Exactly who is Jameis Winston?

Does anyone know? Will the real Jameis Winston please stand up?

Let’s just take a look at his resume all around, more off the field than on it, and try to get a picture of who Jameis Winston really is.

Jameis Winston the Academic:

Prior to enrolling at FSU, Jameis Winston was accepted to the prestigious Stanford University. Why does this matter?

It matters because it is often reported by national media members and assumed by many average football fans that Winston is not a very smart person, some even the week of his Notre Dame game claimed he would have never been accepted into Notre Dame. This is simply not accurate and is an incredible oversight since you have to have a pretty high level of intelligence to be accepted into Stanford University.

Niche.com, a website founded over a dozen years ago by Carnegie Mellon University, provides detailed information regarding universities as well as other informative academic information. According to their list of colleges which are the hardest to get into, which ranked over 1300 colleges using this methodology, includes Stanford University all the way down at lowly #6, ahead of such schools as MIT, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Brown, University of Pennsylvania, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and yes, even the mighty Irish of Notre Dame who reside at #32 on the list.

US News World Report ranked the top 100 colleges with the lowest acceptance rates last year. Guess who came in at #1? You guessed it, Stanford University, ahead of Harvard, Yale and every other college, Ivy League or otherwise. Notre Dame could be found all the way back on the third page, not even in the top 50, coming in at #52 on the list.

So to just thumb your nose up at the intelligence of someone who was accepted into the toughest university to get into, especially if you are one of the ones who acts like he would not have been able to be admitted to Notre Dame, is a bit absurd, to put simply.

D.C. Reeves of the Alabama Rivals site, TideSports.com, wrote a piece about Winston’s mind while still working for the Florida State Rivals site Warchant.com with the section titled The mind of Winston.

In the article, it describes his parents noticing how intelligent he was when he was counting change at the age of three and by the age of six, was discussing audibles while playing football, something even college quarterbacks struggle with.

Everyone has heard of his famous 70-page spiral notebook he had at the age of 13 detailing his football IQ at the time with coverages, plays, alignments, audibles and more. This shows just how long Winston has been a true student of the game. He even describes the qualities which make up a great quarterback besides the X’s and O’s of a football play.

A year later, at the age of 14, he was already on the varsity football squad and enrolled in honors classes where he eventually graduated with a GPA above 4.0. He achieved this while playing baseball and leading his Hueytown football team to record seasons including only losing one home game in his final two years.

According to Winston’s Official Biography on the official team athletic site Seminoles.com, he was named to the All-ACC Academic Football Team for the 2013 season and one of only two players honored for their academic success at the 2013 Golden Torch banquet at Florida State, all while juggling the duties of playing two sports, and not just any position, he is obviously the starting QB and plays multiple positions on the baseball field as an outfielder, pitcher and designated hitter.

Showing off his wall of academic success:

https://instagram.com/p/o7A6oIBMV0

Given the avalanche of evidence, I would call to question the intelligence of anyone questioning his intelligence. Jameis Winston the Humanitarian: Given what seems to be a national witch hunt by the media for Winston, you rarely hear about the good things he does off the field anymore. Since they will not tell you, we will review some of these things. According to the official Twitter account of FSU Football (@FSU_Football), Winston took time to volunteer at a local community center, Jack Mclean Community Center. According to a TomahawkNation.com report, an online news source of FSU athletics, he volunteers there quite often.

According to Ralph DeMeo, a Tallahassee Animal Rights Advocate who volunteers at a local animal shelter, Winston rescued a stray German Shepherd and took it to the Tallahassee Animal Shelter the day before his match up with top ranked Notre Dame. For some reason, this tweet never made national news like the campus obscenity tweets.

Now the dog is soon to be adopted.

Last season, the Miami Herald reported the FSU Seminoles were “Playing For Payton” referencing lifelong fan Payton Poulis, a freshman at Florida State at the time who might be the #1 fan of the Seminoles. Payton has a condition similar to Cerebral Palsy and is bound to a wheelchair.

If you have not viewed the video Playing For Payton yet, you should do so as soon as possible. It is an incredibly inspirational story and touched many players, including Winston himself. Payton is still a fixture at every football practice and game and his friendship with Winston continues to this day and players consider him a part of their team.

Winston even got into the action with the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge earlier this year:

Winston challenged his teammate PJ Williams which spread to other teammates, head coach Jimbo Fisher which spread to other coaches around college football and former FSU QB EJ Manuel of the Buffalo Bills which spread to other pro players.

The Unselfish Player:

In July of this year, Bruce Feldman of CBS Sports reported a free education is enough for athletes according Jameis Winston.

