If you’re looking for information on the upcoming NFL draft, there are few places better than DraftTek. Currently, they have the Tennessee Titans, who own the second pick in the first round, taking Florida quarterback and former national champion and Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston. Here’s their rationale (emphasis mine):
It’s still early in the off-season process, so it’s tough to see if Tennessee believes Zach Mettenberger is the quarterback of the future, or if the team will look in another direction, especially since they are sitting in the top two picks, guaranteeing either Mariota or Winston. Winston has impressed everyone on the field since he completed his first 11 career passes and tore apart the Pittsburgh defense. He has good pocket presence, a strong arm, and most important, the ability to lead receivers and “throw them open.” The NFL will not give great passing lanes, but Winston has shown he can complete passes in tight spaces. It’s a hard skillset to pass on, and if he can do well in interviews, Winston’s “character concerns” will be an afterthought.
Now, when NFL draft prognosticators talk about “character concerns,” they can mean almost anything. They do not usually mean credible allegations of rape. Maybe the prospect smoked weed. Maybe they were in an altercation in a bar. Maybe they were suspended for a few games for unspecified violations of team rules. Perhaps they assaulted their girlfriend. “Character concerns” run a gamut from the concerning to the alarming to the “no way in hell are we drafting this guy.”
Winston does have some of the more garden-variety types of character concerns. He was once handcuffed and released because he was using a BB gun to shoot squirrels near the Florida State campus. In another incident, the police were called because he was stealing soda at a Burger King. He was arrested for shoplifting crab legs at a grocery store, which earned him a suspension from the baseball team until he completed his community service. And then he was suspended for one football game for standing on a table in the student union and yelling misogynistic vulgarities.
These are the kinds of “character concerns” that frequently cause an athlete to get picked lower in the draft than their talent level would otherwise warrant. But rape is the kind of allegation that can prevent a player from being drafted at all. Or, if they are drafted, this can happen:
It was the second day of the 1996 NFL draft. [Christian] Peter’s phone rang. Bill Parcells, then coach of the New England Patriots, was calling to say the team had picked him in the fifth round and Peter should report to the team’s headquarters in a few days for rookie camp.
“Yes, sir,” Peter said he replied. “I won’t let you down.”
Within 48 hours, Peter got another call from the Patriots, suddenly under fire from women’s groups and others for selecting a player with such a violent history. Peter was being released before he had even suited up.
Almost 20 years later, he calls it the worst day of his life.
Don’t feel badly for Christian Peter. When he was a star football player at the University of Nebraska, “he was arrested eight times, convicted four times and accused of assaulting four women.” And he managed to catch on in the NFL, spending a few seasons (to my chagrin) playing for the New York Giants. In the aftermath of the Ray Rice Incident, the NFL consulted Mr. Peter on how to keep their players from beating the shit out of women.
Kathy Redmond, who accused Peter of raping her twice at Nebraska, was incensed that the NFL looked to Peter for insight. She says the decision “shuns the victims.” Natalie Tysdal, whom Peter was convicted of sexually assaulting while at the school, says she was confused.
It’s true that things are better than they were twenty years ago, and it’s also true that the NFL is trying to make things even better, but there’s a broader cultural problem that’s demonstrated by how the rape allegations against Jameis Winston are just brushed aside by the draft analysts. Here are a couple more examples:
Walter Football has Winston going first overall, to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:
It’s not a matter of what position Tampa addresses, but rather which quarterback it takes. It’s obviously between Marcus Mariota [of Oregon] and Jameis Winston, and I considered the former the favorite until recently. However, Charlie Campbell reported that the Buccaneers currently prefer Jameis Winston over Marcus Mariota.
I think they’re crazy, but the Buccaneers apparently aren’t worried about Winston going nuts in Ybor or at Mons Venus. The latter would have to rename itself Mons Jameis after Winston puts the owners’ kids through college.
At least he expresses some concern about the wisdom, if not the morality, of picking Winston with the first overall draft pick.
