Regime Change Imminent At FSU

Not surprisingly, the grumbling and grousing in Tallahassee about the lingering Bobby Bowden era grows apace. Continued also-ran status in the Atlantic Coast Conference, a forfeit-affixed, academic-cheating scandal and that historic loss to the erstwhile commuter school from Tampa has only fueled the furor.

 

So outspoken have some Seminole boosters — and even a key trustee — become that no longer do you hear the argument that iconic coaches such as Bowden, 79, (and Penn State’s Joe Paterno, 82) should be able to call their own retirement shots.

 

That’s the good news.

 

Given the charge of institutions of higher education, including those with high-profile football programs, nobody should be calling their own shots about stepping down unless they’ve cured a disease or won a Nobel Prize. Long-tenured, highly-successful football coaches should not be an exception and, in effect, be able to dictate to a university president when they will opt to step aside.

Tim Tebow: Go Pro — Or Say No?

By any criterion, Tim Tebow is special. As an athlete, as a person, as a leader. Arguably, the word “special” has never been such an understatement.

 

By the end of this football season he could have a matching set of Heisman Trophies and have played on three national champion University of Florida teams. He’s also an academic All-American and a fitness fanatic. Plus, he’s clean-cut, good-looking, well-mannered, well-spoken, religious and ripped. He’s a coach’s prototypical spread-option quarterback – as well as every parent’s ideal son and every coed’s consummate crush.

 

Next year he will be expected to move on to the National Football League and transfer his game and fame to an even bigger stage. It’s what talented college football players do, let alone one who has been referenced among the very best to have ever played the sport.

 

But here’s hoping he decides otherwise and passes on the NFL. Here’s why.

 

Scouts will tell you Tebow’s game – in an Urban Meyer offense designed for his unique skill set and size – is less than ideal for the NFL, where they like their players, especially quarterbacks, pigeon-holed. That’s why he won’t be the first quarterback selected in the draft. Pro teams want traditional, pocket-passing, fluid-release quarterbacks – not single wing hybrids like Tebow. So, chances are he won’t make the sort of impact at the next level that he’s made at Florida. Not nearly. In fact, there’s a chance his position will be changed to something much less glamorous.

 

Moreover, the NFL is as much about pop-culture celebrity and show biz glitz as it is about football. It’s an over-exposed, over-analyzed, over-commercialized product hawked by the Chris Bermans and Keyshawn Johnsons and Jon Grudens. Gator Nation looks almost modest and unassuming by comparison. Almost. The NFL is where the likes of Ray Lewis and Michael Vick will always be in their element.

 

Tim Tebow deserves better. He would be better off walking away as one of — if not THE — best college player ever. EVER. He doesn’t need the context of agents, network shills and commodity status.

 

Nor does he need critics constantly reminding fans that the erstwhile Heisman Trophy winner matters so much less at the pro level — and speculating about how long it will be before he turns up on “Dancing With The Stars.” For all of our societal lionizing of celebs, there remains a proclivity, if not perverse delight, among the media in playing a part in reducing heroes to mortal status. Tim Tebow: Heisman bust and tight end/back-up quarterback for the Denver Broncos. It’s all but pre-scripted.

 

Here’s hoping Tebow bypasses that quite credible scenario-in-waiting and leverages his colossal collegiate fame — in tandem with his unique work ethic and motivation to help the less fortunate – into a not-for-profit foundation. And a life of public service – sooner rather than later. Maybe “honest elected official” doesn’t have to seem like an oxymoron.

Timing is everything. And special people have special destinies. So special they transcend, among other things, the less-than-special arena of pro football. 

Common Sense Vacated In St. Pete

Nobody wants to be on the side opposite the principled. Especially the Constitutionally principled. Especially the free speech variety.

 

But if Constitutional history has taught us anything these last two-plus centuries, it’s that the law is always in ongoing need of interpretation. The necessity is as obvious as the societal differences between the 18th and 21st centuries. Core values don’t change, but context always matters. Common sense, perforce, must be a Constitutional complement.

