http://mmqb.si.com/2015/03/11/jameis-winston-roger-goodell-nfl-trades-free-agency-retirement/ Last Thursday, Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, the odds-on favorite to be the number one pick in the draft on April 30, spent five to six hours inside the NFL offices on Park Avenue in Manhattan. He wanted Goodell to hear the Jameis Winston story from Jameis Winston and not from anyone else. He didn’t spend all the time with Goodell. He also met with NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent, and got a primer from league officials in several meetings about the resources he could use on and off the field once he’s drafted.Winston was not summoned to see Goodell because of his checkered background off the field. In fact, it was Winston who initiated the meeting back in January.The backstory: One of Winston’s agents, Greg Genske, told me Tuesday that once Winston declared for the draft he wanted to meet with Goodell, both to tell his own story and to get the lay of the land about his future in the league. Sometime in February, Goodell agreed to meet Winston. That meeting occurred last week. As Genske said, it was more of an informational/educational meeting than anything else—though Winston did get his chance to tell his story to Goodell.“He went out of his way to make a good impression, and to show that he understood what was going to be expected of him in the NFL,” one league executive who participated in one of the series of meetings said Tuesday night.Winston, of course, had several off-field issues at Florida State, including being accused but not charged with sexual assault; shoplifting; and yelling out an obscenity in the student union, which cost him a one-game suspension. But the league people I spoke with Tuesday made it clear that Winston made a smart decision in pushing to meet Goodell and establishing a relationship with him.