Here’s Bleacher Report, which has Winston going as the 6th overall pick to the New York Jets:
Jameis Winston may not need the big stage of the Big Apple, but the Big Apple needs Jameis Winston. Rather, the Jets need him, as they look to move on from the short-lived Geno Smith era and pump some life into a lifeless offense that certainly has potential.
The Big Apple “needs” this guy? Here the “character concerns” are so submerged that you could be forgiven for thinking Winston doesn’t “need” the big stage of New York City because he’s shy or something.
Here’s what Winston is accused of doing:
[Erica] Kinsman says the man then bought her a shot, and after she took it, she started to become very woozy. She faintly remembers being taken in a cab to an apartment, and the next thing she knew, the man was on top of her, engaging in vaginal intercourse with her. She says she begged and pleaded for him to stop, and then saw the man’s roommate enter the bedroom and tell his friend, “Stop… What are you doing?”
Kinsman says that the man ignored the roommate’s pleas, and took her to the bathroom, which could be locked from the inside. There, he pinned her head against the tiled floor with his hand, and continued to rape her. When he finished, the man allegedly said, “You can leave now.”
She later identified him because they were taking the same class together. Eventually, after being ignored for a long time, she succeeded in proving that the semen collected on the night of the rape belonged to Winston. Still, he wasn’t prosecuted.
Kinsman’s case finally gained some traction in November 2013, when it was reported that DNA provided by Winston matched a DNA sample taken from her underwear on the night of the alleged assault. The odds of the DNA belonging to someone other than Winston were 1 in 2.2 trillion. She couldn’t fathom why it took 11 months for the case to make its way to local prosecutors.
But on December 5, 2013, State Attorney Willie Meggs announced that the case was over, and no charged would be filed against Winston.
They would have had a stronger case to take to court if the crime had been rigorously investigated when it was reported, but this piece isn’t about the investigation or Winston’s ultimate “legal” guilt or innocence.
This guy is going to be the face of some NFL franchise in a few months. He may even be the first player drafted, making him the face of the entire league for a few days. And the fact that there is a very credible allegation that he drugged a woman in a bar and then raped her in his dorm room is basically something that NFL analysts are too polite to mention.
It’s not all on the league officials to protect the integrity of the game. How about the rest of us call things what they are? What this guy seems to have done is a lot worse than what Ray Rice did. Ray Rice knocked his girlfriend unconscious in a casino elevator. Can we talk in the same plain language about what Jameis Winston did?
“Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” So spake their patron saint; so shall it ever be.
The NFL respects women as much as Republicans lawmakers do, which is to say not at all.
Republican lawmakers think the occasional nice word will make us forget about governor ultrasound and forced pregnancy and everything else they do to control women.
The NFL thinks that their ad campaign will make us forget all the rapes and abuses and the culture of violence against women that is at the core of the NFL.
Good luck with that.
I can’t wait to read Dave Zirin’s column on this, whenever it comes out. I can’t imagine him letting this go by without comment.
(Full disclosure: I write for Draftek, luckily not for the Bucs, Titans or Jets.) The Winston situation really is a bizarre sociology experiment. The same sort of yahoos who thought Trayvon Martin deserved death for wearing a hoodie have cheered wildly for FSU and Winston. I’ve found that most non-FSU fans have come to hate the school for the way the whole saga played out. The team that drafts Winston is really playing with fire. Recent allegations about Johnny Manziel’s immaturity could set back Cleveland (again) as they struggle to find someone to be their QB. If Winston steps out… Read more »
I find it hard to believe that you follow the draft closely enough to write about it professionally or quasi-professionally if you are going to state that Winston could fall into the second round. The chance of that happening is pretty much nil, unless virtually all the draft watchers and all the rumors are wrong. He might even be the very first person chosen.
