At Long Last, It's Time to Focus on Jameis Winston the Football Player
You don’t have to like Jameis Winston. You don’t have to suddenly root for Florida State. You are entitled to your opinions about this player and person—two vastly different entities in a complex situation—but you also have to respect the process, or in this instance, processes that have taken place.
On Sunday, Winston was cleared of any Florida State University conduct code violations. Following sexual assault allegations stemming back to December 2012, Major Harding, a retired Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice, was tasked with this case. He oversaw the December 3 hearing and then provided the results less than three weeks later.
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With Florida State’s semifinal matchup against Oregon less than two weeks away, Harding announced the findings.
"This was a complex case, and I worked hard to make sure both parties had a full and fair opportunity to present information,” Harding said in a letter obtained by USA Today. “In sum, the preponderance of the evidence has not shown that you are responsible for any of the charge violations of the Code. Namely, I find that the evidence before me is insufficient to satisfy the burden of proof."
Florida State University President John Thrasher also released a statement on Sunday that addressed the decision, via 247Sports:
"The university selected Justice Major Harding, a highly qualified and respected jurist, to remove any doubt about the integrity of this process and the result. He conducted a thorough Student Conduct Code hearing and reviewed more than 1,000 pages of evidence generated by three other investigations, and we would like to thank him sincerely for his service. Moving forward, we remain committed to the principle of due process, and our highest priority will continue to be the safety and well-being of all our students.
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The ruling can still be appealed by the accuser. The cutoff date for this decision is January 13, which just so happens to be the day following the College Football Playoff National Championship. This could also serve as the first day of Winston’s professional career, given the likelihood that he will declare for the NFL Draft shortly after that day, if not before.
If that’s the case, the dissection of Winston the football player—and the person, but in a drastically different arena—will be up to the NFL scouts. After undergoing legal and school-based investigations, they’re likely to get the next crack. The tone of these interviews and conversations will certainly be far different.
Winston will have questions to answer, but not to us. Not anymore. The questions regarding his struggles this year, along with the inevitable offseason inquiries, will be something he has to deal with moving forward, out of the public eye.
For that reason, his draft evaluation—whenever it begins—will be complicated. He’ll have to answer why his interceptions skyrocketed in 2014 and why his overall performance, at least in many weeks, was down.
On a more personal level, Winston will likely also be asked about what has transpired over the past few years—from the crab legs, to the BB guns, to the obvious, more impactful topics.
This should be no concern of ours. Unless you work in the front office of an NFL franchise that is near the top of the draft, it will not be on you to determine whether he’s worth a multi-million dollar investment.
As a result, it’s time to move on.
The perception of Winston, for many, likely will never change. Even with Harding’s announcement on Sunday, no ruling—be it legal or through a university—will convince some people. If anything, the frustration of a long, strange process might grow more robust. And there’s really only one direction to cast this negative response.
Given the way these investigations have concluded, however, anything more than an assessment of Winston as a quarterback is unfair at this point. As stated above, you don’t have like him. In fact, you don’t have to embrace the way this entire process has been conducted from a variety of different facets. It has, on multiple levels, been an absolute mess from start to finish.
But it has also, finally, reached a conclusion. And although we have no idea what took place in December 2012—and never will—the various processes in place have played out accordingly. Whether they played out to your liking is a much deeper, personal conversation.
The only thing we can do is go off of the results and what we know as fact.
We know we have questions about Winston entering the Rose Bowl. He has been hobbled all year with a bum ankle while playing behind an offensive line that was nowhere close to advertised. As a result, his performance has suffered.
We also know that he has never lost a game in his collegiate career, which is something that is often overlooked given everything that has gone on. Along those lines, Winston is coming off his best performance of the season, a laser-sharp, 309-yard, three-touchdown performance against Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship Game with a playoff spot on the line.
With Oregon on deck and Winston and the Seminoles playing the role of underdog for the first time in two seasons, this is the information that should be processed. Anything more is a trek you can take by your lonesome.
Sunday’s ruling may not have altered your opinion of the person, but the player—and only the player—should be what we’re concerned with as Winston's collegiate career likely inches closer toward its own conclusion.
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