Louis Murphy says criticism of Jameis Winston is based on racism

After a recent article on Jameis Winston was published that has ignited controversy, Tampa Bay Bucs teammate Louis Murphy is coming to his defense.

For the last two football seasons, there may have been no more polarizing figure in both college and pro football than Jameis Winston. Though he won the Heisman Trophy and national title in 2013 for the Florida State Seminoles, Winston’s college career was marred by several immature mistakes (crab legs, stealing soda, bb guns, etc.) and one major one when he was accused of sexual assault of a fellow student.

After being the top overall pick in the 2015 draft, Winston threw for over 4,000 yards and helped the Tampa Bay Buccaneers improve four games from the season before in spite of fans and “experts” who predicted he would fail.

Since turning pro, many in the Bucs organization and city of Tampa say Winston has matured as a person, something that his critics don’t want to hear and will always assume he was guilty of the horrible crime in part due to public relations mistakes from the school and the Tallahassee Police Department.

Recently, ESPN’s new venture The Undefeated posted a piece on Winston’s maturity that glossed over the allegations, something that has unleashed hell from those who either a) are upset that rape allegations were treated as not a big deal or b) those who want Winston to fail.

One quote that didn’t make the article came from teammate Louis Murphy, which was posted on Twitter by the author before being deleted and read in part:

"“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 does have a point if we compare the treatment of both players in college. Winston was treated like public enemy number one even before the more serious case, while Manziel seemingly was given a free pass for nearly everything he did while at Texas A&M. Since going pro, everyone (including this author and some at FanSided) has gone in on Johnny Football.

The truth of the matter is that while the only people who know what happened were in that Tallahassee apartment in 2012, public opinion from most will always be that Jameis Winston is guilty and was given a free pass. Those who support him or the teams he plays for will defend him forever, but it will likely fall on deaf ears.

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