He’s almost undoubtedly going to be the first player chosen. He’s the best QB prospect since Luck, at the very least, and arguably since Peyton. Anybody who tells you otherwise either has no idea how to evaluate QBs or is chasing clicks (probably the latter in this case). Lovie Smith’s not stupid. There are really only two QBs worth discussing in this draft, and he needs one of them. Given that the evidence is pretty strong that Mariota is basically Griffin (with a weaker arm but hopefully a better brain), it’s tough to see him passing on Winston. The only… Read more »
Winston might be the best QB prospect since Andrew Luck. Might be. But that’s a pretty mediocre list: EJ Manuel, Geno Smith, Mike Glennon, Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater, Derek Carr… All of the QBs since 2012 have had major question marks. So does Winston. Will he get suspended? Has he improved his judgment off the field? Because the NFL is taking body blow after body blow for the behavior of some of its players. The talent is undeniable, but Michael Vick and Ryan Leaf had great talent, too. I could see Lovie Smith going for a safer… Read more »
I’m sorry, but I have to ask: Do you actually watch football?
The fact that you’ve just suggested Mariota is the safer option — there’s no evidence he can run a pro-style system — and compared him with Russell Wilson — the two have very different strengths and have come from quite different backgrounds on the field — suggests to me you don’t.
And Bortles, Carr and Bridgewater were fairly respectable as rookies. Note that I said he was the best prospect since Luck at the very least and then went on to say he might be the best since Manning.
Have you watched the news in the last 12 months? Mariota is “safer” because he’s not going to get arrested or suspended.
Winston could come in and be elite from day one or he could do something incredibly stupid and wind up on the “Commissioner’s Exempt List.”
Winston’s pattern of immaturity – beyond the rape allegations – remind me of Manziel. That won’t end well in Cleveland.
No one wants to draft Ryan Leaf.
Have you watched the news in the last 12 months? I live in Tallahassee. So, yeah, I’m vaguely familiar with the news. As far as I’m aware, Winston’s never been arrested. So I’m not sure why one would expect he would be post-draft. Contrary to what the NYTs of the world have you believe, FSU players do get arrested here and kicked out of school. Ask Greg Dent, Greg Reid, etc. I’m fully aware of why you think Mariota is safer. I’m telling you that you think that because you don’t know what you’re talking about, either with regard to… Read more »
He also had some minor run ins with the law and isn’t nearly as pro ready as Winston is. By contrast, Mariota is a much better runner.
They both should go very high.
Put another way: Are Jason Licht and Lovie Smith going to entrust their careers to Jameis Winston’s off field judgment? I have no idea, but that’s the wager they will be making.
I’m not at all saying Mariota is the BETTER QB. I’m saying he is less likely to blow up in your face and cost you your job.
And that’s why you write for a website rather than doing actual scouting.
No doubt. And I’ve engaged your arguments respectfully as I can, and you’ve insulted me throughout this discourse. Well done, you’ve done the Internet and FSU proud. Jameis Winston is a better QB than Marcus Mariota. I have never argued differently. As things stand now, he won’t possibly fall past the Jets at #6. But there is a pattern of really troubling judgment off the field, even aside from the rape allegations. And if you’re Tampa or Tennessee, you have to ask yourself if he’s truly grown up. Simply watching tape won’t tell you the answer to that question. If,… Read more »
And I’ve engaged your arguments respectfully as I can, and you’ve insulted me throughout this discourse. Well done, you’ve done the Internet and FSU proud. No, you really haven’t. You think you have, and I can understand why you think you have, but you haven’t. You’ve put stock in a bullshit media narrative. And, being a Tallahassee resident and an FSU grad, I really have no tolerance for bullshit at this point, having watched my school, my team, and my home get dragged through the mud for the last year and a half. I’m pretty fucking sick of people talking… Read more »
People did care about Newton’s character issues. In the end Carolina decided that they didn’t matter. Tampa could make the same decision. Media narratives can take on a life of their own. You’re slagging me for pointing out that they exist. You’ve made your standards of objectivity completely clear. I’m an idiot for assuming the media narrative is right. And you’re smart for assuming everyone who writes about the draft is an idiot. My assumptions make me stupid, your assumptions make you a genius. I would only note that I have no particular dog in this fight. You do. You’ve… Read more »
You’re making personal attacks and being generally aggressive and vicious to people who are arguing with you. That’s not cool.