During the current atmosphere throughout the college football landscape, this opinion seems to go against the usual response of most college athletes.

For a player who many believe was paid for autographs, usually that type of player would fall into the crowd of believing players should be allowed to be paid, even if only money for autographs. This goes against that trend and seems to even be more evidence against Winston taking money for autographs.

Winston with the kids:

During the season, the FSU football team usually votes to end all social media action until the season ends, so there has not been an update lately and were no updates during last season. However, you can still see posts from Winston from between seasons on his Instagram account and you may notice it is littered with him enjoying his time with kids all over the place.

Winston talking to a class of children in Griffin Heights:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Back in his hometown of Hueytown:

Speaking to the kids in Alabama:

Visiting a local children’s hospital in Birmingham while he visited his home state of Alabama:

At a camp with Charlie Ward in Pensacola, FL during the summer:

Having to say goodbye:

Visiting 6th graders from Baconton Charter School during baseball season:

At a local Little League baseball game:

Always time for all the fans everywhere:

After the BCS National Championship game:

Fun with the little fans:

https://instagram.com/p/h1bMIHBMYE

Interviewing with Trey Fisher:

Practicing his handshake with Trey Fisher:

Some say he gets along with the kids so well because he is still a kid himself at heart.

Jameis Winston the teammate:

Jameis Winston seems to be the ultimate teammate both on the football field as well as the baseball diamond.

The pride of Florida State, Charlie Ward himself, even admitted Winston just wants to be one of the guys in a one-on-one interview with Warchant.com: “he wants to be himself, he wants to be one of the guys.”

Last year against Clemson, his inspirational speech before the game made national headlines as he called his teammates his brothers and declared they were not leaving without a victoreee.

This year against Clemson, Winston was suspended for using obscene language on campus. Even while suspended, he did everything in his power to help backup quarterback Sean Maguire during the week in preparation and helped during the game on the sideline as well.

Maguire’s father had nothing but good things to say about how Winston handled the situation and helped his son:

Then guess who the first person sprinting across the field was to celebrate with Sean Maguire after securing the victory:

You can see it at about the 1:00 mark in the below video:

During the NC State game earlier this season, Florida State WR Christian Green lost his grandfather, Ernest Green Sr., hours before kickoff.

Prior to the game, Winston told Green he was going to get him his first career touchdown in honor of his grandfather and Winston delivered on that promise with a 22-yard pass to Green which helped change the momentum of the game for FSU’s come from behind victory, as he told reporters in his postgame interview.

During this past baseball season when teammate DJ Stewart was aggressively approached by the University of Florida first baseman during a midweek rivalry game, after Stewart ran over both him and the pitcher in a legal play running down the line causing benches to clear, Winston was one of the first off the bench to come to the defense of teammate.

Anyone who has ever played an inning of baseball at any level knows you do not just sit on your hands in the dugout when your teammate is being surrounded by members of the other team near their dugout.

Winston seems to really love his teammates and they certainly seem to love him.

https://instagram.com/p/o3zQgdhMXB

Jameis Winston the goofy, fun class clown:

Jameis Winston always seems to be having fun. From the moment he stepped foot on campus, this was very clear and did not surprise his former teammate Ricky Rabb who said, “He never shows all his seriousness when he’s around his friends. Off the field, he’s straight playing. He probably doesn’t have a serious bone in his body.”

“Man, he’s a great guy, a great personality,” receiver Rashad Greene said. “There is not one time where you’re going to be around Jameis where he’s not going to make you laugh. That’s what you get from Jameis, that’s him being himself, and you don’t get that from a lot of quarterbacks. They’re serious type of people. But it just makes you want to be more connected to him.”

From the same report: Winston let the jokes continue on the first day of fall camp . He scampered from drill to drill, laughing with teammates and jumping out and intercepting passes that weren’t for him.

“Sometimes when you are comfortable – I’m not going to take that joy away. … I don’t want that atmosphere,” Fisher said Tuesday.

“It may appear (like he is playing around), I’m telling you, he’s locked in. That’s just his personality.” (From Warchant.com)

Looking back to his instagram, you see even more videos of him goofing around:

https://instagram.com/p/kPst24hMRB

https://instagram.com/p/kNqBuQhMRw

https://instagram.com/p/iFkAInBMTW

Even had to have some fun putting on a show at the Under Armor Skills Competition as a recruit:

At the Elite 11 Camp, Trent Dilfer and others talked about how he was a leader starting from the first day of camp, stealing the show no matter what they did and shows him having a good time making everyone laugh:

Having fun with Clinton Portis:

More clowning around with Portis:

Having fun on the David Letterman Show:

Doing the robot at a baseball game:

During a rain delay last season on the diamond against Notre Dame, which ended up forcing the game to be postponed, Winston even got in on the action with players from both teams entertaining fans with crazy antics:

Debated on putting this one up in the Teammate section, but decided since it was him goofing around off the field again, I would put here in the Goofy, Class Clown section:

Just a few of the many Winston faces, even the goofy ones:

Even makes himself a “chocolate Easter bunny” for a fan:

This makes it even harder to believe he meant anyhthing offensive by his use of language on campus and was most likely just joking around looking for a laugh and those who were not present during the event and took it out of context were the only ones who created what the situation turned out to be.

