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Dave Reardon

Press Box

By Dave Reardon


Sensitivity police need
to leave Bowden alone


I remember clearly the first time I heard the phrase, "Let's roll." It had nothing to do with Florida State football or a hero leading a counterattack against terrorists on an airplane Sept. 11.

It was my third base coach, 26 years ago, telling me in so many words to attempt a crucial steal of home in a Senior League baseball game.

I've heard those two words directed my way probably another dozen or so times over the decades -- usually from drill sergeants, editors and other assorted bosses imploring me to get my butt into gear.

The phrase was a part of our language long before Todd Beamer used it as a rallying cry for a courageous group of passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, who died while preventing more fatalities.

Because of Beamer, those words hold much more meaning than they did before. But does that mean we can only use them in everyday language at the risk of offending others?

In the bigger picture, does that mean Florida State coach Bobby Bowden is an insensitive jerk for choosing "Let's roll" as the Seminoles' motto this year?

All I needed to know is that Bowden cleared it with Beamer's wife, Lisa, and that FSU isn't looking to make financial gain from the slogan.

She understands that while moralists look at it as trivialization of her husband's noble act, the reality is a high-profile college football team can strengthen his legacy.

Be honest. You're probably like me, and the significance of the name Todd Beamer had probably begun fading from your memory. Bowden is helping to perpetuate the story.

But by the way some holier-than-thou types are reacting, you'd think the Seminoles are named after a tribe of Native Americans and that the team mascot rides a horse while in full war gear and chucks a flaming spear into the grass before every game.

Or, that an FSU kicker of recent vintage regularly strolled about Tallahassee with a wad of hundreds in one pocket and a supply of date-rape pills in the other.

The point is, if you want to take a shot at Bowden and his program, targets are plentiful without resorting to words on a T-shirt worn under the players' jerseys.

SOON IT WILL be one year since 9/11 and we'll be subjected to yet another barrage from the knuckle-rappers stating that words like bomb and blitz (and barrage) don't belong in sports stories.

Well, when it comes to this subject, San Jose State coach and Desert Storm veteran Fitz Hill is my hero.

"In combat sometimes you fight for 13 straight days," Hill said when describing the Spartans' (yet another team named after soldiers) arduous schedule.

As for my old baseball coach. I guess he is retroactively guilty of insensitivity in the proper use of the English language. Is there a statute of limitations on verbal miscues?

I'll let you in on a secret.

I've even had the nerve to utter the hallowed phrase "Let's roll" a few times myself -- and without asking anyone's permission.

Cuff me, sensitivity police. But while you're at it, get a life, OK?

Then again, what do I know? One of my favorite albums is Tom Petty's "Damn the Torpedoes."


Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii from 1977 to 1998,
moved to the the Gainesville Sun, then returned to
the Star-Bulletin in Jan. 2000.
E-mail Dave: dreardon@starbulletin.com



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