First of all, Florida State sophomore quarterback Jameis Winston is not a victim. He’s a 20-year-old young man with a plethora of God-given talent who can’t seem to stay out of trouble.
Nothing that Winston has done over the past six months can be justified. Whether you’re stealing $30 worth of seafood or a pack of gum, it’s wrong.
As silly as Winston’s latest incident seemed, is also goes without justification. What Winston sought to accomplish by yelling a vulgar phrase from a popular internet video may never be known.
Did Winston seek to offend people? Probably not. Was it misogynistic? Yes. Should Winston have said it? No.
Is it an event that a reporter as accomplished and well-respected as Pat Forde should be hounding students who just had their first encounter with the biggest star on campus over? Absolutely not.
After a healthy escapade of groveling students for information on college football’s biggest and perhaps most controversial star, Forde finally found one. The student asked to remain anonymous, so as a convenience, Forde simply posted his Twitter handle so that absolutely no one would know who that student was and Forde could still have his triumphant “Jameis Does it Again!” story, which he initially still partially misreported.
Since then, the extent of what can be said about the troubled Florida State signal-caller has had no boundaries.
Pundits, analysts and columnists on major sports networks have said things that make shows on cable news networks and political talk radio seem like re-runs of “Happy Days”.
On “Championship Drive” on ESPN Radio, fill-in host Zubin Mehenti spent more than 10 minutes on the latest Winston incident — most of which focused on the stupidity of a 20-year-old kid.
“This guy is a complete fool, he’s a complete fool,” said Mehenti. He added, “He makes no sense when he talks”, “He’s not articulate”, and “For a guy so dumb, he’s actually pretty intelligent” before finally mocking his grammar.
Scoff at this notion as much as you like, but it’s worth noting that Winston was a member of the 2013 ACC All-Academic team.
No disciplinary action was taken toward Mehenti. More recently, the same network suspended television personality Bill Simmons three weeks for not approving of the NFL’s turning a blind eye to domestic violence.
Jameis Winston is fair game. Roger Goodell is not.
As media personalities began to demand discipline, Winston was suspended for the first half of Saturday’s ACC opener against Clemson. Less than 24 hours before kickoff, Winston’s suspension was extended to the entirety of the contest.
Despite Winston’s absence, the Seminoles were able to rally to top Clemson in overtime, 23-17, with redshirt sophomore Sean Maguire at the helm.
Early Wednesday morning, TMZ broke the news that an attorney for Winston claimed that the attorney for a woman that accused Winston of a now infamous sexual assault sought to buy her client’s silence for $7 million.
While anything that comes from TMZ must be taken with a grain of salt, it presented what could be an important detail in one of the most high-profile sports related cases of the last year. Were it found to be true, it could serve as a critical first step in restoring Winston’s increasingly tarnished reputation.
Local newspapers and major news outlets quickly picked up and published what seemed to have the potential to be the top story in all of sports. Not among them however, was ESPN — the preeminent name in sports and the same network that called him nothing short of an idiot.
The headline “Winston Investigation” was twice removed from the side ticker of “Sportscenter” Wednesday morning. When his name flashed across the bottom line, it merely said that Winston had agreed to be cooperative with a Title IX investigation.
When ESPN investigative reporter Mark Schlabach, who did a good job covering the case last fall, finally tweeted something on the matter, what we got was this:
Attorney for woman who accused Jameis Winston of rape says David Cornwell approached her ex-attorney about settlement http://t.co/40UdVbbGB3
— Mark Schlabach (@Mark_Schlabach) September 24, 2014
As of 1:30 eastern time Thursday morning, there was no mention of the new developments, or a Title IX investigation on the front page of ESPN.com.
For the nightcap, Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel wrote a piece essentially bashing Winston and his attorney. While Wetzel is a man entitled to and paid for his opinion, he also found the need to take a shot at Winston’s intellect with this gem of a quote pertaining to Winston no longer talking to the media except after games:
“(Jimbo) Fisher wound up claiming, according to Warchant.com, that it was so Winston could have more time to concentrate on academics, which was good for a laugh to anyone not wearing garnet-and-gold blinders.”
No one is suggesting that Jameis Winston is blameless in all of this. Winston is responsible for his own actions. He’s made mistakes that have hurt his name, his accomplishments, his reputation and most recently, his team.
While his age at this point should be no excuse, Winston carries a responsibility as a role model that so few people his age do. He’s made a lot of mistakes; a lot of 20-year-olds have, even the beloved Peyton Manning.
There is absolutely nothing minor about sexual assault and most would agree that if Winston was ever found guilty for what he was accused in 2012, he should get whatever reprimand comes to him in the future and much more.
As for everything else, the wrap sheet of “six incidents” that so many in the sports media like to quote includes drinking unpaid for fountain soda from ketchup cups and getting in BB gun fights on campus. These are trumpeted as if they were felonious acts of a deranged criminal and not typical mischief for college kids between the ages of 18 and 21.
Following Florida State’s 23-17 victory over Clemson on Saturday, the media knit-picking hit a new low. An ESPN blogger actually criticized Winston for smiling and celebrating with his teammates. Perhaps Winston would have been best served to sit in a corner and pout. There’s no way they could have spun that one right?
Perhaps he should have handled being on the sidelines for a prime time nationally televised game more professionally as Alabama quarterback and emerging Heisman candidate Blake Sims did after a late game-winning touchdown against LSU in 2012.
On Wednesday morning, those same “journalists” at ESPN sat on a story that if true, could have ultimately cleared Winston’s name from a two-year-old allegation that still hangs over his head. While smaller news outlets were quick to come forward with what seemed like major news at the beginning of the day, the top sports network in America buried it at the bottom of a report headlined by the Title IX investigation.
It seems insane to even entertain the notion that the sports media could be out to destroy Jameis Winston, but whether or not that’s the intent, it’s at the very least, serving as an accomplice to himself.
Whether or not Winston is able to learn from his mistakes and avoid a personal unraveling will be entirely up to him. Should that happen, don’t expect the media narrative to change. That just wouldn’t make for good news.
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