He has consistently been the constant comedian and goofy clown everywhere he goes. During his freshman campaign and before, it is hard to find any video or pictures of him off the field, not joking, smiling, laughing and having a good time. Lately however, he seems to have had a different demeanor at times and I personally believe the media onslaught against him has taken a toll and he has had to become more serious, not as much of himself and possibly even lost some of that childlike spirit everyone loved. I personally enjoyed that spirit and hope it returns.

Jameis Winston the athlete:

I wanted to spend so much time on Winston off the field because we all know how great he is on the field. It really doesn’t need to be mentioned again. He is one of the most decorated players of all time and did so as a freshman, including becoming the youngest winner ever of the Heisman Trophy. In the middle of two seasons he has had to deal with off the field issues and becoming public enemy number one in for the media, but even they admit no matter the distractions, he still can compartmentalize and overcomes it all and plays amazingly on the field. Many credit this to Jimbo Fisher’s ability to have his team block out the “clutter” as he calls it and just follow “the process” as Winston continually addressed in his Heisman Speech. Some even argue he can still be himself playing so well from that process and the simple fact he knows in his heart he is not the antagonist many try to portray him as.

So rather than show all of his highlights or list his laundry list of athletic accomplishments, I will just leave you with a couple of videos from both sports he plays to show off his athleticism:

Throwing to himself twice about 40 yards down the field:

Jameis Winston the Champion:

After winning the ACC Championship the last BCS Championship game in 2013, Winston is without a doubt a champion.

Do you feel like you know Jameis Winston a little better?

After reviewing hundreds, maybe more, of videos, interviews, articles, pictures, social media and more, we have come away with the conclusion Jameis Winston is a genuinely good guy who has just been the victim of the media narrative going against him and a mass public who does not look into things further than what they hear some guys on TV discuss who know nothing about Jameis Winston or his situations, or at least choose to ignore them. I have yet to come across any mentions of him, much less any pictures of him even drinking alcohol or doing any drugs as we recently saw with Ole Miss star Robert Nkemdiche smoking from a bong or the well documented partying of Johnny Manziel. Manziel was portrayed in the media as just youthful immaturity, but for some reason Winston does not get such a benefit and would be in the media for another week if he was caught doing illegal drugs like Nkemdiche. The mainstream media knows they can control the narrative because they know the average viewer is not going to take the time to actually look at the off the field incidents involving Winston in detail as we have provided previously and will trust their accounts of them.

As RollingStone recently described in detail, ESPN who is the driving force of all of this narrative is doing whatever is in their power to advance and protect their investment. It does not take long to follow the money and see exactly why, given their multi-million deal with the Southeastern Conference, launching the SEC Network and investing nearly $6 billion to broadcast the College Football Playoff, ESPN would like as many SEC teams, who they have deep financial investment with, to take up as many of those slots as possible while attacking anyone who threatens that business venture, namely Florida State and their best player currently. These are facts you would have to be blind and ignorant to ignore.

From what we have factually seen, Jameis Winston certainly is not a highly unintelligent common criminal or a rapist as one may hear or read about these days or led to assume. I believe when we hear his coach Jimbo Fisher say in interviews, “the facts haven’t changed,” I feel I have a better idea of what he is talking about now after examining the facts. It just takes a bit of time to look at them all in detail and fairly.

As big as Winston’s celebrity is, the more polarizing they can make him, the higher their viewership and online traffic goes and thus the more money they generate. Not only do they profit from making him a polarizing figure, but by damaging the FSU Football Brand, a certain media outlet can protect their financial interests in the SEC Conference with their billions invested in the conference media rights, the SEC Network and more billions invested in the College Football Playoff if they can have SEC teams represented in them, and we all know since FSU just ended the SEC’s streak of consecutive national championships and are still winning, they are currently the biggest threat to their investment. It is a sad reality, but it is true.

I am glad we took on this project and looked into things deeper to see more of who Winston really is and I have come away confident we have seen him and I feel I know him a little better. What about you?