Really interesting, in depth look at what kind of scrutiny top draft picks can expect. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/sports/football/no-1-debate-in-tampa-whether-to-draft-jameis-winston.html?_r=0 No. 1 Debate in Tampa: Whether to Draft Jameis WinstonBy BILL PENNINGTONJAN. 30, 2015TAMPA, Fla. — At a downtown park here on April 26, the Sexual Violence Task Force of Tampa Bay will host a “Take Back the Night” rally, a candlelight vigil and silent march to raise sexual assault awareness.Four days later, and less than five miles away, executives sitting in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ gleaming office complex must decide whether to use the first pick of the N.F.L. draft on Jameis Winston, the Florida State quarterback who was accused of raping a fellow student in 2012. Winston, 21, has asserted his innocence, did not face criminal charges and was recently cleared of violating Florida State’s student code of conduct by the university.The downtrodden Buccaneers need a quarterback, and Winston, a Heisman Trophy winner, is seen as one of the top two available. But Winston’s checkered past — he was also involved in BB gun incidents, cited for shoplifting and suspended for a game for shouting an obscene phrase on campus — has presented the team, and its fans, with a quandary that has both divided and unsettled the Tampa Bay community.In the wake of a graphic video that surfaced last year that shows Ray Rice punching his future wife and the firestorm the league’s initial, light punishment of Rice generated, the N.F.L. announced that it was taking domestic violence and sexual assault matters more seriously. It is unclear, however, if the N.F.L. has substantively changed any of its policies when it comes to vetting draft prospects in the aftermath of the Rice scandal.The Buccaneers are not commenting on how they plan to use their prized first pick. A team spokesman said they were evaluating the entire field of draft prospects and would not speak publicly about any specific player.Representatives of the sexual violence task force, however, have visited with members of the Tampa Bay front office. Asked about the prospect of the Bucs taking Winston, the task force’s chairwoman, Amanda Brennan, said in a statement: “The larger issue is that there have been many allegations against Jameis Winston, yet there is no question that Jameis Winston will be chosen by an N.F.L. team to play next season. As an N.F.L. player, he is a role model for boys and young men across the country. The Sexual Violence Task Force of Tampa Bay would like to know that Jameis Winston will be expected to adhere to a strict standard of conduct.”Predicting how Winston will behave off the field as a highly paid pro football player has become the consuming focus of as many as 20 N.F.L. teams, who have begun exhaustive examinations into Winston’s past, unleashing a legion of sleuths and experts to compile thick dossiers on the talented quarterback.“He’s brought the scrutiny on himself, and how he deals with the next three or four months will be a big part of every team’s evaluation.” said Mike Mayock, a former N.F.L. player who is now a top draft analyst for the NFL Network.Compiling a comprehensive report on Winston’s background will be crucial because several draft experts have predicted that Winston, despite his troubles, will be a top-five pick, or maybe even the first overall selection.“He’s had off-the-field issues, but if he checks out and you can reconcile that all of that is behind him and not going to happen again,” ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., the sport’s best known draft analyst, said, “then he goes No. 1.”With all that at stake, teams will employ every resource at their disposal — scouts, coaches, executives, psychologists, orthopedists, private detectives, criminal investigators, security agents, cognitive test specialists and personality assessment clinicians — to gather information on Winston.The N.F.L. combine, a multiple-day skills audition, is in mid-February. Winston will train with a quarterback guru, but he will also be schooled in how to behave and respond in the dozens of interviews he will have with team executives.“His agents will get him to a professional interview coach who will instruct him how to dress, act, sit and talk to the teams,” said Brian Billick, who won a Super Bowl as coach of the Baltimore Ravens and is now an NFL Network commentator. “He’ll learn some mantra about learning from his mistakes or how he has matured and is ready for the next step.”Behind the scenes, an examination of Winston’s behavioral patterns, personality and temperament will have begun. Teams will ask Winston to take a Wonderlic test, a cognitive ability exam that dates to the 1930s. But without Winston’s approval or participation, the N.F.L., as well as individual teams, will scour through the minute details of Winston’s life.“Everyone in the team’s organizational chart makes some calls to their counterparts around the country,” Mayock said. “The equipment guys might call the equipment guys at Florida State, and the public-relations guy calls around to the college sports information directors he knows who might have dealt with Winston.”Other team employees will be sent to Winston’s hometown in Alabama to interview high school or grade school teachers, coaches, classmates and friends. Most teams go straight to professional detectives, some of whom are former F.B.I. agents or retired police officers.For many years, the Giants used a former insurance fraud investigator who was a licensed detective and had ties to local, regional and federal law enforcement officials. The investigator created a file of stories, interview transcripts, depositions and court cases about the prospect being considered. He met with the Giants’ brain trust away from the team’s complex so the information could be shared with only select officials.Separately, the N.F.L., which employs more than 70 independent investigators, does background checks on each of the 360 players invited to the combine and scours social media for clues to their character or to potential problems. The N.F.L. also has a remittance policy in which teams must pay fines if too many of their players have off-field issues. The reports on the 360 players are hand-delivered to the 32 teams.In the wake of the Rice scandal, the N.F.L. appointed four women to executive positions and said they would influence the league’s policies in the future. Anna Isaacson, the vice president for community affairs and philanthropy, was given an expanded role as vice president for social responsibility. The league also retained Lisa Friel, the former head of the sex crimes prosecution unit in the New York County District Attorney’s Office, as a senior adviser. (The league would not make any of them available for interviews.)Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyBut even the existing process and level of scrutiny raise hundreds of red flags in the pool of draft picks.“I have said that young and stupid should be one word,” Billick said. “But it’s not always serious, and what you’re really looking for is a pattern. Was it a mistake that showed immaturity, or is it a recurring thing and an indication of his true personality and his way of doing things?“That’s what might hurt Winston the most — his pattern of behavior.”Winston is not the first high-profile prospect to enter the N.F.L. under a cloud of suspicion. The draft status of several players, from Johnny Rodgers in the 1970s, Charles White in the 1980s, Lawrence Phillips in the 1990s and Aaron Hernandez in 2010, was adversely affected by prominent off-field concerns.But it is also true that each was drafted and played in the N.F.L. Some managed to avoid more serious trouble. Phillips and Hernandez are now in prison.As teams’ investigations and evaluations of Winston are completed this spring, some will pass altogether on Winston. But other teams will hope Winston falls from a first-round pick to a second- or third-round selection. It is a curious moral judgment.“It is money, pure and simple,” Mayock said. “It is less of an economic risk in the third round because it costs less to sign that player.”For the teams that still value Winston as a first-round pick, the decision is likely to be made at a team’s highest levels.“Only an idiot would fail to recognize the heightened sense of concern about these kinds of offenses right now,” Billick said. “And for a change, you might see several owners get very active in the draft process for that reason. Although it won’t prevent someone from taking Jameis Winston."Ken Belson contributed reporting from New York.
