respect each other. The 200 people in our family understand and appreciate diversity and have compassion for one another. I hope we replace the rage with respect and all come together.”
Hubbard was NFL Draft-eligible, but he chose to return to school. He was a first-team All-American and the AP Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year last season and finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy voting. His 2,094 rushing yards was the second-best single-season total in school history, trailing only Barry Sanders’ 1988 Heisman Trophy-winning season.
Running back Chuba Hubbard #30 of the Oklahoma State Cowboys looks for an opening against the South Alabama Jaguars in the second quarter on September 8, 2018 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