 

Too bad it was vacated last week in St. Petersburg in that counterproductive vote by city council – the one that could have thrown a lifeline to the badly foundering BayWalk complex.

 

To recap, the issue was whether to cede a chunk of sidewalk at BayWalk’s entrance to its owners. The step, contained in an ordinance crafted by the staff of Mayor Rick Baker, would have allowed BayWalk’s owners to, in effect, legally remove undesirables from a stretch of public sidewalk. This was aimed at motley gatherings that ranged from animated, anti-war activists to loitering, anti-decorum, patron-chasing punks. That loud, less-than-inviting, sometimes downright intimidating gauntlet was part of the reason for BayWalk’s precipitous fall from downtown-revival catalyst and “town square” to something approaching boarded-up blight monument and clown square.

 

BayWalk, with its 55,000 square feet of vacant retail and an increasingly problematic Muvico Theaters, had been counting on — and touting the merits of — the ordinance in its tenant-recruiting pitches. BayWalk wasn’t pushing for the elimination of free-speech or its relegation to some Constitution-mocking holding pen. It was pushing for its relocation across the street – where the same audience would still be privy to it – but not accosted or deterred by it.

 

Common sense should have dictated that such a compromise be welcomed – and enacted. It would not have been a panacea, of course, not in this economy. But it would have sent an unmistakable signal that BayWalk was, indeed, the major priority it was said to be. It would have underscored that BayWalk was a downtown domino too important to fall. And it would have reminded taxpayers that its $20-million investment was still considered a public trust.

 

Instead, we have a city council with too many members too concerned with appearing to be a Baker rubber stamp and too municipally myopic to see the big, principled picture. Downtown viability, jobs and public investment are at stake; freedom of speech isn’t. To think otherwise speaks volumes.

USF Answers Doubters

OK, prepare that humble pie.

 

I didn’t like USF’s chances against a lesser (Syracuse) opponent the week after a big, nationally-noted win (FSU) and said so. I had my reasons. Principally, the Bulls’ track record for not handling that kind of pressure well – and typically playing as if they were channeling head coach Jim Leavitt in his most composure-challenged, sideline moments. But a 34-20 win at Syracuse on Homecoming — a victory keyed by another impressive, unflappable performance by freshman quarterback B.J. Daniels — halted that disconcerting pattern.

 

Now USF will take on 8th-ranked Cincinnati next Thursday at RayJay in a nationally-televised ESPN game. Make that pie a la mode.

 

Go, Bulls.

Quoteworthy

* “I didn’t know what to think. I had never seen it.” – Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor about her March appearance on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart.

 

* “T.K. (Wetherell) and I have talked about this. The reason there is some sense of urgency is we’re in the middle of this (university) presidential search and the last thing we want to do is have a brand new president…faced with having to deal with this problem.” – Jim Smith, chairman of the FSU Board of Trustees, on the need to expedite a decision on football coach Bobby Bowden.

 

* “It’s better for military advice to come up through the chain of command.” — Retired Gen. James Jones, White House national security advisor, on the appropriateness of Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recent public comments about needing up to 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan.

 

* “We’re trying to save jobs, not increase wages.” — Mike Young, Amalgamated Transit Unions (Local 1464) secretary on the quid pro quo of forgoing cost-of-living as well as merit raises in exchange for keeping jobs.

 

* “It shows that the federal government is taking the lead. This is a big deal.” – U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood in announcing that federal employees are now banned from text messaging when they are behind the wheel of government vehicles or even when they are in their own cars on government business or using government-issued phones.

 

* “Right now I’d give anything to be hiking along the Appalachian Trail.” – David Letterman at the top of his Monday night monologue.

Bucs Rebuilding Or Imploding?

The Bucs began 0-for-September and might be the NFL’s worst team. They have essentially written off this season as a “rebuilding” loser and could experience local TV blackouts for the first time in memory.

 

But there’s always an upside in the National Football League.

 

That’s because NFL teams don’t lose money. Network TV revenue-sharing and a league salary cap ensure as much. Some franchises just make more than others.

