In this YouTube Era, great sports tirades live forever. They endure forever on the Internet, earning hits year after year after year.

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy understands this well. His epic “I’m a man” outburst ranks among the great new conference detonations of all time.

Of course, there is a flip side to the story. The player in question at the news conference, quarterback Bobby Reid, does not chuckle when remembering the episode.

SPEAKING OF HEARTACHE

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville just fired Tony Franklin, his fifth offensive coordinator in 10 years. He did it in the middle of the season, not long after giving the poor guy a solid public endorsement.

“It hurts. It hurts bad,” Tuberville told reporters Wednesday. “That’s a difficult situation and a difficult thing to do in the middle of the season. My responsibility is this football team and it always will be. Tony is a good person, a good guy. He’s got a great family, and he’s a good family man. Basically when it all comes down to it, it’s about production. I didn’t think the last few weeks we were making any progress. I came to the decision this morning that we would make that change. We’re going to go forward. We are going to be positive about it and we’ll go from here.”

Apparently there are no mirrors in the head football coach’s office at Auburn . . .

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering network executives silently pull for the Dodgers-Red Sox World Series:

• Now that the Cubs have exercised the club option on Rich Harden, is he doomed to a ’09 season of constant shoulder trouble?
• Is this the year Eric Brewer helps Blues fans get over the Chris Pronger trade?
• Who could have guessed that Adam “Don’t Call Me Pacman” Jones would end up in an early morning skirmish with hotel security in Dallas?

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

T.J. Simers, Los Angeles Times, on Philly sports fans: “Philly has always been more bark than championship bite, so why should the Dodgers give a hoot about folks who paint their faces and then have to drive home looking like sad clowns?”

Mike Downey, Chicago Tribune, on the White Sox: “I guess somebody had to be the first franchise to lose to Tampa Bay in a playoff. It’s a little like becoming the first Democrat or Republican to lose a presidential election to the Green Party.”

Jerry Greene, Orlando Sentinel: “What did Cubbies leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano advise fans to do? ‘Be patient.’ For another hundred years? And my apologies for incorrectly calling Alfonso the leadoff “hitter” as he was 1 for 14 in the playoffs.”

Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “And now for something completely different: With franchises struggling all over North America, the NHL decided to open the season in Prague and Stockholm. The yutz factor just went up again.”

Rick Chandler, Deadspin: “It’s official: Cheerleading is more dangerous than playing football. At least that’s according to the National Centre for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, which has studies such things. They say that football has more deaths overall, but cheerleading has more serious injuries. No word on how dangerous it is to be in the band.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Coral Gables’ Helio Castroneves, Indy 500 and Dancing With The Stars champion, is charged with evading more than $5 million in income taxes. Looking forward to seeing how Helio dances around this one.”

MEGAPHONE

“Time of possession used to be a big statistic years ago. It’s not as much a factor any more with the way people play offensive football now. Anytime you can hold the ball and score, that’s good. Anytime you hold the ball and don’t score, that’s not good.”

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy.