Football Great Bobby Bowden Admits Old Cancer Illness (VIDEO)
Florida State football coach legend, Bobby Bowden admitted to Good Morning America that he had prostate cancer and that he underwent treatment during the 2007 football season but refused to go public with it.
The coach who retired, said that “fear” of putting his team in jeopardy kept him from revealing the secret, which has now gone national following his admission on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America.’
"I did not understand the significance of prostate cancer back then," Bowden said in an interview.
"If I knew then what I know now, I would have considered it my moral duty to bring it out into the open," he admitted, "I thought it was the right thing to do..but that's not the message (I want to give out) now."
Bowden, retired - his last game being a win in 2009 season finale, and knows that hiding the disease could have put him in more danger than his team:
"What I knew was that when something like that happens to a coach and your opponents find out...the first thing they say is 'Don't go to Florida State, Coach...is about to die.'" he said.
"Bobby is not real big on sharing things that are wrong with him, he doesn't want to admit he isn't perfect," said his wife, Ann.
According to USA Today, which featured the interview, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. One in six men will battle prostate cancer, which is the second leading cause of death among men in United States.
The coach, had a forty four year career during which he discovered prostate cancer in 2007 in a routine physical. After undergoing Brachytherapy treatment, Bowden declared he is cancer-free.
"If I knew then what I know now, I would have considered it my moral duty to bring it out into the open. I thought it was the right thing to do..but that's not the message (I want to give out) now." he said.