 

Put it this way, where else can you get somebody else (colleges) to train your employees, feel assured that public subsidy will be part of building your physical plant, and count on a profit regardless of product quality? Plus free, virtually round-the-calendar, local media attention? And not even be called a “socialist”?

 

The Bucs are $30 million under the salary cap. And according to Forbes magazine, they are worth $1.085 billion – or eighth in the league. And that $1.085 figure is up 3 per cent in the last year.  

USF’s Deja View

For those still celebrating USF’s historic win over FSU in Tallahassee, this sobering reminder: USF has been here before.

For the third straight year, USF heads into October undefeated and riding the momentum of a high-profile, nationally noted win into its Big East schedule. That means USF is no longer the play-with-abandon hunter, but the target-wearing hunted. And that means a different mental state. Heretofore, USF has wilted under that kind of pressure. Playing not to lose and playing without composure – seemingly channeling the frenetic sideline antics of head coach Jim Leavitt.

Up next for the Bulls: Syracuse and then Cincinnati. And then we will know. We will know what that FSU win actually meant.

Transit-Option Optimism

I am pathologically skeptical about polls. Too often you don’t know enough about sampling and wording and agendas to confidently assess the merits of the results.

 

Having said that, I hope that the most recent survey on a light rail line done for Hillsborough Area Regional Transit proves prescient. It indicated that two thirds of the (600) sampled adult county residents would either “definitely” support a 1-cent sales tax for light rail or would “probably” support it.

 

This is in marked contrast to a similar survey done in 2006 that showed road improvements were still much more the priority. Perhaps the combination of TBARTA publicity, stimulus-dollars competition and Mayor Pam Iorio’s bully transit pulpit have made a difference. Perhaps too much motorist down time has finally taken its toll.

 

But the reality is this: That encouraging survey is also in marked contrast to the retrograde mindset in general about mass transit that has been dominating this region seemingly forever. It’s a quality-of-life issue, and it’s a business-recruitment issue.  

 

Just ask former commissioner and future mayoral candidate Ed Turanchik, who was lampooned back in the ‘90s as “Commissioner Choo-Choo” by local pundits. All he did was try to rally the public around the concept of doing something other than adding traffic lanes to address our manifestly acute transportation needs.

 

But that was then – and this is not. Hopefully.

 

The survey’s timing certainly seems propitious. County commissioners are now debating whether to put the tax-hike question before voters next year. Also up for debate: What’s to debate? Let the electorate be heard. Too much rides, quite literally, on a rail vote. Most notably: The 21st century prospects of this region without viable mass transit.

Zero Tolerance

“Zero tolerance.”

 

It’s one of those refreshingly no-nonsense phrases that appeals to the unequivocating, moral-absolute side in all of us. It’s right or it’s wrong. There’s nothing in between.

 

The obvious problem: It’s a better slogan than policy. Whether as an anti-crime or anti-bullying edict. That’s because life can be nettlesomely nuanced. “Three strikes and you’re out” is baseball gospel for umpires – but can be sentence manacles for judges.

 

How about zero tolerance for policies that necessarily promise more than they can fairly deliver?

MacArthur Knows Genius

So, who can explain “genius”?  Or is it like the late Justice Potter Stewart describing obscenity: “I know it when I see it”?

 

Seemingly, this is what the MacArthur Foundation grapples with annually. Each year it names its national “genius” grant winners. Each of the 24 “geniuses” gets $500,000 over five years to recognize and underwrite their ingenuity.

 

And once again the recipients are eclectic, the criteria enigmatic.

 

For example, among this year’s “geniuses” are Lin He, a Berkeley molecular biologist who has been zeroing in on the role of microRNAs in cancer, and Theodore Zoli, a New York engineer working to protect transportation infrastructure in a disaster.

 

Also included: Mark Bradford, a Los Angeles artist who incorporates everyday items into abstract art, and Heather McHugh, a Seattle poet who works extensively on wordplay, notably incorporating puns and rhymes.

 

Cancer research, disaster prevention, abstract art, wordplay. Presumably MacArthur knows it when it sees it.