Bobby Bowden thinks the Joe Paterno statue should be taken down.
Appearing Thursday afternoon for about 15 minutes on J&R, a CBS-Houston radio show, the former Florida State football coach said keeping the bronze replica of Paterno would cause a continued rehashing of the Penn State scandal.
“It ought to be removed,” Bowden said. “If I was Joe’s wife and family I’d want it removed because just think about this: Every time there’s a ball game at Penn State, they gonna flash that camera over on that statue and it’s gonna bring this whole thing up again.
“If I was Penn State, I’d want to make the 12th of July the last day of this doggone thing and move forward.”
Bowden finished his career with 377 wins at the major college level, second only to Paterno’s 409. Despite their pursuit to become college football’s all-time winningest coach, the two were close friends throughout their lives through a Nike partnership, and their wives, Sue Paterno and Ann Bowden, remain close to this day, Bowden said.
Now, in light of an independent investigative report into the Penn State sex abuse scandal, Bowden called Paterno’s role in a cover-up “a mistake that will be his legacy from now on.”
“Can you picture spending 60 years doing it the right way but you’ll always be known for the wrong way?” said Bowden, who was forced out at Florida State in 2009 after poor on-field performance, which occurred in wake of an academic cheating scandal that involved more than 20 players.
Under Bowden’s watch, the Seminoles’ program also was hit with five years’ probation for a 1993 incident in which several players received free shoes and sporting goods.
However, Bowden didn’t sign off on Paterno’s behavior.
“I can’t condemn the kind of life Joe Paterno lived by what happened on this event,” Bowden said. “This was wrong. He did wrong. I don’t know what Joe was thinking. I just don’t know what he was thinking when he let this thing slide by.”
Though Bowden called for the removal of the statue, he does not think Penn State should shut its football program down.
“Those boys, they didn’t have nothing to do with that,” Bowden said, referring to the current team. “The new coaching staff they got, they didn’t have nothing to do with that.
“The NCAA, what they did to SMU, in my opinion they decided that’s the last time we’re gonna do that because we had other cases they didn’t take that drastic action.
“Penn State has got to rebuild their prestige. They’ve got to rebuild their name. They’ve got to rebuild their perception. And by throwing away your football team, that’s not gonna rebuild it.”
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