Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston is expected to be suspended for the first three games of the 2018 season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
The planned suspension, which is expected to become official before the July 4th holiday, stems from an alleged incident in March of 2016 with an Uber driver in Scottsdale, Arizona, something which Ronald Darby, Winston’s former teammate at Florida State and the current Eagles starter at right cornerback, inserted himself into as a potential witness.
ESPN Tallahassee’s Jeff Cameron initially reported the news and it has since been confirmed by multiple sources
Winston is accused of grabbing his Uber driver’s crotch while they were waiting at a drive-thru at a Mexican restaurant. The driver claimed that the Bucs’ QB1 was her only passenger but Darby released a statement saying he, along with an unknown third passenger (more on that later), was in an Uber with Winston on March 13, 2016, and claimed his friend did nothing inappropriate with the driver.
“I felt the need to come forward and clarify some inaccurate accounts of the evening of March 13, 2016, when myself, a friend and Jameis Winston took an Uber ride in Arizona,” Darby said in his statement. “There were three of us in the car, not just one as has been reported. Myself and Jameis were in the backseat. I am confident that nothing inappropriate in nature happened in the car that evening and Jameis did not have any physical contact with the Uber driver. The accusations are just not true.”
An attorney for the Uber driver, John Clune, has disputed Darby’s account.
And to be clear, no one else was in the car besides Mr. Winston and if anyone is “confused”, it isn’t the Uber driver.
Mr. Winston's friend from his FSU days is just making things worse by inserting himself into this.
— John Clune (@CluneEsq) November 19, 2017
Winston was never charged in the incident but the driver did file a formal complaint with Uber and the former No. 1 overall pick was banned from the service.
Winston is not expected to appeal the punishment, which could mean one of two things: his camp realizes the league has broad authority under the CBA to hand out the suspension and fighting it would just prolong the inevitable, something that has played out time and time again in the courts, or Winston worked out a deal and agreed to the three-game ban, which would cost the quarterback only $124,000 this season because his base salary under his rookie deal is very cost effective.
In 2019, the fifth-year option for Winston’s kicks in which means a big spike in salary and fighting for a stay that could put off the suspension for a year, a legal tactic that has worked in the past, would turn that relatively light financial hit to a significant one in 2019, currently projected to be $3.7 million of a projected $20.9M salary if the Bucs don’t work out an extension lowering that cap hit.
In other words, legal precedent foreshadows Winston losing any appeal and fighting it tooth and nail would cost him mightily from a financial perspective so accepting a suspension from the NFL is not necessarily an admission of guilt despite the spin that is surely coming from some circles. More so, the typical punishment in any domestic-violence or sexual assault case is now six games so by fighting the end game is double the penalty and fine for Winston.
Lastly, from a football perspective, the NFC South remains one of the league’s toughest divisions with most projecting New Orleans, Carolina, and Atlanta as better teams in 2018. A year later in the fluid NFL could change things dramatically so from a strategy standpoint begging off is also the best decision for the Buccaneers.
Where it isn’t the best decision is on the public-relations front during the #MeToo movement. Remember Winston was already accused of some salacious things when it came to his treatment of women during his days at Florida State, most notably a rape allegation and now the narrative will be he’s not fighting the allegation of grabbing a women’s crotch during a drunken late-night Uber excursion.
That’s not necessarily fair because most people aren’t going to seek out the context of the NFL CBA nor pay any mind to the fact Winston was never charged in this incident.
Things got even worse for Winston when ESPN broke the story of the third “friend” hanging out with the QB that night, former Vanderbilt player Brandon Banks, who happens to be serving a 15-year sentence after being found guilty of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery in June of 2017 for his role in the gang rape of a female student at Vandy four years earlier.
A source close to Winston told GetMoreSports.com that Banks was just an acquaintance of Winston and really Darby’s friend, so the finger-pointing has already started.
The shielding of Banks’ identity is obvious from the Winston camp because of the look of someone being accused of sexual assault partying with a convicted rapist isn’t exactly tailor-made crisis management.
Either way, Banks was of no help to Winston anyway because he claimed there were two Uber rides, one with all three (Winston, Darby, Banks) in which there was no incident and the other with Darby and Banks inserting a drunken Winston into the car before the alleged incident took place.
The tipping point from the NFL’s standpoint is believed to be text messages which acknowledge something happened.
Already one Tampa-area columnist has taken a bite of the low-hanging fruit of groupthink and the allure of social-media likes by advocating for the Buccaneers to release Winston.
What he’s accused of doing is disgusting and reprehensible,” wrote Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times. “…It’s more than partying that got a little out of hand. We need to call it what it is: sexual assault. And this isn’t the first time those awful two words have been associated with Winston.”
In the court of public opinion, “accused” can turn into calling “it what it is” in the same sentence.
Winston, like Banks and anyone else for that matter, certainly deserves unemployment and far worse if he’s ever convicted of any sexual-assault allegation.
That’s just not the case here and acting like a business afraid of its own shadow because of the very social-media mobs clicking “favorite” on Jones’ post carries more heft than the authorities is a slippery slope.
All that said, I’m no babe in the woods and there is a possibility, perhaps even a likelihood, that Winston did what he is accused of. It’s also probably not fair he can trade $124K for $3-plus million a year if that’s the case but it’s also far better than the alternative, something in criminal law known as Blackstone’s formulation: the idea that it’s better that 10 guilty persons escape than one innocent person suffer.
Jones believes “The Bucs should send a message to the community that they do not accept, condone or tolerate this kind of conduct — not from anybody but especially not from the starting quarterback and the face of the franchise. They should say that who they are and what they stand for as an organization mean more than winning football games at any cost, including at the cost of the franchise’s integrity.”
Unless Jones and The Times did their own investigation, however, and came up with a smoking gun no one else has that sentiment assumes guilt. And if that’s your default setting any integrity being strived for never existed in the first place.
Winston’s reputation is the issue here, though, and whether or not the Glazer family wants someone who many believe is now a serial sexual offender can be the face of the franchise.
