Read The Facts

While interviewing legendary former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden on his radio show earlier this week, ESPN's Paul Finebaum noted that in his mind former Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, the first pick in the recent NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was an embarrassment to Florida State University, and asked Bowden to comment.

Bowden made some candid comments which have caused quite a stir, blowing up social media and pitting FSU fans against one another.  A Google search gave indication Bowden considered Winston "an embarrassment" to FSU. Even Tampa Bay Buccaneer coach Lovie Smith expressed his disappointment in Bowden.

Problem is, Finebaum appeared to misrepresent Bowden in a Tweet and Smith and most everyone else failed to read the entire quotation.

Read the entire quotation:

"Well, I think it's a consensus among Florid State fans, and boosters that he was an embarrassment in a lot of ways to the university," Bowden said. "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."

Coach Bobby Bowden is being taken out of context. Bowden's comments were quite true, as Winston has embarrassed the fan base on a handful of occasions, yet were inspirational about his future and not a condemnation of his past. We all hope Jameis makes more sound decisions as he grows as an individual.

Furthermore, folks, particularly those deemed millennials, need to not go popping off after hearing parsed sound bites from a liberal media without getting command of the facts first.  When I hear people making political commentary, from top level members of the mainstream media to folks I meet sitting at the bar who offer general commentary on a subject I know to be false, I am reminded of the words of Ronald Reagan:

"Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

And don't think for a moment that the goings on behind this misdirection and distortion of the facts through out the media landscape is not political.  Recall Bob Costas lecturing America on gun control?