What the hell is wrong with Jameis Winston?

With what will probably be the worst week in the history of the NFL over, we're seeing teams (except San Francisco) do the right thing in regards to how they treat their players who have done terrible things.  After Carolina and Minnesota put their respective players on the exempt list (and I really don't know what that is), Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer was charged with a myriad of assault charges stemming from a July incident in his home, and Arizona didn't hesitate and placed him on the exempt list as well.  Sure, it took a massive change in the court of public opinion to cause this quick decision by Arizona, but at least they are doing the right thing now.  It remains to be seen what happens with Ray McDonald in San Francisco, as it is clear that both Jim Harbaugh and San Fran's ownership were only paying lip service to their statements that these domestic violence cases need to be handled harshly.  Yeah, I don't like San Francisco, at all, but seeing them as such big hypocrites and basically spitting in the face of the NFL's biggest scandal in years just makes my hatred of them all the more justified.

But I'm not here today to talk about the NFL, though that wall of text above may beg to differ.

Today, I'm talking about the massive troubles with Jameis Winston, especially in light of everything happening in the NFL today.

Sometime on September 17th, Winston jumped up on a table in the student union building at Florida State and yelled out - I'm quoting here - "Fuck her in the pussy!"  Apparently this is a new internet meme of which I am not familiar with.  Why he decided to do this, I don't know.  While this incident on its own is very stupid, it is by no means a sign of a massive character flaw...

...until you take into account his previous issues, and his reaction to them.

This all starts back in November of 2013, when Winston was accused of sexual assault stemming from a December 2012 incident.  While no charges were filed, massive discrepancies and missteps taken by the Tallahassee Police Department in the investigation were later revealed, and it seems very clear that the police handled this terribly and possibly even looked the other way to help out the star quarterback.

Having plead his innocence throughout the entire investigation, the case was closed on December 5 2013 with no charges filed.  Instead of acting contrite and thankful, Winston went the route of "I told you so" and acted very entitled to this result, preaching his innocence to the world.  It should be noted that even the most rudimentary amount of legal knowledge reveals that no charges being filed means nothing about innocence or guilt.  It simply means the state didn't think they would win in court - or they didn't want to prosecute him.

This issue then faded, seemingly resolved, when Winston then decided it would be a good idea to steal crab from a public market in April of 2014. 

What?

He claimed he "forgot" to pay for them, but there is video of this incident, and it is very clear that he took them intentionally.  He was given an adult civil citation, and again appeared at a press conference where he didn't apologize, tried to rationalize his actions, and smiled a lot.  This is his MO when he gets in trouble.  Hunt down his press conferences and listen to him.  He acts entitled - because he's treated that way - and never takes responsibility for his actions.  Hell, ESPN keeps running an interview with Winston where he talks about how he IS a role model and wants to be one.  He thinks kids should look up to him.  This is the mindset of an entitled kid who has been coddled by his coaches, his team, and his University.

Now this latest incident happens, and with this chain of events, it is very clear that we have a pattern of behavior, and not some isolated incidents.  (By the way, there are other incidents that happened where no charges were filed, like stealing soda from a Burger King)  Florida State has looked at all of these incidents as they occurred, and his total punishment from the University for all of this is....

Three baseball games, and the first half of this upcoming game against Clemson.

That's a great way to get the point across.

Florida State is coddling this guy and refuses to punish him solely based on his football ability.  With everything happening in the NFL right now with player conduct, I find it shocking that a university wouldn't take a hard line... until I thought about it a bit more.

With the Ray Rice/Ray McDonald/Greg Hardy/Adrian Peterson situations, most people have been screaming at the NFL to address these problems, not individual teams.  The same does not happen in the NCAA, because the NCAA is basically owned by the power conferences.  Don't believe me?  Read this and tell me they're not in the pocket of the power conferences.   So the NCAA won't push around any big schools, but they have no problem dropping random sanctions on other players who don't have the power of a strong university behind them.  If Winston played for some other school in Florida, say, FIU, he would not be playing at all right now.  I believe that with every fiber of my being. 

But I'm not writing this to talk about the problems with the NCAA, I'm here writing about Winston.  The fact that he though this latest incident was a good idea on any level is a massive red flag to all 32 NFL teams.  They see this stupid, stupid kid and everything he keeps doing and they say to themselves "Gee, if he does this in college, why would he not do this in the pros with millions of dollars at his disposal?"  Given the state of the NFL's public image currently, I have a hard time seeing teams using a high draft pick on a guy who will more then likely get suspended multiple times by the league.  These incidents are a pattern of behavior, not coincidence.