Bobby Bowed Out

Today Bobby Bowden is expected to give a press conference saying he will retire from coaching the Florida State Seminole football team. Since 1979 Bobby Bowden has been the pinnacle of Florida State football. He has lead the Seminoles to twelve Atlantic Coast Conference championships and two NCAA national titles. Of course being an eighties baby Bobby Bowden and FSU football goes hand and hand. I wanted to play for the Seminoles since I first started watching college football. The thunderous drums as Seminole fans do the tomahawk and chant was electric and hypnotizing. I can honestly say that I was very upset when there was so much talk about if Bowden needed to step down and others saying that he should. I know Bobby Bowden is getting up there in age, but look at Joe Paterno. Bobby and Joe are the two most winning football coaches in Division one football and Joe turned Penn State around when alumni and other figure heads wanted Joe to step down. Even though Bobby had that academic controversy and officials wanted him to vacate wins he is still arguably one the greatest college football coaches of my era. Of course I was worried when I heard reports of Bobby being unaware of different things during a game, but that comes with old age. It's whats in his heart that counts. So when I heard talk that Bobby was getting forced out of Florida State I was outraged. Do you know how many great NFL players came out of Florida State's Bobby Bowden era? Way over fifty and they put in hard work in the NFL. I mean Warrick Dunn, Deion Sanders and Derek Brooks to name a few have all turned into all pro players and model citizens off the field. Warrick Dunn is building homes for single mothers, Derreck Brooks went on to a successful ESPN career and Deion Sanders is a respected sports analyst and has mentored many different football players. Sometimes when it comes to coaching it's not all about wins and losses. A wide receiver coach at a college I went to always emphasized this motto,"it's not about routes. It's about life", and he couldn't be more right. Because every college football player is not going to the NFL, but if you can get that student athlete to take what he learned on and off the field and put that together. That feeling is so much more of a better feeling than winning any national title. That's why I have great admiration for Bobby Bowden because you never heard anything negative about his interaction with players and he always strives for excellence. I'm glad they said he can still have reduced responsibilities next year because Bobby Bowden may not be getting big wins, but he's giving out big opportunities to his players and that's the good thing.