Report: Bob Stoops Was Still Coaching Football

Here’s some wild sports news to report!

Bob Stoops – the legendary OU Football coach who stepped down from the job in 2017, yet still hovers around the program like an overly involved helicopter grandparent – was apparently still coaching football.

Yep, that’s right. He was still a coach!

Remember four or five years ago when he returned to the gimmicky XFL on what appeared to be a part-time basis? Well, I guess he was still doing that! Who knew?!

Maybe it was Stoops’ heavy involvement in the Sellout Crowd boondoggle – or that I only pay attention to real sports worth caring about – but I totally forgot Stoops was still coaching that semi-pro team out of Dallas. Seriously, it must be nice to be so casually semi-retired that even actual coaching jobs start to feel like a side hustle.

To be honest, I’ve always wondered why Bob Stoops took the XFL gig.

It always felt like watching a retired professional athlete make a cameo in WWE. It’s a fun gimmick at first, but once you see them leaping from the ropes and pretending to be hurt, it just makes you miss who they used to be. That’s what it was like watching Bob don the headset for a team full of nobodies vying to be the next Tommy Maddox, He Hate Me, or Kurt Warner. He’s too good a coach for that and should still be in a legit league like the NCAA or NFL.

Anyway, now that Bob’s retired from coaching a Dallas team for three or four seasons, I guess he returns to his other part-time gig – emulating his mentor Barry Switzer and hanging around the OU Athletic Department.

It’s kind of funny how closely Bob has mirrored his career after Switzer.

They both won big, dealt with their share of controversies, and retired from OU after long, storied coaching runs. Then, after a few years hanging around Norman and living the good life, they were lured out of retirement by a professional football team out of Dallas and won a championship. A forgettable season or two later, they returned back to Norman to attend to their local business interests – content to live life as a big fish in a Norman duck pond. As Ken Burns says, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme.

Anyway, we wish Bob the best of luck in his second round of retirement. It’ll be interesting to see if he continues down the Barry path and inserts himself into politics, or if he just sticks with hanging out in the press box and practicing drinking Rock 'N' Roll Tequila… or wine.

Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.