Bowden isn’t throwing in the towel yet

When Florida State’s football team struggles, as it did in Saturday’s 28-21 loss to Boston College, fingers start pointing at the coach in charge of the program, Bobby Bowden.

“FSU’s program should never, ever reach a point where we start saying of the Seminoles, ‘Yippee, at least they played ‘em close,’ ” wrote Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel.

“And, sadly, that’s exactly what I was thinking Saturday when FSU furiously rallied from an 18-point deficit and tied the score late in the game before ultimately dropping a 28-21 decision to a blah Boston College team that couldn’t finish in the top half of the SEC.

“When I asked Bobby how he responds to fans and those of us in the media who think he should step down, he understandably became defensive.

“ ‘What would I gain by stepping down right now?’ Bobby said. ‘What would you do, fire everybody and bring in a whole new coaching staff? You can’t do that. I’ll wait until the end of the year to evaluate myself.’ ”

The way the Seminoles are playing, that will seem a long, long time for Florida State fans.

Trivia time

Who were the first two Atlantic Coast Conference players to win the Heisman Trophy?

Payback is sweet

On the eve of Brett Favre’s first game against the Green Bay Packers, ESPN asked two former running backs how it felt to play against their former teams.

From Marcus Allen, who played for the Kansas City Chiefs after a long stint with the Raiders: “What made it very difficult was it was like playing against my brother. I wanted to beat my brother, but I never wanted to embarrass him. I wouldn’t say that it’s black and white. I think behind all that that you still want to prove a point because they said I was washed up.”

Curtis Martin, who played for the New England Patriots and New York Jets, had a different perspective.

“There was a part of me that wanted to show New England how much of a mistake they made. There was a part of me that wanted to say to them, ‘You should have kept me here. I deserved to be here and it’s your loss.’ I wouldn’t call it revenge, but I would call it something very close to revenge. I would want to annihilate Green Bay. I would want to stomp on their hearts and crush them if I was Brett Favre.”

Big baby

A woman in Indonesia recently gave birth to a 19-pound boy.

“I’m not saying he’s big,” penned comedy writer Marc Ragovin, “but to change him his parents have to call out a grounds crew.”

Trivia answer

Florida State’s Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke.

And finally

Colorado Rockies owner Charlie Monfort, to the Denver Post, on his playoff team’s horrendous start: “The old saying that you can’t win the pennant in April, but you can lose it? We tried.”

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