Shabby Treatment: Bowden, who put Florida State football on the map, is shoved out the door by bosses

By: Lenox Rawlings | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: December 03, 2009

He doesn't deserve a lifetime coaching contract, the keys to the Florida State vault or a thousand bows from university bureaucrats. But he deserves better. Maybe he doesn't deserve another ceremonial season as the reward for lifetime achievement and personal charm. But he deserves better.

At the end of a 34-year FSU career, the bosses offered Bowden two options for 2010: Powerless greeter or retired legend. Only one option had any viability, so Bowden announced his retirement Tuesday.

The university president who played wide receiver under assistant coach Bowden in the 1960s, T.K. Wetherell, issued a statement praising the No. 2 winner in college history. Still, it was only a statement, worded carefully to cover up any inconvenient truths about the institutional animal's tattered relationship with the 80-year-old coach, who lifted the institution higher than Tallahassee's scrub pines.

Athletics Director Randy Spetman, less than two years on the job, fled the players' press conference without so much as a finely parsed grunt.

Bowden confined his appearances to a team meeting and a weekly videotaped interview with the sports-information director. "Hadn't done as good lately as I wish I could have," he said, "but I've had wonderful years. No regrets."

Linebacker Dekoda Watson reported that Bowden balanced his emotions with typical directness. "He was disappointed about the people who tried to knock him down," Watson said, alluding to trustees chairman Jim Smith and sour boosters demanding change. "What they don't understand is that Bobby Bowden is Florida State."

Man or institution?

Is he or isn't he? The question permeated the long, slow ride toward retirement. The longer the question lingered, the stronger the tide pulled against Bowden's entrenched position.

Like a wader in churning surf, Bowden could sense the power of the shifting sands. Sometimes -- when he measured the present 6-6 record or the 16-16 ACC record over four seasons, when he cited the contracted 2011 takeover by coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher -- Bowden acknowledged the inevitability of retirement. Yet, he resisted.

He had watched Alabama's Bear Bryant die shortly after stepping aside. Bowden worked the underlying reality of that anecdote into his popular public chats. "After retirement," he said, "there's only one big event left, and I ain't ready for that."

The line disarmed folks, a venerable ploy from the Bowden playbook. He used the conversational tactic to navigate all sorts of gurgling scandals involving players' shoes and academic missteps and sidewalk fights.

Sebastian Janikowski, an All-America kicker from Poland, barely stayed eligible with summer-school pushes and settled grievances outside bars. Right before winning FSU's second national title in January 2000, Bowden disciplined some wayward players but told Sugar Bowl reporters that Janikowski would start.

How could he justify such a double standard? Bowden smiled and announced that Janikowski got a waiver under the coach's Polish kicker rule. The rule: If the only good kicker you've got is Polish, he starts.

Push comes to shove

Bowden, just as comfortable preaching as coaching, believes in forgiveness. His logic: The easiest disciplinary solution is firing the player and feeding righteous indignation to angry fans, but the wise solution permits a second chance.

President Wetherell gave Bowden chances to win again, and then he gave Bowden cover to exit gracefully. Bowden couldn't or wouldn't go. Wife Ann Bowden indignantly escalated the skirmish, insisting that FSU would have to wait another year or fire him. "If they've got guts enough," she said, "let them do it."

In effect, FSU did it.

FSU will pay Bowden a $1 million bonus. Bowden will coach a final game, probably at the Gator Bowl. The school still has a chance to treat the nasty wound and profess its appreciation, perhaps with a new job that makes full retirement impossible and dignity possible.

Bowden deserves at least that much.

lrawlings@wsjournal.com.