Sorry, Manziel was arrested. My bad.
From CBS Sports: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/nfl-draft-scout/24719411/nfl-draft-the-curious-case-of-jameis-win ston When the Winston shouting incident became public Tuesday, I texted an NFL scout and told him about it, asking his feedback. He didn’t believe me, saying it must have been a “made up Tweeter rumor,” because there was “no way he is that dumb.” A few hours later, Florida State announced Winston would sit out the first half and the scout sent me a text that read, “That’s the one and only time I’ll let JW make me feel naive.” Then late Friday night, Florida State upped the suspension to the entire Clemson game. Unprompted,… Read more »
There’s the bb gun incident, the crab leg incident, and the internet meme incident.
The last one is a non story without the rape accusation.
There hasn’t been anything for a while so nothing is “piling on.”
NFL teams will interview him about these things. They will interview everybody under the sun who knows him, too. They will all speak of him in glowing terms, because his teammates and coaches LOVE him. That was never true with Manziel.
Winston’s going high. How good a pro he becomes is another discussion.
Greg Hardy fell to the 6th. Justin Houston fell to the 3rd. I would not be shocked to find out there is more to Winston’s past than what we know.
If a team uses a top-10 pick on Winston and he either flakes out like Manziel or gets suspended like Adrian Peterson or Ray Rice or Greg Hardy…What good is his talent?
I agree that it’s unlikely that Winston falls that far, but I don’t think it’s impossible. And I said he could go first overall. I’m saying neither would surprise me.
I think the correct way of putting it is “alleged rapist.” Winston’s assault accusation has come before three investigative units: the Tallahassee Police Department, the Florida State Attorney’s Office, and the Florida State University’s Code of Conduct panel – led by a former Supreme Court Justice. The TPD and the SAO could not collect enough credible evidence to bring charges. The FSU COC findings were such that they did not meet the threshold of 51% believability to show conduct violations. Much has been said about the TPD giving football players a lot of slack. This story line is debunked by… Read more »
It’s pointless to try to convince people they’ve had this story wrong the whole time. The narrative has been set, evidence be damned. The usual response will be, “I read the NYT report, so I don’t need to read the SAO report.”
So much for reality-based.
I’ll read anything you provide.
Sure, [here ya go espn.go.com/pdf/2013/1206/winston-inv1.pdf]. That’s Meggs’s report.
The final witness was Winston’s only one. Jason Newlin, an investigator with the State Attorney’s office, was not the original investigator on the case (that was the Tallahassee Police Department’s Scott Angulo). “November 14th of 2013,” nearly a year after the woman first reported the incident, Newlin said, “I was asked by our Chief Assistant, Georgia Cappleman, to assist with the follow up investigation into this case.” When Winston asked Newlin to “describe your investigation and its findings,” Newlin went into detail about interviewing two of the woman’s friends and witnesses from that night, trying to track down the other… Read more »
You seem to be using testimony by someone who didn’t interview her until a year after the alleged incident to refute the claim that she changed her story repeatedly in the aftermath of the incident.
Are you incapable of admitting that your initial impressions of this incident may have been wrong? That the precious NYT may have mischaracterized things? Don’t you attack conservatives all the time for similar behavior?
My source wasn’t the NYT’s. I cited that article in a comment but didn’t use it for the piece. I’ve read the relevant material. She was raped. Her claims are completely credible and her behavior can only be explained by suffering from a very traumatic experience. What you’ve offered against her amounts to quibbling about why she had a sketchy memory of events even on the evening of the encounter. A tremendous amount is made of the fact that she supposedly thought she might have been hit in the head and knocked out, or that she was drinking but… Read more »
In absence of any physical trauma, toxicology, or rape kit/SANE indices, how do you explain the accuser’s account of being attacked in the manner she describes in her testimony? Nothing, absolutely nothing supports her version of events. The only thing in this entire story that makes sense is the failed attempts by Chris Casher to join in and his failed attempt to videotape the tryst. Maybe things went faster than she wanted and she felt ashamed and embarrassed…assaulted even. Who the hell wants a video of them potentially hitting the web or at the least being shared by a bunch… Read more »
…who he was when she accused him of rape. Seriously, he said that.
