Thayer Evans Responds To Criticism

Thayer Evans responded on Friday to the widespread criticism of his role in the five-part series "The Dirty Game" detailing alleged improprieties committed within the Oklahoma State football program.

However, the interview he participated in was with one of his own co-workers at Sports Illustrated.

Evans, an Oklahoma Wesleyan graduate, called the allegations of him being a University of Oklahoma homer, "laughable," and went on to say that he grew up around OSU football and that multiple members of his family, including his parents, attended school at OSU.

"I have no axe to grind with Oklahoma State, I really don't," Evans said in the interview. "I'm just doing my job here. I'm exposing things that have gone on at Oklahoma State over the past 12 years."

He also called the criticisms of his professional behavior over the years ‘laughable' and referred to them as ‘urban myths' created online.

"Any idiot can post something on the Internet," Evans said in response to the case being built against his body of work online.

Evans said he is not surprised to see a lot of his sources backpedaling in what they reportedly said to him and said they are simply taking back what they said because of pressure from friends, former teammates, family and the university.

"They're getting lots of pressure when they tell the truth, and that's what's happened here … we researched it, we checked it, we know that what they're telling us is the truth, which is why we wrote what we wrote is the truth," he said.

Evans went on to discuss several aspects of the story, including addressing Tatum Bell's denial of even being contacted for an interview.

In his final statement, he again tried to clarify that it is not a personal attack on OSU and he asked that people wait until the entire story is out before rushing to judgment.

"Look, I worked with great editors in this, B.J. Schecter, Jon Wertheim, Pulitzer Prize award winner George Dohrmann. We took the time to be thorough in this," he said. "And the whole thing during the entire 10 months is, this isn't just about Oklahoma State, this could be anywhere, this could be your alma mater. And we ask people, when we're done, look at all five parts of the series and understand what college football really is."

Link: Thayer Evans Discusses OSU Report