Randy Smith
The investigations into a pair of high profile college football players the past week has brought about more criticism for college sports' governing body. The NCAA is again under fire for its lack of equal justice for Georgia running back Todd Gurley and Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston. While the investigations continue, Gurley it seems will be forced to sit out the Bulldogs game this week at Arkansas. If you're keeping score that's two games in a row.
On the other hand, "Shameless Jameis" has yet to be suspended as FSU officials look into more than 2,000 Winston autographs that have been authenticated by the James Spence Authentication website.
Seminole fans will likely be saying about now, "He was suspended. He sat out the Clemson game." They're right; he did sit out when the ' Noles faced the Tigers, but that suspension was for screaming out inappropriate remarks to a female student in public. There has been no official word this week regarding if Winston will be available when FSU hosts Notre Dame.
I am certainly not favoring Todd Gurley in any way, but if he must sit out, so should Winston. Granted Georgia was in charge of handing out Gurley's suspension, while no one seems to be in charge of anything at FSU. Winston's name appears on too many authentications to just sit back and wait for proof of his guilt to come in. Plus, there is something else to be considered.
Winston has been in trouble for almost an entire year. First, there was the sexual assault charge that somehow just went away in Tallahassee last December. Next, there was the shoplifting allegations when he stole crab-legs from a Tallahassee grocery. Then, there was the episode of screaming inappropriate comments to a female FSU student in September; the episode that resulted in a one game suspension against Clemson. Now, both young men are under investigation for the same thing, yet Gurley is the only one suspended.
Justice has never been handed out equally by the NCAA. The organization needs a complete overhaul, from top to bottom. Whether or not money is ever granted to college athletes is not my call. I've said from day one that these kids should receive some spending money or some token amount for what they do. Most of these athletes come from very poor families so if you were one of them, what would you do if you had a chance to send home a few thousand dollars just for signing your name? It's tempting isn't it?
I have never met nor interviewed Gurley or Winston. From what I hear about Gurley, he is a very polite, bright young man. Even though the words arrogant and careless come out when my friends speak of Winston, he too is a very bright young man. Neither of them used good judgement in terms of accepting money for their autographs; if that is indeed proven to be true. It comes down to this: if Gurley must sit out this week against Arkansas, then Winston should sit for the game with the Fighting Irish.
If the NCAA continues along the same path, they need to stop running the commercials about "caring for our student athletes," because nothing could be any further from the truth.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. He is currently teaching Broadcasting at Coahulla Creek High School near Dalton, Ga.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have four grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, DellaMae and CoraLee.
To contact Randy: rsmithsports@epbfi.com