Jameis Winston: Too much hype, and why that’s bad for him

I’m about to make a very bold statement.

You ready?

Jameis Winston is an addict.

Now before you go sharpening your spears and preparing me as a midfield sacrifice for Chief Osceola, hear me out on this.

I’m not saying Jameis Winston is spending his off hours shooting, snorting, smoking or otherwise filling his body with any type of illegal substance. But the fact is that Winston has an addiction.

The NCAA, NFL and every other league should just go ahead and put “Media Overexposure” on their list of banned substances, because fame and hype are a drug, and petulant kids like Winston are especially prone to its effects. Jameis Winston seems to have an insatiable appetite for the drug known as fame, and it could end up becoming his undoing.

From the day he stepped on the field as Florida State’s quarterback it seems like the cameras and microphones have never left Jameis Winston’s face. And anytime it seems that the attention of the football-watching world is drawn elsewhere, Winston does something to drag us back into his world.

The shame of it all is that all the exposure and attention was well-deserved at the start. Winston came in and looked like he had been fashioned by EA Sports. He had speed, athleticism, skills and most of all…charisma.

He had a seemingly infectious smile (which many now regard as more of an unattractive smirk), and a personality that people — and especially his teammates — gravitated towards. He had FSU on a roll in 2013, winning game after game by huge margins and was overshadowing the legend of “Johnny Football” by a country mile.

But hype and fame have a way of chipping away at plastic exteriors, and exposing ugly things that nobody wants to see. With all the hype comes all the constant attention, particularly at times when a person might not want to have any attention.

When this happens, you get one of two reactions from the object of all the spotlighting.

They turtle and shy away from further exposure, or they look at it as an opportunity to further imbrue their image and become a personification of idiocy.

Guess which path Jameis Winston seems to have chosen.

By writing this, I’m quite possibly feeding the beast, but sometimes things just have to be said.

The most obvious example of Winston desperately trying to find a way to make situations become about him (the same guy who said in a press conference “I’m not a ‘me‘ person“) was this past week, after his 1/2 game suspension was upped to the full game, and Winston realized that he wasn’t going to have the opportunity to enter the game in the second half and save the Seminoles from certain doom against Clemson.

(As it turns out, the Noles won even without Winston’s heroics)

Winston was like a superhero who had been excommunicated from The Avengers, but yet showed up at the battle scene in full costume, waiting for the team to call him in for the killshot.

The call, instead, came from head coach Jimbo Fisher, who chided his young quarterback for completely dressing out in a game for which he had been suspended. Jimbo not happy. Jimbo smash.

Then, after Winston returned to the locker room to remove his pads, helmet and to supposedly check his ego at the door to show a little humility, he returned to the sidelines and made sure…damn sure…that the cameras knew he was there.

It was transparent –  his every over-exaggerated facial expression, his “coaching” and pep talks on the sidelines. It was all about Jameis, and if he wasn’t going to be on the field, he was going to make sure the world didn’t forget he was in the stadium.

And the networks obliged. His face time was unbelievable. By the time the second half rolled around, every camera shot between on-field action was seemingly of Winston and how he was reacting to the events unfolding without his help.

Another hit from the pipe of hype, Jameis?

Now the sexual assault case in which Winston was accused is in the news again. His lawyers are accusing the alleged victim of extortion, the victim is accusing the police and others of colluding to hide facts and protect Winston, and it seems like this entire sordid mess will never go away.

Roll up the sleeve, and tighten that belt around your bicep,  Jameis.

This has to stop. All of it. And Jameis Winston has to be the one to stop it. He needs to take the first step towards recovery. He needs to say enough, and tuck himself away when he’s not on the practice field or in a game.

Stop making headlines unless it’s for touchdowns.

It might not seem fair, but this seriously has to be treated as a condition. Something he can’t control and needs help with…not enablers. An alcoholic can snap with just one drink; a cocaine addict can regress into deep addiction with just one hit; and people who are addicted to being the center of the world can’t be “public figures”.

It’s been done by many quality athletes. Men and women who excel at their sport, but live incredibly private lives outside the arena or stadium. If one of Winston’s supposed friends or loving family members would guide him and advise him in this direction, his potential as a football player could be unlimited.

The hype surrounding Winston may be well-deserved on the football field, but the aftereffects of being the darling of SportsCenter can be devastating to a kid like Jameis. He believes in his own hype, and of everything that is said publicly in a positive light. Believing it makes him feel six-foot tall and bulletproof, just like that scrawny cowboy who has had a few too many beers.

Perhaps finally being beaten and humbled on the field will do the trick, and that’s bound to eventually happen. It happens to the best of them. But can Jameis Winston last that long?

If there were a prop bet on such a thing, I’d wager that Vegas would say no.

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