We’ve made our point.
Booman’s revealed his true colors.
Time to move on.
You’re wasting your time engaging Boo’s toolbaggery. She’s given a pass for the attorney because people are idiots. Every major college football program in the country knows players are subject to this sort of idiocy and instructs their players to call a lawyer when stuff goes south. Rightly so. Not calling a lawyer is how innocent people wind up in prison. Look, the physical evidence is what it is. Winston, Casher and Darby’s testimony matches up pretty much precisely with that evidence. Her own friends implicitly stated they didn’t believe her, noting her demeanor at Potbelly’s and telling her “You… Read more »
You know this. It’s a fact. Okay…
You should simply have admitted when everyone started piling on that you didn’t know that much about the story and left it at that.
But you obviously aren’t that kind of person. You’re just as bad as the dogmatic conservatives you are always bashing.
I have lost so much respect for you, not because of the original post but because of how you have handled yourself subsequently.
On your first point:
Boo, Why don’t you provide the testimony from Investigator Newlin that is on pages 175 & 176 which indicates the lawyer for the accused, Patricia Carroll met with both Witness 4 (Monique Kessler) and Witness 5 (Marcus Jordan) prior to their agreement to be interviewed by the SAO? Why does a “victim’s” lawyer need to coach up witnesses? Why didn’t you provide the testimony on pages 178 & 179 in which Witness 4 (Monique Kessler) describes the events inside the bar which do not match up with the accuser’s testimony? You know, the part where the accuser is not drunk,… Read more »
Correct. The bit about being hit on the head came from her friend who made the initial call to the police. She never “specifically” (probably a foolish word to use on her part) said she was drugged — okay? I think the “I was fine and then given a drink by a strange guy and lost consciousness” covers that pretty well. Couldn’t remember being brought to the cab, but deleted the text telling her to go outside and join them before handing the phone over to the cops. The rest are very pointed questions that obfuscate the obvious points… Read more »
…in this thread.
Now, when NFL draft prognosticators talk about “character concerns,” they can mean almost anything. They do not usually mean credible allegations of rape. What exactly was credible about the allegations, Boo? The allegation that she was hit on the head, despite no evidence of head trauma? The fact that she claimed to be drugged, despite there being no drugs in her system? (The NYT conveniently left that second bit out.) Or the fact that she then claimed to have been black-out drunk, despite her BAC making that impossible? Have you bothered to look at the State Attorney’s report with all… Read more »
Have you read this]?
Yes, I have.
Boo, Did you read the actual transcript or just the article? If you read the the transcript, you would have noticed most the “confusion” that was going on was simply clarifications of the actual proceedings. There were no complaints from any participants that something was amiss so the VICE story itself is engaging in a bit of hyperbole. Furthermore, if you would have read the transcript, you would have noticed the accuser never once attempted to enter any evidence into the proceedings. Every question and every statement was repeat of or a confirmation of her feelings that she had been… Read more »
Winston’s behavior extends beyond the rape allegations. Stealing soda? Crab legs? Shouting obscenities in the student union? Shooting squirrels on campus? His judgment on the football field is pretty good, but his judgment off the field is in legitimate question. If he came out last year, he’d be the #1 pick, easily, or maybe #3 to Jacksonville. But in the intervening year you have Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Adrian Peterson and Johnny Manziel. They are going to be very careful in evaluating Winston’s maturity completely aside from the rape allegations. (BTW, the police felt that Ray Rice did nothing… Read more »
No doubt about it, Winston has shown immaturity several times. One of his biggest mistakes is not realizing the scrutiny a high profile college athlete gets. I for one am grateful that my actions as a 19 or 20 year old were not held up for examination. A lifetime of embarrassment would have ensued.
