OSU Football Coach Gundy Accused Of Firing Contractor Wearing OU Shirt

A carpenter is suing Oklahoma State University football coach Mike Gundy because he says he was canned for wearing enemy colors while working on the hot-headed coach’s home.

Brent Loveland says Gundy, of Stillwater, Okla., told him to take a hike in March because he was wearing an Oklahoma University baseball T-shirt, the Tulsa World reported.

The Oklahoma Sooners are the arch intrastate rival of the the Oklahoma State Cowboys, where Gundy was a star quarterback before becoming coach.

“How dare you come into my house and offend my wife?” Loveland says Gundy screamed at him, according to the lawsuit, filed last week.

When Loveland asked what he had possibly done, Gundy replied: “That [expletive] shirt you have on.”

Loveland says Gundy told him to “pack his [expletive] and get off his property,” the newspaper reported.

Loveland is suing for more than $10,000 in damages for money he lost and also for other possible jobs he passed on to work on Gundy’s home.

Loveland says in his suit that he made the fashion fumble because he dressed in the dark that morning, the paper reported.

Gundy denied the accusation.

“While I cannot discuss the specifics of pending litigation, I deny the allegations being made and welcome the opportunity to fully resolve the matter,” he said in a a statement to ESPN.

Loveland’s attorney said the breach-of-contract suit has nothing to do with team loyalty.

“I’m an OSU guy, so this is not a vendetta,” Edward White, Loveland’s lawyer, 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 we think he was unreasonably terminated.”

Gundy is known for passionate outbursts. He was thrust into the national spotlight in 2007 when he called out a sports columnist with an intense bit of bravado in defense of one of his players before the Holiday Bowl.

“Come after me!” Gundy thundered. “I’m a man! I’m 40!”