I was driving for much of Wednesday, so this is my first chance to put down my thoughts on a situation that is more complex than some may realize.
No discussion about Jameis Winston's comments or his suspension can be had without an understanding of the meme trumpeted by Winston.
Read about it here.
Winston, like many others his age who enjoy internet memes, comedy and jokes, stood up and shouted it out as a joke.
This seems similar to the "penis game," where people take turns in a crowded place saying the word penis. Whoever says it the loudest wins. It's done as a joke, albeit a childish joke, but it is not meant to offend. It's the inappropriateness and the volume in the public place that draws the laughs. Or, if you went to college a decade ago, you may have shouted an inappropriate phrase or two from the Dave Chapelle Show.
.@TomahawkNation hit the nail on the head with Chappelle's Show reference. Older guys could substitute Murphy, Carlin, Blazing Saddles, etc.
— Matthew Dutton (@mattd12) September 18, 2014Judging by the internet reactions, it seems that the older you are, the less likely you were to have been aware of the meme.
Illegal? No. Wrong? Maybe. Offensive? To some. A bad decision? Absolutely.
The phrase is certainly vulgar, obscene, and to some, especially women, offensive -- regardless if it is from a comedy bit. But any random college student doing what Jameis Winston did is simply not a big deal, nor is it illegal. I think everyone has, at one point or another, said comments among their friends or in public, that were inappropriate.
But most of us simply aren't famous. Not like Winston, the 20-year-old jokester who lacked the self-awareness to realize that this might not be a good idea. He probably thought that those around him found it funny. And he may have been correct, considering that nobody who tweeted about the incident expressed any level of outrage, disgust or offense.
Winston is a fool, however, for not assuming knowing that it would be instantly discussed on social media. It's how members of his generation communicate. They document their entire lives on and via twitter, instagram, etc. It's a minor miracle there wasn't a video of the stunt.
Just as Winston should have known that it would get out, he also has to know that many will look to construe any of his actions or comments in the worst way possible because of the negative publicity he's received in the past. It's easy to see by reading media and social media reactions that many simply do not have a good opinion of Jameis Winston -- despite his worst actual transgression being shoplifting crab legs. And much of that negative reputation is earned, even if the level of hate some seem to have for the kid is perhaps not commensurate with his record as judged by the American justice system, thanks to immature behavior by the QB. Some of that may come from people ignoring the fact that a prosecutor who had previously held FSU athletes to very high standards, didn't even have enough evidence to arrest or charge Winston, much less convict him in the sexual assault allegation from 2012. With each passing incident, no matter how small, the facts of the previous stories become blurred and turn into a greater negative narrative. That's the reality of the situation.
What makes this all the more troubling is that Winston is a smart guy. It's hard to think that he doesn't know the possible implications. And if he did know, and did it anyway, it means that he really just doesn't care what people say about him, which would perhaps be even more disappointing.
Winston has to realize that he is a target for the hottest of takes -- takes so hot that they make you wonder if the writers actually believe what they publish. Almost anything involving Winston is going to be popular, which means many people will click the article, share it, etc., making advertisers happy. For columnists, Jameis trying to make this joke is like a fat fastball right down the middle, newsworthiness be dammed. This Winston cannot control, but he can control the material with which they have to work. And he failed to do so in a major way Tuesday.
Winston can tell jokes like this -- but only in the company of his closest friends who aren't star struck by his presence or antics and won't tweet about it. The phrase "locker room chatter" is more appropriate now than ever.
Suspension was about publicity and image, not the act itself
I was thinking about the potentially dangerous precedent set by Florida State in suspending a player for making comments that are not illegal while it, and the college football world, routinely doesn't suspend players for far worse transgressions.
Florida State's statement seems to imply that this is a standard that would be applied to all student athletes.
As the university's most visible ambassadors, student-athletes at Florida State are expected to uphold at all times high standards of integrity and behavior that reflect well upon themselves, their families, coaches, teammates, the Department of Athletics and Florida State University. Student-athletes are expected to act in a way that reflects dignity and respect for others.
But believing that other students or players would be punished by the same standard as someone as famous as Winston is to be as foolish as the QB was in not thinking that this would get out via social media. No other student on Florida State's campus, player or not, would bring as much negative publicity for such an act as Winston did. It would almost certainly be a non-issue if done by anyone other than Jameis.
And this is what it boils down to: publicity and image.
FSU effectively suspended Jameis Winston for doing something that again put he and the school in a situation to receive negative publicity.
And it's publicity that comes at one of the worst possible times. Though there was no evidence to attempt to bring a charge against Winston, he and FSU are still subjects of an ongoing Title IX investigation centering around the incident and the subsequent handling by Florida State. Not to mention the swirl of media coverage that the NFL's domestic violence issues is receiving at the moment.
My SB Nation colleague Jason Kirk tackled this today in No, Florida State didn't suspend Jameis Winston just for cussing
Once you're a quarterback who's been accused of sexual assault, you can no longer tell young pupils at a camp that part of the glory of being a quarterback is coming into possession of "all the women," as Winston did this summer (women as prizes for football players remains an unfortunate trope throughout the sport). And you can no longer climb a table and yell, [what he said] in public with women nearby, as Winston did Tuesday.
I think this is mostly correct. Winston actually could still do all of that stuff if the ramifications were felt solely by him, but just as his comments and actions don't exist in a vacuum, neither do the consequences. Others, like his teammates and the school, are impacted by his actions.
Ultimately, Winston was held to a bit of an employer-employee standard. He embarrassed the university and caused it to suffer negative publicity. This sounds very much like the suspension an NFL player would get, or that you might get from work.
Fair?
The question of fairness has come up a lot in the discussion of the suspension. And this is not a clear-cut issue.
Winston is certainly receiving a harsher punishment than he would if he were not the famous Heisman Trophy winning QB that he is. He receives an NFL-level of publicity and scrutiny, yet doesn't get the benefits of playing in the NFL (like, uh, millions of dollars).
And he's asked to deal with that level of scrutiny and fame, but without the benefits, and at an age younger than any NFL superstar, and disciplined at that level as well.
From Florida State's perspective, however, it's clearly different.
The school cannot live in some idealistic world where Winston is treated as a college player, and normal college kid antics are not turned into news items.
FSU has a reputation to manage. Like it or not, perception and image shape decisions just as often as facts. The school is trying to discipline Winston in such a way as to hopefully prevent him from embarrassing the school. Florida State probably isn't as worried about fairness as it is protecting its image. And it may have felt that it needed to discipline Winston as much for public perception as anything.
It's also fair to wonder if FSU has had internal issues with Winston, and if the escalation in discipline is done not just in response to this recent stunt.
Ultimately, regardless of the fairness, it is the reality of the situation. And it is easy to see why FSU's administration felt the need to suspend its star QB.
2015
There's not a smooth segue to this, but this is yet another example of why Winston would not want to stay in college for an additional year. His actions were incredibly stupid given the unique standards by which he must conduct himself as a celebrity of his size on campus, but having to live by those standards in the first place without the compensation received by most celebrities is just not fun.
How much is Jameis Winston worth on the Vegas line?
About eight points, if you accept that the impact of his loss would be felt equally in both halves, since the line has dipped four points with the news, to FSU by 16.