Embattled. Beleaguered. Under fire. Place any apocalyptic football adjective in front of Bobby Bowden‘s name, and it would be apt right about now.
In the past 48 hours, he’s been the subject of friendly fire from trustees who are (were?) friends, boosters who are (were?) friends, and just about any newspaper columnist in Florida with a keyboard, a working monitor and a solid Internet connection.
As should be expected, though, especially when it comes to such a legendary figure, the backlash has commenced in earnest.
Mrs. Bowden got the ball rolling by standing by her man. The greatest player in the history of Florida State football followed the First Lady of Florida Football’s lead, picked it up and high-stepped with it.
Now, even more distinguished-in-their-own-right individuals have hopped on the public Bowden Bandwagon in support of Coach Dadgummit.
Florida head coach Urban Meyer.
South Florida head coach Jim Leavitt.
CBS college football analyst Gary Danielson.
Hell, former FSU and current Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett has launched a campaign on the Twitter front, vowing that he’ll “make sure no FSU alumni go back to visit EVER, no donations- NOTHIING” if Bowden is fired.
Suffice to say, Bowden supporters are not going to let their man go down without a fight.
Of course, the opinions of anyone outside of well-heeled ‘Noles boosters and… well… well-heeled ‘Noles boosters don’t and won’t have any kinda real dog in this fight. But what it does mean is that the Jim Smith’s of the FSU football world are creating an even more sympathetic figure with their very public media drive-by shooting of an historic career.
They’ve taken a battered “old man” and turned him into a now-beyond-sympathetic figure. A vested figure who a whole helluva lot of people won’t take kindly to having his name and coaching carcass dragged through some muddy back road on its way outside the Tallahassee city limits on anything that doesn’t remotely resemble his own terms.
Coach Bowden has made his share of mistakes for many, many a year. And it’s probably “time”. But the power brokers of Seminole football are very close to publicly FUBARing this regime change and turning it into an untenable situation for their “greater good” goal.
The Jim Smith’s of the FSU football world have made this whole mess worse by trying to publicly make it better.
Shame on you people. Shame on you.
Bobby Bowden, and Florida State University, deserves better.
Well said, sir.
Your roots are showing. Read Mike Bianchi in today’s Orlando Sentinel and John Romano in the St. Petersburg Times. FSU qualifies for bailout and the whole Bowden network could be made whole for life with a Tarp payment. Hey, that’s no more ridiculous than the last eight years with a fine program now flying in ever decreasing concentric circles until it flies up its ………………………………..
All of those who talk about “how great the FSU program used to be but now it’s crap” seem to forget that BB was the reason it was great. Chalk it up to the what have you done for me lately mentality.