I would compare him to Nick O’Leary, Winston’s TE at FSU. O’Leary crashed his motorcycle. OK, that happens. Then he crashed it again. Hmmmm. Now he says he won’t be getting on any motorcycles. Good. But if a team finds out he’s been riding motorcycles, he’ll drop.
People do stupid things in their youth, but you look for the pattern of stupidity when assessing those risks.
Those are all instances of acting like an immature teenager. We should not approve but we shouldn’t pretend it’s much worse than what a lot of college kids do, including athletes who will go high in the draft.
There’s a 70-odd page police report out on the internet. Read it. The evidence is that Winston is probably innocent. I don’t want to bad mouth an alleged victim of a sexual crime. But the fact of the matter is she changed her story three times in the first few hours after the alleged incident, claiming that she had been given a date rape drug and awoke to find him raping her (but there was no such drug found by the toxicology reports), that she was drunk and passed out and awoke to find him raping her (but the same… Read more »
Probably innocent? How would we know?
This comment jibes with my prediction above. “I don’t need to read the SAO report. I read the NYT story.”
Are you really this much of a lazy-ass?
The relevant passage from that link:
How do you not mention the results of the toxicology report after writing that?
That NYT article conveniently does not mention a lot of things. The story of a prominent (entitled!) football player assaulting a young woman and getting away with it is indeed a compelling one. Many publications have ridden its click bait value. Read the evidence in the TPD report, he State Attorneys report and investigative materials here: http://chopchat.com/2014/12/02/defense-jameis-winston/ Once again, how do three professional legal bodies look at the same evidence and all come to the same conclusion – no charges? The evidence and testimony did not warrant them. The reason Winston and his teammates chose not to testify at the… Read more »
…with its coverage of this incident. Please read the actual police report and other associated documents. It is all right there. Whatever the deficiencies of the TPD, you can’t accept the story of someone who keeps changing it whenever the existing story gets proven wrong. Btw, the latest, latest version of the story, which she told at the code of conduct hearing, is that she was raped in the bathroom, not the bedroom as she stated earlier, and that she kept changing her story because of memory lapses that arose from the trauma of the incident. I don’t want to… Read more »
I did some more reading about college campus rape allegations after feeling burned by the Rolling Stone UVA rape story that I totally bought into on reading it. That was when I learned of Jameis Winston and the rape allegation. My predisposition is to believe women. Immature and violent athletes at the high school, college, and professional level are repulsive to me. Jerry Rice is the kind of football player I could respect and enjoy watching him play. Needless to say, I stopped watching football games some time ago. As I read through the reports on the Winston case I… Read more »
Oy! I remember Peter with the Giants, too. NOT the franchises shiniest moment! But here, we’re talking about a QB – arguably the most important position in any team sport. I firmly believe that if Charles Manson could throw the football, he’d be drafted early, too. I would take Mariota over Winston even if Winston is the better QB and athlete. There’s a good chance that Winston will continue to show flaws in his character. Like the difference between A-Rod and Jeter – outside of the fact that A-Rod was the better Shortstop at the time he signed with the… Read more »
So after reading some of the more informed replies Boo, it should occur to you that you’ve been duped. Don’t worry, your not alone. I have to admit, I’m as big an FSU fan as they come but, at first, I thought he was probably guilty too. That is UNTIL I READ THE EVIDENCE!!! I’ll tell you what, I felt pretty ashamed for assuming. But you, Mr. Blogger, there is no excuse for posting the above without, obviously, at the very least having read the police reports. Much less the reports from the various investigations into this matter. For shame… Read more »
The thing that is puzzling is that calling Winston a rapist in the headline of a post does not even meet common journalistic standards. Someone can be an “alleged rapist” prior to conviction. Someone convicted of the act is a rapist. What do you call someone who has not even been charged of a crime? Winston will forever be suspect to many eyes, but three investigative bodies found evidence lacking for charges. That means a lot to most people.
