Bowden must come down hard on FSU cheaters

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There was a time in this once-great nation of ours when a college man who brought disgrace to his school, his family and himself didn't need to be told to go.He dutifully admitted his wrong, offered a heartfelt apology and quietly slunk away in shame.Some of you might be old enough to remember those days, when words like "honor" and "integrity" and "responsibility" still meant something, before America foolishly discarded its moral compass and lost its way.Many of you, though, were born too late to fully understand and appreciate why someone who violated those now-archaic principles would choose to censure himself, rather than wait for someone else to determine his fate.Because the country has changed, and not for the better.We live in a different society today. We're not as honor-bound as we once were. We don't place the same value on the concepts of fair play and sportsmanship -- in life as well as in the arena.Cheating has become a gray area, the boundaries of which keep getting harder to find.Doing what's right and doing it the right way used to be what mattered most. But not anymore. Not in today's too-tolerant, excuses-for-everything culture in which the only bad people are the ones who demand that everyone be held accountable for their actions.Now, it's all about doing whatever it takes to get the right result, even if it means doing something outside the rules that govern decent and honorable behavior.Now, it's all about trying to get away with as much as you can.And if you get caught? Say you're sorry, even though your only regret is getting caught. Offer up some flimsy explanation, placing the blame on your childhood or your friends or the pressures of trying to cope with the demands of everyday life. Promise you'll never do anything like that again and ask for another chance.Then wait for a softer punishment than you deserve.That's how it works nowadays.That's how it works for the steroid cheats in sports. That's how it works for athletes who too often wind up on the police blotter, whether it's for driving drunk or beating up women or even incidents involving gunplay.And, sadly, that's probably how it will work for all those Florida State football players who took part in an academic cheating scandal in 2006.But it shouldn't.Not this time.Not at FSU, which has endured too many embarrassing off-the-field incidents involving football players through the years.Not with Bobby Bowden approaching the end of an otherwise-wonderful coaching career.Let's face it: It's unlikely any of these players will do the honorable thing and withdraw from school. If they possessed that kind of integrity, they wouldn't have cheated.So now it's up to Bowden.This is where he must make a stand -- maybe his last stand -- for the sake of his legacy, if not the future of the program he brought to national prominence.Suspending these cheats for FSU's Music City Bowl vs. Kentucky New Year's Eve in Nashville isn't enough. Nor is suspending them for the first few games next season.Maybe Bowden doesn't have the authority to kick them out of school, or even yank their scholarships. But he can make sure they never play for him again.True, taking such action could cost him next season, which could be his last. But not doing so could cost him much more. Winning should be important, but not at the expense of integrity.Bowden, at age 78, is old enough to remember a far better time in this once-great nation -- the days when a man's honor meant everything, when his word was his bond, when his reputation was not something to be compromised.Now he has a chance to stand up for those old-school principles.Cheating wasn't tolerated then.It shouldn't be tolerated now.(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. Contact him at ray.mcnulty@scripps.com or on the Web at www.tcpalm.com.)