I’m really struggling with this story. Ordinarily when a team is forced to vacate past accomplishments, I look at that as a wrist-slap, nothing penalty because you can’t really undo games that a team won. For Florida State coach Bobby Bowden however, that seems like the absolute worst thing you could do to the man. Facing the thought of vacating 14 wins because of an academic cheating scandal, Bowden’s getting creative:
Meanwhile, Bobby is hatching one final trick play. This one involves digging up what he says are 22 victories earned while he was coach at South Georgia Junior College from 1956-58. Asterisk that, NCAA.
“I’ve got to get put in the grave here one of these days … ” Bowden said. “It don’t count to them. It does to me.”
Like I said, I’m having a tough time interpreting this. Is it pathetic that Bowden is digging this deep just because of a numbers game? Is it worse that Joe Paterno’s Penn State team full of criminals haven’t cost him any wins but an academic scandal cost Bobby? Is Bowden and Paterno’s game of career wins chicken a childish, egotistical battle that’s holding back both schools or is it a symbol of loyalty, longevity, hard work, and accomplishment? I think it’s some combination of everything I mentioned. Maybe the best thing would be to have the wins vacated just so their stupid game could come to an end. I highly doubt either one is doing much coaching these days anyway.
