Bobby Bowden had some harsh words about Jameis Winston during a radio interview on Tuesday.
Bowden, the legendary former Florida State head coach, joined Paul Finebaum and was asked about Winston. Finebaum said some people found Winston’s actions embarrassing. Bowden agreed and took it even further.
“I think it’s a consensus among Florida State fans and the boosters that [Jameis Winston] was an embarrassment in a lot of ways to the university,” Bowden said to Finebaum. “He won a lot of ballgames — probably one of the best football players that ever attended Florida State — but he hurt himself off the field.
“The good news is he’s young enough to get over that, but he’s got to do that. He just can’t make those junior high school decisions that he made when he was in college.”
A lot of Texas A&M fans would probably say the same thing about Johnny Manziel, which is why that school essentially pushed him out and to the NFL. The same thing happened at FSU; Winston kept getting into so much trouble that it would have been hard for him to return.
But is hearing Bowden say this really a surprise? Though he loves Florida State, Winston was not his player. Bowden didn’t always have the most stand-up guys in his program — he often tried to turn around troubled players like Randy Moss — but even he had limits. He probably would have handled Winston differently from Jimbo Fisher.
Between this and what he said about Joe Paterno, we sure know that Bowden is not afraid to share his opinion.
