EMMITSBURG, Md. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles realized a lifelong dream on Saturday and fulfilled a promise to his late mother, earning a college degree.
Bowles, 59, graduated from Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland with a bachelor of science degree in youth and community development, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“This is an amazing thing for me to be in a class with you,” Bowles told his fellow graduates, according to the newspaper. “I’m more nervous now than I ever was speaking in front of a locker room at halftime.”
Congrats on graduating, coach! 🎓
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) May 13, 2023
Todd Bowles made a promise to his mother when he entered the league that he would complete his degree, and today that promise was fulfilled. pic.twitter.com/o7aRjDAq4s
According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Bowles left Temple University in 1986 to sign with Washington, where he played defensive back in seven of his eight seasons in the NFL. Bowles’ other season was spent with the San Francisco 49ers.
Bowles is entering his second season as Tampa Bay’s head coach after being the team’s defensive coordinator. He also was a head coach for the Miami Dolphins (2011) and New York Jets (2015-2018).
Bowles skipped the team’s second day of rookie minicamp to receive the degree he promised his late mother, Joan, before she died in 2009, WRC-TV reported.
“It was something I had promised my mother when I went to play in the NFL, and I wanted to follow through on that promise,” Bowles told USA Today last fall.
“I didn’t get my degree and my mother never said anything,” Bowles said Saturday, according to the Times. “She just went with it, and she let me go ahead and live my life. She passed in 2009, and the only thing she asked me was to make sure I got my degree. That stuck with me.”
On Saturday Bowles told his fellow graduates that age was not an obstacle to achieving one’s dreams.
“Here I am at 59,” Bowles said, according to the Times. “You’re never too old to stop learning. You stop learning, you get old when you stop learning. So I say to you, the Class of 2023, the future is yours. Take it. Grab it. Run with it. Be excited. Be excited. Every now and then, come back and thank your parents.”