Nebraskans were so upset about Tom Osborne’s antics that they voted him into Congress twice!
http://www.si.com/vault/1995/09/25/206647/coach-and-jury-nebraska-players-charged-with-crimes-have-a
-steadfast-ally-in-the-man-who-runs-the-program-tom-osborne
But…but…but…wait a minute!!! The NFL is the official sports face of the U.S.A., right? Used to be Major League Baseball, but that was before the U.S.A. became the crooked cop for NATO. OK. Why are you in any way upset over Jameis Winston being drafted for the NFL? He is a perfect “As above, so below” version of the application of U.S. policies in those areas of the world where economic rape…deniable economic rape, because the fix is always in when you are making money for the 1%…is a matter of Abu Ghraib-like course. “I didn’t do it!!!” they all… Read more »
Used to be Major League Baseball, but that was before the U.S.A. became the crooked cop for NATO. Actually, that was before the ’90 baseball lockout and the ’94 baseball strike. That sequence of events turned me to football as a primary sport, which was no small feat. I was the kid going to bed with a transistor radio under my pillow so I could hear the Tigers’ west coast games. I as the kid who kept score watching the All Star game on TV (actually, on paper, keeping score). I was THAT kid, and if they lost me then… Read more »
I’m not much of a spectator sports fan — but it seems to me that for a time baseball was almost a perfect one. Individual and collective efforts were easy for observers to recognize and applaud. Non-violent and not tolerated when brawls erupt. Once integrated, no specific size or racial group dominated the teams. Young kids learned how to read and understand stats and could play the game themselves at school or in sandlots — girls too. And that specific sound, the crack, of a bat hitting a ball that said, I’m outta here. Sweet. I’d set the beginning… Read more »
First graf refers to Winston as “Florida quarterback.” This Gator alum urges you to correct the record. Winston plays for Florida State.
I think that in situations like this, the NFL (or any other sport) has to rely on the criminal justice system. If a player is accused of a crime, it’s the job of the courts to decide whether the player is guilty, not the Commissioner of the sports league. I recall that in 1973, there was a baseball player named Cesar Cedeno, whose girlfriend was killed in a hotel room when Cedeno’s gun went off. A Dominican Republic court fined Cedeno $100 for involuntary manslaughter. A lot of fans thought that Cedeno was a murderer, but because he wasn’t charged,… Read more »
I keep circling back to Ray Rice and how the police and courts really barely slapped him on the wrist. As far as I know, Ray Rice was never convicted of a crime and pleaded out to some lesser charge and did some community service.
We – as a society – give a lot to sports franchises: anti-trust exemptions, tax breaks, stadiums.
Maybe we’re being hypocritical in expecting these people to behave to a higher standard, but I think that’s the new normal.
I’m a bit agnostic on this one. In terms of employment someone being accused of a crime is no basis for refusing them employment. Even conviction – once they’ve served their time – should be no barrier to employment, with some obvious caveats (child molesters can’t be teachers, inside traders can’t work in financial services, etc.). On the other hand, it is entirely appropriate to refuse to hire someone that will by their very presence reduce a company’s profitability. So regardless of the actual guilt or innocence, if associating with the accused will hurt a franchise then it makes sense… Read more »
No doubt it is socially fashionable to be an advocate for rape victims. From the flawed Rolling Stone hit piece on UVA, to the upcoming CNN “documentary” the Hunting Ground”, to your own “A Rapist as the Face of the NFL” – the drum beats loudly, facts be damned (or at least overlooked). The “victim” for whom you use as the basis for claiming Jameis Winston is a rapist has been demonstrably proven a liar. She is also proven to have withheld pertinent information from State investigators, and is suspected by the State of attempting to tamper with at… Read more »
Can someone remind me why it is that some people feel that Al Sharpton owns them an apology?