The over-analyzation of Jameis WinstonBy Garry Smits (Spear Points) February 19, 2015 - 1:23pmMORE FROM THIS BLOGThe over-analyzation of Jameis WinstonVirginia picked over Florida State in ACC baseball preseason pollText of Jameis Winston statement on his decision to enter the NFL draftFormer FSU quarterback Jameis Winston's current pattern of good behavior may lay to rest any fears of NFL teams drafting him.I'm no Jameis Winston apologist. I can show you the love letters from Florida State fans to prove it.Winston did some very dumb things. He was accused of one very bad thing but two legal proceedings found there was no evidence to sustain a charge.But this notion among many in the media that Winston remains a ticking time bomb, ever teetering on the edge of committing another transgression, has gotten repititious and quite frankly, has no validity to his NFL draft status -- as long as Winston remains on the path he's trod since his last incident, five months ago.This piece of drivel is one example. I especially love the part where the author claims the national media were "making excuses" for Winston last season.Seriously?At least Lovie Smith, the coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs and owner of the first overall draft pick, is keeping an open mind.College kids will make mistakes, whether they win the Heisman Trophy or major in history. The hope is that they will learn from their mistakes, which is what growing up is all about. The time line of Jameis Winston's misdeeds suggest that he has at the very least stayed out of trouble, if not actually learned a few lessons, in recent months.The last incident was his shouting of an of obscene phrase in the FSU student union last September. For that he was suspended for one game.I'm inclined to rank this pretty far down on the seriousness scale of college kids gone wild. For those still unaware, the phrase Winston yelled has become a common college prank and even a fraternity initiation rite, often yelled in the background of a news crew doing a live shot and forcing them to start over.Not to excuse the vulgarity of the phrase but if anyone thinks what Winston yelled was that bad, they should sit in the student section of most college football or basketball games and then tell me again what they think.Winston's shop-lifiting incident happened five months before that, in late April of 2014. All of his other misdeeds (vandalism with a BB gun, sneaking soda from a fast-food fountain in ketchup cups and being caught on campus property with a pellet gun) happened during his redshirt year in 2012 and into 2013, two years or more ago.The most serious incident, of course, was the allegation that he raped a female college student in December of 2012. The state attorney and a retired Florida Supreme Court justice found in two proceedings that the stories of Winston and his accuser were too inrreconciable to charge Winston. Therefore, in the eyes of the law, he's innocent of a crime.That's the way it's supposed to work in our legal system.There also has been some revionist thinking that Winston and FSU have been pilloried too harshly. In this analysis of the New York Times coverage of Florida State, the author brings up some valid points about the Times' agenda (disclaimer: the researcher for the article has ties to an FSU-centric web site, ChopChat).The series of stories done last fall, the result of Times reporters and researchers descending on Tallahassee for months, has always begged the question: in all the gin joints in all the college towns in all the world, why FSU? Why did the Times decide to come 1,094 miles to Tallahassee, when college programs closer to the Big Apple have had their own issues, such as Syracuse, Rutgers and Connecticut?Syracuse, 195 miles from New York, recently self-imposed a post-season ban on its basketball program in the wake of an NCAA investigation into allegations that the school failed to discipline players for positive tests of recreational drugs over a 12-year period. A Google News search resulted in one seven-paragraph story in the Times on the issue.Back to Winston ... it's worth noting that he has steered clear of several red flags that make NFL teams nervous. There's never been a whiff of drug or alcohol abuse and Winston hasn't strayed into Ray Rice territory as far as physically abusing women.The notion that Winston may be another Ryan Leaf or Jake Cutler also is patently absurd. Those guys were toxic as teammates. Winston is anything but. Indeed, the only places he's shown complete maturity, poise and leadership have been on the football field, practice field, meetings and the locker room. Ray Lewis has always been Exhibit A in this regard. It's not an excuse for bad behavior but being a good teammate goes far in the NFL.Any quarterback drafted can be All-Pro or a wash-out. Handicapping the position for the NFL is the most inexact science in sports. But Winston's recent behavior suggests he has learned his lesson. Can that change at any time? It's possible for anyone.The pattern currently suggests that his past may not be prologue. http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/486649/garry-smits/2015-02-19/over-analyzation-jameis-winston
