Yes Florida State is playing Notre Dame this weekend. It’s the best match up money can televise. Many will call it a top 5 showdown. It should be called the Felony Bowl.
Florida State is currently in the running with Notre Dame for the most corrupt, and a school that has put the need to win football games above all else. What other schools, other than Florida State and Notre Dame get away with an alleged rape, a Title 9 violation and, pending an investigation, an NCAA rule that some schools still actually follow. All from the same guy!
Seminoles QB Jameis Winston is preparing for the big Notre Dame game Saturday as if all of that, as well as stealing crab legs from a Publix and soda from a Burger King, firing a BB gun at his apartment complex and making a spectacle of himself yelling a vulgar phrase while standing on a table in the student union — never happened. And if it did, he would stand on the same table, throw himself on the mercy of the FSU administration and still get to play.
Jimbo Fisher is, according to many in the media, a top flight football coach, same as Brian Kelly from Notre Dame. Yet both allow players to get away with almost anything, and just turn the other cheek. Jameis does something, then just goes to Fisher and explains it away with a smile and more wins. Yet Terrelle Pryor and Jim Tressell get run out of Columbus over Tattoos.
Now we have the autograph scandal. Did or did not Winston take money for his signature? Georgia, with another coach I’m not fond of Mike Richt, suspended Heisman Trophy frontrunner Todd Gurley immediately when he came under suspicion. Even Texas A & M was more proactive when Johnny Manziel was accused of the same thing one year ago.
Is there any doubt Winston signed these items? No. Would anyone sit down and sign over 900 items for nothing? No. Let’s use common sense here. Many want proof. Proof Winston accepted money. Why should there be proof? This guy has run out of the benefit of the doubt. It’s time he realize there are consequences to his actions.
Then this morning Kirk Herbstreit said on ESPN he spoke with Winston and the winner of the Heisman last year told him he hates how all this negative publicity affects his mother. WELL THEN STOP DOING STUPID THINGS JAMEIS!! Your the one embarrassing your mother.
AJ McCarren didn’t embarrass his mom, neither did Jadeveon Clowney, Brett Hundley of UCLA isn’t, neither is Baylor’s Bryce Petty. Even Petty’s predecessor Robert Griffin III didn’t embarrass his parents. Yet all Winston does is embarrass Mommy and win football games. And to Fisher, that’s all that matters.
Herbstreit adds the FSU coach looks Winston in the eye and knows his quarterback when he says he didn’t take money, rape a student, shoot a BB gun. And that Fisher is like a parent. Well Kirk, a parent would say there is too much smoke. Winston is blowing up a lot of smoke. And where there is smoke, there is fire. And Winston brings a trail of flames with him, no matter where he goes. So because Fisher can look into Winston’s eyes we should believe him? Not a chance.
As Christine Brennan of USA Today stated in her article this week, “It’s hard to imagine an entire university led by supposedly intelligent people who don’t wear football helmets turning into sycophants for one sports team, but that’s exactly what has happened before our eyes at Jameis State.”
Yet Winston, who maybe realizes now his smile and masochistic attitude won’t work any longer, is now playing the “Momma” card. This is an embarrassment for Florida State and Winston’s Mom.
Ask yourself this. WWBBD? What would Bobby Bowden do? Bowden managed to win and still hold his players feet to the fire. Yet it’s become apparent all the Fisher cares about is winning another National Championship, which means a contract extension and more millions of dollars into his bank account. That’s all that matters here. Not the alleged Tallahassee investigation into a rape, of the BB Gun Incident, stealing a crab or the vulgarities he screamed during lunch.
Florida State has just one goal here. Keep Winston eligible long enough to make the Final Four tournament at the end of the season. Then once that is done, win or lose, they will kiss Winston good bye and turn him over to the NFL. Meanwhile the NCAA sits on the sidelines, doing nothing because they have no backbone anymore.
Dave Mitchell co-hosts with Mark Donahue the UST talk show “Ohio Baseball Weekly,” highlighting the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds. The Show is on hiatus until March 9, 2015. He is also the host of the “Ultimate Sports Talk” show every Thursday night at 7pm. If you have a comment on this or any other article,email Dave at dmitch@ultimatesportstalk.com or on twitter @ohbbcohost or @ultsportstalk
