Throughout the whole slightly uncomfortable circus that was Bobby Bowden‘s final season at Florida State, there was one prominent supporter of the legendary coach who didn’t shy away from a microphone.
From practically daring the school to fire her husband to lambasting a “disrespectful” longtime booster, Ann Bowden fervently stood behind her man.
Now that the end is in sight, and his career quickly coming to a close -- sooner than he’d hoped, no doubt -- the Seminoles coach admits that he didn’t want his wife talking to the media, but he has no regrets that she did.
“She wasn’t going to talk to the media, and I got [an FSU sports information official] to call and tell her don’t discuss the retirement,” Bowden said. “I think it was unfair to get her to talk like that, but I’ve never tried to tell her what to say.
“She’s going to take up for her family ... me, Jeff, Terry, Tommy. I’ve never seen a woman more committed to her family as she is.”
In the couple’s talk with the Florida Times-Union, Ann Bowden continued to show her distaste and disdain for Jim “Mr. FSU” Smith, the prominent booster who likened the whole coaching situation to putting down a favorite dog.
“One of the boosters [Jim Smith] said that he loved Bobby Bowden, but he loved FSU more,” she said. “Well, that goes two ways. I love FSU, but I love my husband more. I didn’t do anything for Bobby that any wife who loved her husband wouldn’t have done.”
Ann Bowden also laments, like her husband, that Coach Bowden didn’t get one more season to go out on his own terms.
“He had a lot of seniors coming, back, especially Bobby’s quarterback [Christian Ponder], and he wanted the chance to coach them one more time,” she said. “But now that we know he won’t, we at least know what’s going to happen. I think Bobby will be sad about the week of the game. To me, it will be a relief.”