What happens when you put a football coach looking for cheap motivational tools together with a tragedy the proportion of 9.11? You get Florida State's Bobby Bowden, who has decided to appropriate "Let's Roll" as the motto for FSU's football team this fall.
It would be impossible to overstate the depth of cluelessness and insensitivity displayed by Bowden. His reaction to critics is equally telling.
"They have to be unpatriotic to say what they are saying in my opinion," Bowden said about the team's motto, "Let's Roll."
"Anything that you do, someone is going to find the other side of it. We're proud of what we are doing."
Bowden took the motto from Todd Beamer, one of the passengers onboard United Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11 after a group of passengers tried to take control of the plane from terrorists. Officials believe the hijackers intended to crash the plane into the White House or Capitol.
Several daily newspapers in Florida wrote columns Tuesday criticizing the motto, which was released Sunday during the team's media day.
Bowden called the criticism "stupid."
"I would say that's (being) picky-picky," Bowden said.
Right. And those of us who actually GET IT will consider Bowden a doddering fool willing to use any motivational tool, however tacky or inappropriate, in order to win football games. Sportswriters in Florida have also been ripping Bowden up one side and down the other.
Bowden is not a soldier or a general. He is a football coach. He gets paid handsomely by an institution of higher learning to coach student-athletes in an athletic event. This is hardly a life-and-death situation, unless, of course, your're an FSU alum.
Part of being a coach (having been one myself at one point) involves setting a good example for those you coach, and teaching them how to be productive, respectful human beings. Apparently, Bobby Bowden has become so blinded by his need and desire to win football games that common decency has left the building. The lesson here seems to be that the only thing that matters is winning.
I cannot imagine how Bowden can in good conscience associate the fate of his football team with the actions and sacrifices of Todd Beamer and the rest of the passengers aboard Flight 93. The passengers on that plane died trying to prevent a larger tragedy. The only tragedy Bowden has to worry about is the possibility of losing to Miami. His appropriation of Beamer's last words as a team slogan is tasteless, insensitive, ignorant, and just plain WRONG, and he should know better.
