ESPN’s The Undefeated website published a profile of Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston on Tuesday, but the most interesting part of that profile is something that ESPN didn’t publish.
Via Deadspin, the author of the profile, Alex Kennedy, posted on Twitter -- and then deleted -- an excerpt that didn’t make it into the published piece. In that excerpt, Buccaneers wide receiver Louis Murphy argued that Winston is subjected to racist criticism.
“That’s just how the media plays it; you would think Johnny Manziel is this freaking great kid, but he’s f--king terrible,” Murphy told Kennedy. “Jameis didn’t do half of the s--t that [Manziel] has done. And I’m sorry, excuse my language, but I’m just passionate about it. It really frustrates me to see the media try to make a guy out to be a bad person, just because of the color of his skin. That’s not right.”
Murphy said he has heard Winston subjected to racial slurs. That is obviously unacceptable and an unfortunate reminder of the racism that still pervades our society. If Murphy had stopped only at criticizing those who make racist comments to Winston, he would have been absolutely right.
But Murphy didn’t stop there, and that’s where he went wrong. First, his comparison to Manziel suggests that he hasn’t actually followed media coverage of Manziel. No one who follows media coverage of Manziel would conclude that he’s “this freaking great kid.” People who have followed media coverage of Manziel would conclude that he’s a troubled person at best or a terrible person at worst. Manziel has most certainly not been given a free pass by the media.
Secondly, Murphy is off base when he says of Winston, “the media try to make a guy out to be a bad person, just because of the color of his skin.” In reality, the reason some in the media have made Winston out to be a bad person is because he was accused of raping a fellow Florida State student in 2012.
The Undefeated brushes off that rape accusation as “the sexual-assault allegation for which he wasn’t charged.” That is a technically accurate but wholly incomplete description of what happened. As the New York Times documented in 2014, the investigation of the sexual-assault allegation was botched by the Tallahassee police, and after a botched investigation, prosecutors concluded that it would be impossible to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s a far cry from a thorough investigation clearing Winston, which is what The Undefeated seems to be suggesting happened.
The rest of us will simply never know whether the accuser’s story that Winston raped her, or his story that they had consensual sex, is accurate. But a reasonable person could look at all the available evidence and conclude that Winston’s accuser was telling the truth. And if you believe she’s telling the truth, you don’t have to be a racist to conclude that Winston is a bad person.
