Was away from the computer for an extended stretch yesterday, and apparently I missed the eruption over Bobby Bowden saying that Jameis Winston ... wait for it ... cover your children's eyes ... not safe for work ... did things that embarrassed Florida State University.
Bowden was on Paul Finebaum's show, and his words caused quite a stir. Actually, Finebaum's initial account of his words caused a stir.
Apparently, Finebaum's official Twitter feed omitted the qualifier "in a lot of ways" after the term embarrassment. And because this is college football, and because this is May and there's nothing else to get bent out of shape about, a lot of folks in Tallahassee went nuts.
People who write about college football for a living need stuff to write about this time of year, and a lot of stuff was written on this yesterday. USA Today has the full text of the question and answer here:
Finebaum: Jameis Winston, many people thought he was an embarrassment to your great university of Florida State. He won the Heisman, won a national championship, he was the No. 1 player chosen (in the NFL draft), but the controversy never seemed to leave him, including on the day he was selected, he was sitting there in Bessemer, Ala. on one of the greatest nights of his life and he flashes the crab legs. What are your thoughts on Jameis Winston?
Bowden: I think it’s a consensus among Florida State fans and boosters that he was an embarrassment in a lot of ways to the university. He won a lot of ball games, probably one of the best football players that ever attended Florida State, but he hurt himself off the field. The good news is that he’s young enough to get over that, ya know it? And he’s gotta do that. But he just can’t make those junior high school decisions that he made while he was in college.
In Orlando, Mike Bianchi says shame on Seminoles fans who rip Bowden for what he said.
Bobby got it absolutely right.
It's about time somebody from FSU came out with an honest, candid statement about Jameis Winston. We certainly haven't heard a single discouraging word about Winston from anybody else at the university -- like the school president, athletic director or head coach Jimbo Fisher.
Any supposed Seminole supporters who try to discredit Bowden for what he said about Winston should have their FSU fan cards revoked.
Bobby didn't just put FSU on the map; he drew the damn map.
Without the great Bobby Bowden, FSU probably wouldn't even have a football team for Jameis Winston to have played on.
The Birmingham News has its account of the comment.
Bowden's successor in Tallahassee, Jimbo Fisher, has been widely criticized for his handling of Winston. Despite all the disciplinary incidents, Winston was suspended just once — sitting out the 2014 Clemson game after shouting an obscenity in a crowded area of campus.
Nevertheless, Bowden said Fisher treated a star player like Winston "like most coaches would."
"There would be some that would be strict," Bowden said. "He might could have been suspended a little bit more for his actions. But Jim is faced with what all coaches are faced, and that is having a great player, and trying to save him through problems. Sometimes it's best not to, sometimes it's 'do your best.' He did a pretty doggone good job of getting Winston through his career at Florida State University, although a lot of people probably were not happy with it."
Of course, one could make a convincing argument that spending a bunch of time writing about this is preferable to spending a bunch of time writing about some of the stats from last night's never-ending baseball game between Clemson and Furman.
17 runners left on base for Clemson
487 pitches thrown by both teams
Four hours, 42 minutes
Sources have confirmed that the game is over.
A few Wednesday links:
-- This ESPN writer wonders whether Everett Golson and Florida State will be the answer to each other's problems.
The answer from this corner: No.
-- Monday Morning Quarterback chronicles the backlash in Boston from the Tom Brady decision.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey gave a speech to local business leaders at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday morning, and was just about to leave when a reporter asked what was seemingly on everyone’s mind throughout greater New England: What did she think of the Deflategate punishments?
Healey is the state’s top law enforcement official and an athlete herself: a former Harvard basketball captain who played professionally in Europe for two seasons before going to law school. She’s also a huge Patriots fan, so rather than saying “no comment” or a bland “I find it disappointing,” she didn’t hold back.
“I just wish that the NFL would spend about a tenth of the time that it’s spending on this on issues of domestic violence and sexual assault,” Healey said. “I’m just struck by the fact that somebody like Ray Rice gets a two-game suspension and Tom Brady, over deflated balls, faces a four-game suspension. It doesn’t add up for me.”
Later, Healey clarified her stance to The MMQB. No, she has not been in contact with the Patriots, Robert Kraft, Tom Brady or anyone’s legal representatives. No, the state won’t pursue anything either. “Come on,” she said with a laugh. The issue is out of her jurisdiction and the NFL’s problem.
“But as a Patriots fan and as a civil rights attorney, I just offered my view,” Healey said. “I was really frustrated by the league’s treatment of these issues. The time, the money, the investment of investigating the issue of the air pressure of balls—and compare that to the time and effort going into the issue of domestic violence and sexual assault—it really gave a message about priorities.”
A day after the NFL handed down the harshest penalties ever imposed on a franchise, The MMQB went to Boston to capture the pulse of the city’s streets where just over three months ago the Patriots celebrated their Super Bowl XLIX victory with a confetti-strewn parade.
-- Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post says the punishments are a weak attempt by the NFL to right its own wrongs.
DeflateGate would be more of a ‘Gate’ if the league had proven that the balls were in fact deflated. But it hasn’t. That’s what is so peculiar about this entire deal. The Ted Wells report commissioned by the league is perfectly clear on this point: No one is sure which of two gauges were used to check the pressurization of the balls. The gauges gave significantly different readings; one read much higher than the other and showed the balls were legally inflated. The referee in charge of checking the footballs, Walt Anderson, is pretty sure he used this gauge. Yet the NFL disregarded this critical point — and the testimony of their own official. Nevertheless the NFL decided the “preponderance of the evidence” showed Brady and the Patriots manipulated the game balls. That’s how eager they are to find wrongdoing.
Even harder to find is evidence of any actual harm: The Patriots won the AFC championship game 45-7. In the first half, with the supposedly softer spheroids, Brady completed just 11 of 21 passes with an interception. In the second half, when everyone agrees the game balls were fully pressurized by the reading of any gauge, the Patriots scored four touchdowns and ran away with the game.
-- And for today's musical selection, we take a dip into some Souljazz with the legendary B-3 master Jimmy Smith.
LW
