Jameis Winston has spent the past year embarrassing Florida State, but that's a big school. Big football program. Big donors. Big fan base. It's hard for one person to embarrass such an entity all by himself, and to be the embarrassing gift that gives the whole year 'round, but now Jameis has a partner committed to the continuing degradation of Florida State.
And that partner is Florida State.
Yup, the school has followed the lead of Jameis -- what, you thought it should be the other way around? -- and decided to make like Jameis and start embarrassing itself. Just for the hell of it, I guess. And after one game on the job, FSU is off to a great start.
Jameis makes an ass of himself, lugging everything he represents -- like it or not, Winston is the face of the FSU football team, athletic department and university -- to a busy spot on campus and yelling a vulgarity about women. Had that been, say, a relatively anonymous Florida State offensive lineman, that would have been worthy of some sort of team punishment. And had it been, say, a relatively anonymous FSU offensive lineman, I have the feeling it would have been a serious punishment of some sort. Perhaps the suspension for a whole game. Maybe more.
But Jameis isn't some anonymous offensive lineman. He's the guy accused of raping an FSU student. You know that story, with all its ugly twists and turns, and how for a few days last year that nauseating story held up the entire 2013 season. Florida State was heading for the national title game. Jameis was heading for the Heisman Trophy. The accusation was appalling regardless of circumstances, but the circumstances made it something that could affect an entire year of college football. This was enormous, and although charges were never filed, the nation now plays word association with the FSU quarterback (and by extension, the team and school he represents): Jameis Winston? Accused rapist. FSU? School where the accused rapist plays quarterback.
All of which is why Jameis Winston is the last guy in college football -- not one of the last guys; the very last guy among the roughly 10,000 players on scholarship nationwide -- who ought to be walking around campus, screaming a vulgarity about women.
But then, Jameis was also one of the last guys in college football -- maybe not the very last guy, but on the short list -- who should be walking out of Publix this spring with $32.72 worth of crab legs, either because he stole them or simply forgot to pay. (Who among us hasn't purchased stuff from a grocery store and then walked right past the cashiers because we forgot to pay? Oh, right. Almost nobody among us has done that.)
So what we have here is a guy who has been accused of something horrible, avoided being charged with it, and within a month won the Heisman Trophy and the national title. Something like that could go to a guy's head. Untouchable? That's how Jameis apparently perceives Jameis. Because what happened next was the crab legs. Then the vulgarity.
But what we have here is not, to use that previous hypothetical, an offensive lineman. What we have here is the most important player on the No. 1-ranked FSU football team, arguably the best player in the country -- he is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, after all -- and the game Saturday against Clemson was enormous. And so the FSU powers, after discussing the issue with Winston, decided to suspend him for one half.
Until they learned Jameis Winston had lied to them.
That's being reported by a pair of big-time reporters from different national outlets, and neither report has been denied by Florida State. The report is that Winston was called into the offices of FSU leaders and wasn't truthful about the vulgarity episode.
So if yelling something vulgar on campus is worth a half-game suspension, what's it worth to look FSU administrators in the eye and lie to them?
Apparently, just another half. The second half. And so Winston missed the entire Clemson game, an event that showed just how badly Jameis Winston has spun out of control in Tallahassee.
First, the suspensions. One half for the vulgarity, another half for lying. Who's the spineless FSU president, Roger Goodell?
Then, the uniform.
You heard, right? Jameis Winston, suspended for the entire Clemson game, showed up for pregame warmups on the field. In uniform.
That's ridiculous, nonsensical, stupid. It's also telling, in that Jameis Winston thought he could get away with it. Why? Because he gets away with almost everything. He's the most important person on the FSU campus, clearly the most financially valuable person on campus. And Jameis appears to know it. He's the little bitty tip of the tail, an individual strand of hair way down there at the end, who is wagging the whole damn dog at Florida State.
How does this happen? Because Jameis takes. And because Florida State gives. The school is a joke for the way it has handled the totality of Jameis Winston, chronic embarrassment. Say what you want about what should have happened to Winston last fall or even after the crab legs -- and for the record, where some folks saw spinelessness, I saw fairness and logic in FSU's response -- but what happened in the days before the Clemson game, and what happened shortly before kickoff, was proof of just how badly Florida State has lost its way.
Jameis runs that school, not the other way around. He'll play Saturday against North Carolina State because Jameis is in charge. He'll leave after the season and become some stupid NFL team's multimillion-dollar problem, but he'll leave a long-lasting mark at Florida State.
He already has.
Oh, and he also won the Heisman and a national title.
>> Want more on Winston: Rejoining team Monday
