Roy Exum: Troubling Jameis Winston

  • Friday, September 19, 2014
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

One of the greatest things about the American legal system is that each and every crime is judged on its own merits. Just because Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer and Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy were each arrested for domestic abuse earlier this week, each National Football League football hero will be given an independent hearing and trial, if need be, to address the fact they allegedly committed off-the field transgressions that leave our society aghast.

Jameis Winston, the most celebrated college play in the country on the other hand, is different. A 20-year-old college student who won the fabled Heisman Trophy at Florida State last year, Winston’s latest antics came Wednesday when the quarterback of the No. 1-ranked Florida State football team climbed atop a table in the student center and repeatedly screamed an obscenity that was both vulgar and disgusting time and again.

The kid from Fairhope, Ala., thought that it was funny when, in fact, many think it was just another nail in his coffin. Last year he was accused of rape (he insists it was consensual) and then there was the incident where he was stealing fountain drinks at a restaurant. That was a little thing, sort of like the time he got caught by police when he and another kid were shooting squirrels with a pellet gun, but when he was collared after shop-lifting crab legs, that got him suspended from several baseball games this spring, everybody noticed FSU’s short leash was still too long.

His vulgar tirade is hard to dismiss when there is obviously a pattern, much like the number of wins Winston has collected since bursting onto the national scene just a year ago. Long-faced Florida State officials, who just this January launched a $250 fund-raising project for athletics, responded quickly, suspending Jameis for the first half of Saturday’s banner game against No. 24 Clemson.

That’s right – just the first half – so the rabid Seminoles can rest easy if the top-ranked FSU can keep it even with Clemson early in the game. Yet i the minds of many, Florida State is still ignoring a pattern of impropriety that  darn near assured Winston will not only short-circuit his career in Tallahassee but will greatly diminish his “value,” as it is now called, on an NFL roster.

Look back over the recent landscape and you can see where the biggest college stars can easily crash and burn. LSU’s Heisman finalist Tyrann “Honey Badger” Mathieu immediately comes to mind and anyone with inside knowledge of how college athletes are escorted to class, repeatedly warned and literally baby-sat can predict Jameis Winston – less than a year from leading his teammates to the national title -- is not winning the wrestling royale with his inner demons.

Equally maddening is the university’s stance on its most famous student making a mockery of anything akin to higher education. Interim university president Garnett Stokes and athletic director Stan Wilcox issued a terse statement: "As the university's most visible ambassadors, student-athletes at Florida State are expected to uphold at all times high standards of integrity and behavior that reflect well upon themselves, their families, coaches, teammates, the Department of Athletics and Florida State University.

"Student-athletes are expected to act in a way that reflects dignity and respect for others,” it read. “As a result of his comments yesterday, which were offensive and vulgar, Jameis Winston will undergo internal discipline and will be withheld from competition for the first half of the Clemson game."

Great heavens above! Why didn’t they simply say, “If we can somehow endure the next four months, Jameis can cash in his chips and take an early-out to the NFL?” The FSU reaction is almost as bad as the act but this Saturday night a sellout crowd will give the guy a standing ovation right after the halftime show.

Jameis admitted after his screams in public was “a selfish act” but shrugged it off, explaining, “You've got to overcome adversity -- and that's one thing at Florida State we do," he said. "We're gonna overcome adversity. And when I do get my opportunity to play, I'll do everything I can. That's what eats me up. I wanna be on the field. I did something, and I gotta accept my consequences. ... It eats me alive.”

Anybody who believes that please raise your hand.

royexum@aol.com



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