NFL scouts interested in Jameis Winston may not have much more college film to study.
According to Darren Rovell of ESPN, James Spence Authentication has more than 2,000 authentic items signed by the Florida State quarterback on its website.
The owner of the company has declined to identify how the items have been acquired. However, James Spence told Rovell that, as of noon ET on Thursday, no one from Florida State had attempted to determine how the signatures were authenticated.
The easiest way to authenticate autographs is to personally observe the creation of them. And that rarely happens unless the person providing the autographs has set up shop for the purposes of signing item after item after item. Even more rarely does that happen for free.
Winston has told coach Jimbo Fisher that the 2013 Heisman winner was not paid for the autographs. Which a reasonable person would expect a college athlete to say if: (1) he wasn’t paid for the autographs; or (2) if he was.