Florida State and American culture

For thirty-four years, Bobby Bowden has been the head football coach of Florida State. Along the way, Bowden racked up 12 conference titles, two national championships and 321 victories. Bowden’s 388 coaching wins overall is second only to Penn State’s Joe Paterno.

Simply put, Bobby Bowden built Florida State football. Before Bowden, Florida State football was a joke around the South. A former all female school, Florida State was everyone’s favorite homecoming opponent. Then Bowden took over. Under Bowden, the football team flourished, the stadium was expanded, and the university got a name around the nation, attracting athletes and scholars alike.

What did Bobby Bowden get for creating such a program? He got the choice to retire or be figurehead. ESPN reports that Bowden will retire. Frankly, if those are his choices, VUI hopes Bowden retires. The man who built Florida State should not suffer the indignity of being a figurehead.

Such is how the “baby boomer” generation and the so called “generation X” people treat those who actually created what they live off of. What is happening at Florida State is happening all over the nation. The old guy who created the business or the organization is treated like a child. “Thanks, old man,” the blow dried hair guy in the Men’s Wearhouse suit says, “You go retire now so I can refinance the business with debt and get paid my bonus.”

What happens in American athletics is reflective of American life. There is no concern about the future. There is no respect given in American business to the people who made America great. Loyalty to those who built what we have is not to be found, be it to the football coach or the businessman. Instead, people in cheap suits wrap themselves around their degrees and hire who looks the best, tells them what they want to hear and is politically correct. Then, people stand in amazement as a bunch of colorless, well dressed, self centered blowhards are unable to compete against China and the rest of the world.

Sitting and being judged by such people has to be hard for a man like Bowden. Like Bowden or not, he has accomplished more in his life than the people who sit and patronize him ever will. But, that is America now. We elected a President who did little, but “spoke the language” of success. We churn out graduates from business schools who learn more about how to speak to one another than to achieve long term success. Being loyal, appreciative and able to compete are almost taboo in our current culture. Indeed, we are a culture that is more concerned about Tiger Woods’s automobile accident than about war policy. We are a society that is more worried about who snuck into a White House dinner than what the President and the guest of honor discussed and agreed upon.

And, we are the society in which old men who built it are pushed aside unceremoniously and patronized. Who wouldn’t walk away from such nonsense? Florida State is doing what is the new American norm. Some will applaud Florida State. VUI will not. Because, every time one of those old guys who created American institutions and businesses are unappreciated, it hurts us all.