NFL GM: Jameis Winston hung out to dry by Florida State over crab leg incident

By Patrick Schmidt | Apr 22, 2015

Nov 29, 2014; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston (5) warms up before the start of the game against the Florida Gators at Doak Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports /

Jameis Winston’s crab leg past is coming back to actually put him in a favorable light with the NFL Draft days away.

In the latest chapter of Jameis Winston’s draft diary we learned the Florida State quarterback didn’t steal the crab legs from a Tallahassee Publix when he was given a shoplifting citation, suspended from the baseball team and ordered to complete community service, but rather he got hooked up with some free food.

More from College Football

That’s the story Winston told on ESPN’s Draft Academy on Tuesday night when he spoke with Jim Harbaugh in a mock interview where he was supposed to come clean about any past disciplinary issues and incidents involving the police.

“Well, a week before it was my buddy’s birthday and we had got a cake and we met a dude that worked inside Publix and he said, ‘Hey, anytime you come in here, I got you.’” Winston said, via Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report. “So that day we just walked out and he hooked us up with that.

“And when I went in to get crab legs, did the same thing and he just gave them to me and I walked out. Someone from inside the store had told the security that I didn’t pay for them, and that’s how the whole thing started.”

Getting free food isn’t shoplifting. How many of us have received free food in the past? I know I have. How many college students living off hot pockets and ramen wouldn’t do the same thing as Winston?

Winston is far from the only college athlete accepting free food and at least one NFL general manager backed up his story and determined he was telling the truth.

“Our investigators found several Publix employees who corroborated what Winston said. Winston told this story to our team and I believe others. We were able to determine that he was telling the truth. I won’t get into more detail than that.

So Winston didn’t shoplift the crag legs and Publix employees said as much and NFL teams did their investigations, which clearly was better than Publix and Florida State’s investigations, and found Winston took the fall for his teammates and university to avoid any NCAA issues for accepting free gifts.

“Should Winston have taken free food? No, of course not. But college football stars, at every campus in America, get free stuff. They all do. Every single one.

“We feel like Winston was wrong but he’s part of an overall college system where this happens daily. My personal opinion is that on this issue, and this issue alone, he was hung out to dry.”

Had Winston told the truth from the moment he was cited for shoplifting it could have opened up Pandora’s Box and put countless others at Florida State in trouble with the NCAA and have their eligibility threatened.

He took all the ridicule and public shaming that followed when he was and still is the butt of many people’s jokes, was suspended from the baseball team and had to perform community service at a local YMCA for something that never would have happened if he was just a normal student at FSU or NCAA rules weren’t so archaic.

The last thing FSU needed was another story where players were getting free things around town, something that happens everywhere but we stick out head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t. And with the draft eight days away, Winston could actually come out looking good in this story after showing some leadership and protecting his teammates and program.

More from College Football

Home/College Football