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Honor roll Bowden's Seminoles must protect their new mottoPosted: Monday August 12, 2002 1:25 PMUpdated: Monday August 12, 2002 9:35 PM
We like our rule books in sports. There is a comfort in knowing exactly what behavior is and is not allowed, in being able to look it all up and see right and wrong neatly laid out in black and white. But when real life, especially in the form of the tragedy of last September 11, intrudes on sports, there are no rule books. There is no section on how to grieve, how to remember, how to pay tribute. So it is not surprising that Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden has been praised in some quarters and pilloried in others for his decision to adopt "Let's roll" as the Seminoles' 2002 motto. "Let's roll" was the phrase uttered by Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer before he and other passengers apparently attacked the hijackers of their plane and forced them to crash the aircraft into the ground instead of its intended target, thereby saving the lives of untold others. It was an act of stunning bravery, more heroic than anything the Seminoles or any other group of athletes will ever accomplish in any game, and if it makes you queasy to think of a football team appropriating those words for extra inspiration on third-and-goal, that's understandable. But there are no rules here, remember. One man's patriotic tribute is another man's tasteless trivialization. All we can really judge is intent, and on that score, Bowden passes.
There's not much that matters more to Bobby Bowden than his football team, and using Beamer's words to help lift his players to greater heights is quite likely the highest tribute he knows how to give. Bowden hasn't exactly been eloquent in stating his case -- at Florida State's media day he referred to Beamer as "that guy, on that plane" -- but comparing Bowden's remarks to "spitting on the graves of everyone who was lost in the September 11 attacks," as Keith Olbermann did in a commentary for ABC radio, is an absurd exaggeration. There is a world of difference between what Florida State's Bowden has done and what Cincinnati Reds general manager Jim Bowden (no relation) did in using September 11 imagery in an analogy involving baseball's labor problems. The Reds' Bowden told a group of reporters what a huge mistake he thought the players would be making if they go on strike. "If they do walk out, make sure it's September 11," Bowden said. "Be symbolic. Let Donald Fehr drive the plane right into the building, if that's what they want to do." You want tastelessness? You want trivialization? Jim Bowden's your man. As for the other Bowden, as long as the rallying cry is used for what he says it will be used for, inspiration and tribute, Florida State is on safe ground. But if "Let's roll" bumper stickers begin appearing on Tallahassee cars, or Seminole fans begin chanting the phrase as they do their horrid tomahawk chop, then we have a problem. The moment Florida State moves from motivation to commercialization, it will lose all claim to purity of intent. In adopting "Let's roll," Florida State has assumed possession of something far more precious and fragile than some star quarterback's ego. If Bowden wants to use that phrase, he has to understand that our memories and emotions as a nation are, to a large extent, tied up in those words. The Seminoles had better protect those two simple words accordingly. Like the football they love so much, they had better hug them close to the heart. Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button issue every Monday on CNNSI.com.
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