Today’s Meeting of the Minds takes a look at the recent news that Bobby Bowden hid his cancer treatment from the Florida State program. Was it a respectful decision or was it something that should have been handled differently.
Here is what the staff at Crystal Ball Run had to say. Read our thoughts and then let us know what you think as well in the comment section below.
Kevin McGuire: We know now that Bobby Bowden was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2007 and was cancer-free six months later. What’s interesting here is that Jimbo Fisher was named the “head coach-in-waiting” in December of 2007. Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe it’s not. From what we know right now it does not appear anyone from Florida State was directly informed by Bowden about his illness. Bowden said he hid the issue from many people, including his own children (not his wife). I think we all appreciate Bowden for a number of reasons, but did he make the right decision to now tell his program about his health issue? What do you think would have happened if he did let Florida State know about his health?
Bowden said he did not want his competition to have any kind of edge in the recruiting game. The elder coach was already attacked because of his age in recruiting wars with other schools, so he said the last thing he wanted to do was allow guys he was competing in against to tell stories about him being treated for cancer, which would have led to stories about him being on his death bed, Bowden suggested on Good Morning America. Personally, I’m OK with this line of thinking. As I said in the post, the m,an had a passion for coaching, and for some cancer patients they need something to be so passionate about so they continue fighting and getting back to doing what they love. I admire that.
Of course, had the treatment process gone differently and not as successfully then who knows what would have happened.
Allen Kenney: To me, this whole incident fits perfectly into Coach Dadgummit’s time at Florida State.
While Florida State did have some flashes of success after playing for the national championship in the 2000 Orange Bowl, the erosion of the Seminole mystique during the course of the decade defined the program. If you don’t think that had something to do with Bowden refusing to give up the ghost for all those years, I don’t know what to tell you.
Now, we find out he had cancer and didn’t tell anyone at the school. Why? Because keeping his job was more important than looking out for FSU and being upfront with his employer.
Truthfully, I don’t think Bowden had an obligation to tell Florida State anything. This is no cardinal sin.
Would I have let Florida State know? Absolutely. Plenty of people – players, coaches, administrators – have a lot on the line when it comes to the success of FSU football. At that point, most of them had more at stake than Bowden. I just wouldn’t have felt good about keeping all of that a secret.
More than anything, though, this just reinforces for me that being a successful head coach at a program like FSU requires a certain kind of personality, and I think it’s one that most of us would find reprehensible. If we’re to take Bowden at face value, he didn’t even tell his kids he was sick for fear that other coaches would use it against him in recruiting. Beneath all the “aw shucks” that he gives off, this reveals the combination of ego, selfishness and ruthlessness fueling a guy like Bowden. Hell, he had to have made that call because he knew what kind of sharks were circling around him in the coaching world.
Just sad, really.
Aaron Torres: This is a very sensitive subject, so I’m going to go ahead and tread lightly, and choose my words carefully.
Let me start by saying that whenever anything like this happens, I never can, and never will judge a man for approaching things in any manner that he sees best fit. If Coach Bowden wanted to address this as a family matter (which he did), that is absolutely, 100 percent his prerogative. And in all seriousness, the most important thing to remember here is that thankfully, he survived and thrived, and is now speaking out. Good for him.
With that, it is disappointing to me that Bowden has said that the only reason he decided against speaking out was because of a recruiting disadvantage. Look, I get why he did it, and how cruel and sick the recruiting game can be. I’m sure coaches have said stuff about other coaches that I could never imagine. Still, for years we’ve killed athletes like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and others for not using their massive platform for social awareness and change, and I think to a degree we should with Bowden too. After all those years and all those wins, I kind of wish he had thought more about the “big picture,” impact he could’ve made, than the little picture recruiting stuff.
Now some of you may think that’s totally unfair, but I think I have a pretty applicable contemporary example to back that up.
Jim Calhoun, my favorite coach of all-time, is a multiple time cancer survivor. Granted, when he was diagnosed the first time, it was during the season and he had to take an indefinite leave of absence. Even if he did want to cover his diagnosis up, unlike Bowden, the circumstances simply didn’t allow it.
Still, Calhoun faced the same recruiting dilemmas that Bowden spoke of, and chose to speak out and raise awareness anyway. (And by the way, Calhoun did face that negative recruiting. One story that has became famous through the years, is that a fellow coach, reportedly John Calipari, did in fact tell a recruit not to go to UConn because Jim Calhoun was dying. This stuff really does happen). Well anyway, since his initial diagnosis, Calhoun has raised millions of dollars for cancer research through charity events throughout my home state of Connecticut. Whatever you think of Jim Calhoun the coach, understand that few have done more in a civil sense in my area of the country than he has.
