By Michael Robinson
With the 2015 NFL Draft fast approaching, the lives of many young men will change forever. It’s what every college student attends college for, the opportunity to pursue the best employment options available after an extensive education. Many hurdles will be in the way before these young men can gain entry into the NFL. The Combine which operates as a modern day auction block in which players will be interviewed, medically examined, drug screened, and have their physical performances examined by all if not many teams.
However, for one such player, pursuing his dream is proving to be much more of a task than any other player leading up to the Draft. Jameis Winston is a two sport star athlete who lead the college powerhouse Florida State Seminoles to the 2014 National Championship. Winston is currently having to navigate through the aforementioned trials that all prospects face all the while dealing with a dark cloud that will seemingly never go away; Sexual Assault. In December 2012, Winston had a Sexual Assault complaint filed against him through the Tallahassee Police Department. After over two years of legalities, accusations, improper procedure, court hearings, school hearings, and DNA testing Jameis Winston was not charged with sexual assault as well as being cleared with of any violations of the student conduct code.
During this process Winston didn’t do himself any favors in regards to his public perception. He was handcuffed but not charged by campus police who believed he had a bb gun on campus for squirrel hunting; it was later proved he was not on campus. That was then followed by two separated incidents of shoplifting soda at a local Burger King and crab legs at an area Publix. He ultimately served 20 hours of community service and was suspended from the Florida State Baseball team for the incident at Publix. He only made matters worse for himself after gaining even more infamy for standing on a table in the Florida State Student Union and yelling a popular internet meme. He then was suspended for an entire football game for the incident.
Though the later incidents clearly show the maturity left to be gained by the young man, the former accusations are clearly the larger issue. While only the accuser and Winston know what happened that night in question, the legal system sought fit to not charge him. The court of public perception has been less forgiving of him and the situation. While his on the field accomplishments and accolades would undoubtedly leave very little doubt about where he should be taken in this draft, those with very little knowledge of the incident have made their voices very clear. 
In a case which has overtones of racism, classism, and sexual abuse many have sought fit to speak on this case under the guise of football and ignore the previously mentioned larger issues. The power to generate dialogue is ever so present in today’s social media age but the ability to flush out the complexities to those dialogues still seem to be absent and in that absence Winston’s life has grown even more complicated in an already difficult time. We need to ask ourselves what are we trying to accomplish in our words. Are we a society of tearing others down for self accomplishment? Or are we a people of true dialogue in an effort to gain clarity, knowledge and understanding? In the meantime, lets hope this doesn’t cost the only two people who know the truth their future.
