OT: Jameis Winston

Ryan Leaf 2.0?

Jameis Winston just doesn’t get it

Posted by Michael David Smith on September 20, 2014, 10:57 AM EDT
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Jameis Winston just doesn’t get it.
Winston, Florida State’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, doesn’t get how a leader is supposed to act, or for that matter how a decent human being is supposed to act. He certainly doesn’t get how NFL teams — all of them shaken over the last two weeks by the increased scrutiny on players’ off-field misconduct — want their quarterbacks to conduct themselves.
Florida State announced late last night that Winston will not play at all in today’s game against Clemson. He had initially been suspended for the first half of the game for screaming an obscene phrase in the student union; the suspension for the second half reportedly comes because Florida State discovered that Winston lied to school authorities about some of the circumstances surrounding that incident.
Winston, of course, has had many prior off-field incidents that will make NFL teams question whether his immense talent is worth the headaches. By far the most serious is the accusation from a female Florida State student that he raped her. Winston was not charged, and the Tallahassee Police Department botched that investigation so thoroughly that we’ll never know what really happened.
Winston’s other incidents were far less serious than a sexual assault, but the sum total of them is to question whether he cares at all about the potential consequences of his actions: He was arrested for shoplifting crab legs. He was involved in a BB gun battle that damaged his apartment complex, and hours later Florida State police stopped him and handcuffed him for carrying a pellet gun near campus (he said he was using it to shoot at squirrels). Before last season’s national championship game, Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher kicked Winston out of practice and explained later that he wanted Winston to understand that “it’s not about you.”
Add all these things up, and it’s easy to see why NFL teams would decide that they simply don’t want to deal with Winston, no matter how good a quarterback he is. Winston appears to be a player with great talent who lacks the maturity to be a franchise quarterback. Kind of like Ryan Leaf.[/size]

It's pretty evident he has virtually no maturity. Tough to justify anyone using a high pick on him.

His replacement tonight is a kid from the local Jets area. Maguire is from Sparta, up in Sussex County, NJ, and played at Seton Hall Prep.

Winston has dropped from # 1 on Mel Kipers big board to 23 simply because of his stupidity and being so immature. Winston would be smart to go back to FL ST next season for his senior year.

Go Jets..Cyborg

Certainly seems like a guy with a lot of red flags, but a lot of folks make bad decisions at that age.

cysporsche wrote:Winston has dropped from # 1 on Mel Kipers big board to 23 simply because of his stupidity and being so immature. Winston would be smart to go back to FL ST next season for his senior year.

Go Jets..Cyborg

+1...he can be the #1 overall pick if he stays...he could fall till rd 3 if he doesn't.  It's a no brainer that he needs more time in college; however, he and Jimbo do not get along...do not.  he has been kicked out of multiple practices this year and Jimbo has told the media he needs to understand everything is not him.

Can anyone else envision an ESPN-style draft day, with their prognostications of him going early first, and him sitting there awkwardly pick after pick?

Winston case could be sign of things to come for NFL

Posted by Mike Florio on September 24, 2014, 9:07 AM EDT
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As Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston continues to do dumb things, the most troubling allegation against him continues to linger.  And that most troubling allegation could soon be bubbling back to the surface.
Florida State has launched an internal investigation into the alleged sexual assault, and it intends to interview Winston.  His lawyer, David Cornwell, has sent to Florida State a 13-page, single-spaced letter outlining flaws in the investigation, concerns about its fairness, and claims of extortion against the alleged victim.
The letter, a copy of which PFT has obtained, explains that the alleged victim’s lawyer met with Cornwell in February 2014 and demanded $7 million to settle her potential claims.  “If we settle,” lawyer Patricia Carroll allegedly said to Cornwell, “you will never hear from my client or me again — in the press or anywhere.”
While indeed labeled as extortion by Cornwell, it’s common for potential plaintiffs in civil lawsuits to demand cash in exchange for a waiver of potential legal claims and silence.  Typically, the first number requested is ridiculously high.  The defendant often responds with a number that is ridiculously low, and the two sides chip away at the divide until a deal is either reached, or not.
With no settlement reached, Winston’s accuser continues to push the case against him, with a civil lawsuit apparently inevitable.
The situation has relevance to the NFL for two reasons.  First, Winston likely will be carrying this specific item of baggage with him to the NFL draft in 2015 or 2016.  (It’s hard to imagine him hanging around Tallahassee for another year in light of recent events.)  Second, NFL players will be facing similar efforts to extort, pry, or otherwise squeeze money out of them, in light of the league’s new focus on domestic violence and sexual assault.
Suddenly, the victims of actual, perceived, exaggerated, and/or fabricated incidents of domestic violence have unprecedented power over the NFL players who allegedly engaged in misconduct.  Faced with potentially lengthy suspensions with pay before trial and potentially lengthy suspensions without pay after the case ends, NFL players will have a strong incentive to write a check early, and to make it all go away.
Which in turn will attract lawyers who receive contingency fees to represent anyone who has the ability to exert that kind of leverage against someone with the resources to make a quick and large payment.  Whether the payment is 25 percent, 33 percent, or 40 percent of the gross amount recovered, the best kind of contingency fee is the kind that comes without having to spend hundreds of hours preparing the case for trial and then rolling the dice in front of a judge and a jury.[/size]