
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 12, 1994                   TAG: 9405120041
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BOWDEN TAKES ISSUE WITH SI `SCANDAL' STORY

Bobby Bowden, Florida State's football coach, denies the assertion he and his staff should have been aware some players on his national champion team were associating with recruiters for sports agents last season.

"They [Sports Illustrated] say we should have known," Bowden said Tuesday night. "Tell me and I would have known. You think somebody would have told me.

"I compare it to a man running around on his wife. Nobody's going to tell her. She's usually the last to know."

Bowden spoke in response to the SI article, "Anatomy of a Scandal," the cover story in the May 16 edition of the magazine.

SI reported that at least seven players participated in a $6,000 shopping spree at a Tallahassee mall in the fall. The magazine said six of the players also received up to $10,000 in cash from three men who were trying to recruit the athletes for an agent.

by CNB