In the past couple of weeks, various outlets have begun to report on the sexual assault situation going on in Tallahassee, Florida, which centers around football player Jameis Winston, quarterback for the #2 Ranked, undefeated Seminoles of Florida State University. A relatively non-biased timeline of events was published by Grantland's Patricia Lee earlier today. At present, Jameis Winston's DNA is a match, and, as reads in the timeline, evidence may suggest Tallahassee PD Detective Scott Angulo worked to pressure the alleged victim to halt her prosecution of Winston because of his celebrity as a football player. Only now, some 11 months after the crime allegedly took place, is the investigation continuing again, with the Seminoles in line to play for a championship and Winston solidly in contention for the Heisman trophy.
It's important to mention Winston's football pedigree here - not because he's "a star football player, good student, watching his life fall apart", but because I can only write this post with my own perspective, as a college football fan. I'm in no way connected to the events that December night in Tallahassee and as such, I have no right to comment on whether or not I think Winston is guilty or not, because, believe it or not, the accused are rightfully innocent until proven guilty in this country. That does not, however, change the notion that if the timeline is correct, Florida State police probably should have laid charges on Winston months before the football season even began. Winston would have been automatically suspended indefinitely, and his pedigree, which makes up a strong portion of the stories being written about him, wouldn't even exist. Maybe I wouldn't have watched a 41-13 demolition of my Pitt Panthers because he wouldn't have even been on the team in the first place, and maybe Florida State wouldn't be #2, three games away from a surely exciting championship game against Alabama. And now, this season, pending the investigation, may have an asterisk on it because Florida State police didn't want to risk a football player getting in trouble.
But the above paragraph is exactly the troubling thing about this case. I'm thinking about the repercussions towards the Vizio National Championship game, for God sakes. And in Tallahassee, there's a girl who's well on her way to being branded a liar and a villain for targeting a football player at a very volatile time in the Seminoles season. And that's why I have to talk about football - because if Scott Angulo actually did his job instead of protecting Winston, there probably wouldn't be this miraculous season in the first place, and maybe that girl could have had her privacy and well-being protected, instead of getting the label of "season-killing pariah".
It's sad, because this is going to keep happening. Celebrities and athletes will always be protected, regardless of their state of guilt, and an attack on the quarterback is an attack on the university the way things are right now. Until we finally grow up and treat everybody equally - men and women, football players and regular students, and give each and every person in this nation the true due process of law as both accusers and defendants, nothing will change. And again, this isn't a comment or accusation insinuating that Winston is guilty, or that he isn't - but he was looked at as Jameis Winston, Florida State quarterback, instead of Jameis Winston, suspect, and that's wrong. It's sad, because I love college football - I grew up on the belief behind alma mater and the players representing the university. And it sucks that the big dollars and the promise of the NFL have turned it into a pre-professional athlete mill. Until we all stop worrying about winning and the pressure, and college football returns to those values it championed for decades upon decades, this will be but one of many more morally troubling situations that will plague the game for years to come.