Now let’s go back to Bowden. Imagine everything that Bowden could’ve done with a bigger platform than Calhoun, in a bigger state, with a bigger alumni base, resources etc. had he come out with this back in 2007. Sure he may have lost a recruit or two. But at the end of the day, isn’t raising awareness that much more important?
Again, I’m not killing Bowden, and every man has a right to handle these situations how they please.
But if he chose not to speak out until now, well I am a bit disappointed.
Tom Perry: I appreciate Aaron’s point on this one, but his health is his business. He doesn’t owe anyone an explanation and he doesn’t need to share it with us. I know that’s the world we live in today, but Bobby Bowden had not obligation to be the face of prostate cancer while he was coaching. As cruel as it sounds, he was right that opposing coaches would have used it against him in recruiting.
Bowden can still help raise awareness now and help raise millions for the cause. But I can’t beat up on the guy for waiting until now. I can denigrate him for wearing this hat, though.
Michael Felder: I’m with Tom. If he wanted to go the Pat Summit route then kudos to him. He didn’t. He opted to keep a private family matter private. I can imagine the firestorm surrounding this with every decision made, play called and most definitely recruiting loss. The guy wanted to finish his career on a positive note and this would most certainly not allow that.
While I understand Allen’s point on the program being bigger and the amount of personal interests being tied to Florida State football I can’t get past the fact that, for me, his health is his own. Not giving FSU ammunition to oust him for off the field reasons. Not giving Urban Meyer, Mark Richt and Nick Saban ammunition to mop the floor with his staff in recruiting. That’s not selfish to me, that playing the game for a coach.
Project strength, not weakness at the top.
Aaron Torres: So here’s my thing: A man’s health is his own. That is absolutely, unequivocally my belief, and I am totally in line with Tom and Mike on that.
But with that said, Bowden admitted today that his SOLE reason for not coming forward, was for recruiting purposes and recruiting purposes only. It wasn’t because he was nervous. It wasn’t because it was a family affair. In Bowden’s own description, it was because of negative recruiting. And really that’s selfish. Selfish not only to his employers, but to his friends and family too. If you were one of his sons, isn’t that something you’d kinda, wanna know? Wouldn’t you be a bit pissed off, if you didn’t find out until after the fact, solely because your dad didn’t want to lose a linebacker to Florida?
To me, what it still comes back to is whether or not someone in a position like this has a civic responsibility to speak out. The short answer is absolutely not. But again, if we’re going to kill Michael Jordan for not having a stance on the important issues, I don’t think we should give Bowden a pass. In his late 70’s, I wish he had really taken the time to consider the impact that he could’ve made, just by coming out with this news. Hell, it didn’t even have to be in 2007. It couldn’t have been when he retired?
Again, I don’t blame a man for hiding his health. I am a bit disappointed in him though for not fully thinking this through. There are things bigger than football.
Michael Felder: I hear you Aaron and still disagree. Football was a major part of his life. This is an extreme case of a guy playing through to not hurt himself, his school or his team. The media circus that would come with him saying he’s fighting cancer would have been a ridiculous sideshow to go with their already declining football program.
If you’re his family or player absolutely you’d like to know but Bowden took a calculated risk to make sure his problem was his own. I’m not one to bang on Jordan so for me that doesn’t hold wait. Everyone picks and chooses their battles and causes. The coach speaking out regarding awareness now is plenty for me from an advocacy standpoint.
Allen Kenney: Michael, saying Bowden took a “calculated risk” for the good of the team sounds like major Monday morning quarterbacking to me. Sure, cancer takes all different forms with their own risk factors and the like. Still, it’s cancer.
Think about it from the perspectives of players and recruits. If the guy who is selling you on joining his program knows that he has cancer, isn’t that something you want to know? Being sick can impair his ability to make decisions. And what happens if he up and dies a month after you get on campus?
It’s your future on the line when you’re deciding where to go to school, not his. In that respect, I can’t condone Bowden withholding this kind of information from players/recruits to avoid a media circus. I suspect they would just as soon know that Bowden is sick as deal with the media.
In fact, you could argue that avoiding a media circus just helps Bowden. Honestly, that just comes off like an excuse to keep Bowden from catching heat about needing to step down.
Michael Felder: Again, as I said if you’re a player or family member of course you want to know but that doesn’t mean he has an obligation to divulge that information. At least not until he is unable to perform his duties.
No one had a clue and we all judged him as such. I don’t think this is Monday Morning QB-ing, the fact is no one knew and he kept pushing towards success uninhibited. No excuses, no second guessing on the part of others and no circus calling every decision into question on the grounds that “he has cancer.”
It’s easy to play the “what if” game now and pile on the guy but the “what if” isn’t what happened. The “what was” game is Bowden struggled, couldn’t get back to the pinnacle of the sport. Not because he had cancer but because his coaching, training and staff were archaic. That’s how this whole event will be remembered for me.
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