Tuesday, a firestorm of controversy broke out on the internet after Paul Finebaum tweeted the following about his interview with Bobby Bowden.
"I think it's a consensus among FSU fans and boosters that he was an embarrassment to the University" - Bobby Bowden on Jameis Winston
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) May 12, 2015
Bowden, who is now 85, coached the Seminoles for three decades, but is rarely around the program. He was responding to a leading question from Finebaum.
Finebaum: "And certainly, discipline and off-field issues have always been out there and not to go back there to something close to you, but Jameis Winston was, many people felt like he was an embarrassment to your great university, Florida State. He won the Heisman, won a National Championship, he was the No.1 player chosen, but the controversy never seemed to leave him, including on the night when he was selected, he was sitting there in Bessmer Alabama on one of the greatest nights of his life and uh, he flashes the crab legs, and uh, what are your thoughts on Jameis Winston?
Bowden: (laughing) Well, I think it's a consensus among Florida State fans, and boosters that he was an embarrassment in a lot of ways to the university (emphasis mine). He won a lot of ball games, probably one of the best football players that ever attended Florida State, but he hurt himself off the field. The good news is that he's young enough to get over that, ya know it, and he's gotta do that. He just can't make those junior high school decisions that he made while he was in college.
Finebaum did lead Bowden in using the word embarrassment, but there's nothing wrong with that.
What some would take issue with, however, is removing the "in a lot of ways" qualifier from the middle of the sentence when tweeting it out to a national audience that, for the most part, is not listening to the show. The quote is still inflammatory to some, though potentially less so, as "in many ways" could and likely does mean FSU fans were embarrassed with many of the off-field antics of Winston.
That Bowden quote sounds quite a bit different when you hear the question and the whole quote. http://t.co/wXL8xeZHUA
— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) May 12, 2015