Dear Florida State fans,

I don’t usually do this and quite honestly, I’d rather be giving my opinion on some aspect of Saturday’s match-up with fifth-ranked Notre Dame, but this has been weighing heavily on my mind lately.

What should be a great time to be a Seminole recently has become anything but. Florida State is college football’s defending national champion and is riding a school-record 22-game winning streak.

Instead of hearing about how FSU might fare against Notre Dame on Saturday or experts’ opinions on Florida State’s chances of repeating, football is overshadowed by vulgar sayings, Title IX investigations and autograph signings — all centered around redshirt sophomore quarterback Jameis Winston.

It’s frustrating, I know.

What most people don’t understand however, is that the majority of the fan base doesn’t try to defend each of Winston’s actions at all cost. We couldn’t if we wanted to. Some simply cannot be defended.

Most of us would agree that if Winston committed the rape for which he was accused late in 2012, he should be in jail. While some of us may be in favor of the NCAA changing rules to allow players to profit off their likeness, I still think the majority of us would agree that if it were to come out that Winston received money for autographs, he should be held to the same standard and receive the same punishment as any other player.

While it’s well documented that Jameis Winston isn’t Mother Teresa, there’s reason to believe he isn’t Charles Manson either. To this point, a misdemeanor for shoplifting is all that’s on his legal rap sheet.

As long as he’s wearing garnet and gold, we pull for him on the field. That’s not because it’s football above all in Tallahassee as the New York Times might suggest, but because many of us love the program, the university and want to see all of our students, not just athletes, succeed.

We’re proud of what Winston has done for our team or university on the field and even though we sometimes shake our heads at what he does off of it, we want him to succeed there as well. Now, that doesn’t mean we want him to dodge all accountability as long as it means staying on the football field, but we want him to grow into a solid representation of our program and university regardless of how tiring that may seem.

As Florida State is getting ready to take on fifth-ranked Notre Dame Saturday in a contest of national relevance we could have only dreamed of five years ago, there is a chance that the game could play second-fiddle to all the controversy off the field, which for most of us is downright disappointing.

As exhausting as being a Florida State fan, alum or enthusiast has been lately, FSU football is something very special to many of us.

For some, Saturdays in the fall are a time to escape from the rigors of a long workweek. For some, it brings back good memories of when we first developed an affinity for the team 10, 20, 30 or 50 years ago. For myself, Florida State athletics serves as a track for remembering the other important moments of my life.

For some, Florida State University may be a place where they met their spouse, lifelong friends or perhaps even found themselves.

For some, Doak Campbell Stadium may be a place where your mother or father took you as a child. For some, it may be a place you took your son or daughter.

This is my little girl, doing the chop at her first game against The Citadel on September 6th of this year:

She still hasn’t been around for a loss yet. She was born in mid-December of 2012 on the heels of Florida State’s first ACC championship in seven years. She’s more important than football, but that’s something I won’t forget.

Whatever your reason for loving Florida State University or FSU football is, don’t let negative press or slanted media coverage stop you from enjoying something that comes just 13 or 14 times a year.

Some in Tallahassee have even proposed a boycott to ESPN’s College Gameday on Saturday, which will be on the scene for a third FSU game this season. While there are a number of reasons to be sour about ESPN’s coverage of Florida State, having College Gameday “come to your city” is still one of the cooler things in sports.

While almost everyone is demanding Jameis Winston to be better as an individual, we as Florida State fans and alumni should hold ourselves to the same standard.

It’s never fun being called a rape defender when you’re trying to explain to someone what was in the State Attorney’s report and they’re cutting you off to tell you what’s in the New York Times, but there are just some minds that will refuse to be changed.

Most Florida State fans and some others will agree that people had said some unjustly unkind things about Jameis Winston. While mistakenly reading the comment section of a Dan Wetzel article Thursday, I saw one person respond that he/she knew Winston was guilty of rape because of his other run-ins like stealing seafood, saying vulgarities from a social media theme, getting in BB gun fights and drinking soda from water cups.

As ridiculous and despicable as that conclusion may seem, it isn’t all that different from things I’ve seen from Florida State fans regarding Winston’s accuser.

Regardless of what conclusions we draw from the State Attorney’s report, only probably four people know for sure what really took that place that night. For many of Winston’s largely minor mishaps, it’s not uncommon to see or hear someone draw attention to the fact that he’s 20. Even if we want to assume the absolute worst about his accuser, we should give her that same benefit of the doubt.

No matter what is to come of Jameis Winston or of what has the potential of being another truly magical season in Tallahassee, the first half of this year may have been the most exhausting ever for Florida State’s rabid fan base. Though we may continue to hear less than admirable things about our quarterback, our head coach, our university and our athletic department, we can’t allow football to turn us into people we don’t want to be.

You may feel like the media is openly against Florida State or that public opinion is in no way in touch with reality. For now however, we still have Saturdays. Whether that means being at the game, watching from home or a cookout with friends or family, enjoy it as if your team or school just won the national championship.

Thanks for reading and Go Noles!,

Mike Ferguson

Editor of Noled Out