FSU Jimbo Fisher: Jameis Winston’s baseball suspension is enough
Two-sport athlete Jameis Winston won’t be punished in both sports. Winston was caught shoplifting seafood in Tallahassee, Fla. in April, and the result was a suspension from the baseball team. Winston’s football coach Jimbo Fisher thought that suspension would suffice. Winston learned his lesson.
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“People need to realize, when you suspend him in baseball, you understand how important baseball is to him? That cut his heart out,” Fisher said Monday, via ESPN.com. “If it was done maliciously, we may have done other things. It was a silly mistake and not done with any malicious doing, and you don’t punish a guy twice for the same crime.”
While that makes some sense, and shoplifting isn’t of gargantuan proportions, Fisher had a few other things to say.
“Not after we found out the story and what had happened and [what Winston did] was not a malicious thing,” he said. “It was not done with intent.”
As ESPN’s Jared Shanker points out, “At the time of the incident, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office said it would not speculate on whether Winston took the items — $32 worth of crab legs and crawfish — intentionally.”
So Jimbo Fisher’s logic, while not foolproof, is actually backed legally. Though, returning to logic, it’s pretty clear Winston meant to steal the crab legs. Regardless, the Heisman Trophy winner doesn’t deserve to suffer a football suspension for small transgression. Fisher isn’t breaking his own tradition either. He explained that, typically, he has a heavy hand with felonies, but allows leniency upon smaller issues like this. If Winston continues to have issues, then perhaps he will force Fishers heavy hand.