I'm all for NCAA athletes taking all of the "extra benefits" they can get, especially football and basketball players at major programs. The schools collude to prevent athletes from earning their true market value so why shouldn't the athletes look for ways to make some extra cash?
But the first rule about accepting extra benefits is, don’t talk about receiving extra benefits. Ex-Florida State QB Jameis Winston has violated this rule in a major way.
Winston, appearing in an ESPN draft segment Tuesday night that was taped back in February, says he didn't steal those infamous crab legs last year. Instead, Winston says a Publix employee used to hook him and his friends up with free stuff:
"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.' So that day we just walked out and he hooked us up with that. And when I came in to get crab legs, I did the same thing and he just gave them to me and I walked out. And someone from inside the store had told the security that I didn't pay for them. And that's how the whole thing started."
This is actually more believable than the story Winston offered at the time of the incident, that he forgot to pay. I figured Winston copped to shoplifting to avoid the NCAA scrutiny that would surely follow if he admitted to getting free hook-ups at Publix.
Said Winston on ESPN: "How I'm supposed to handle, like, if I just got them for free? I just say, 'I just messed up?'"
I’m not mad at Winston for accepting those free crab legs. The problem for Florida State is that Winston’s hook-ups likely were violations of NCAA rules.
The NCAA defines extra benefits as “any special arrangement by an institutional employee or a representative of the institutions athletics interest ("booster") to provide a student-athlete (or a student-athlete's relative or friend) a benefit that is not generally available to other students.” The organization considers “representative of athletics interest” to include not just university employees but alumni, fellow students and fans of the program.
I guess it's possible the Publix employee hooked up Winston because he just thinks he's a cool dude but more likely is that he did it because he's a Seminoles fan (or both). The Seminoles could face penalties for secondary NCAA violations if it's determined Winston got extra benefits but it could mean more serious trouble if Winston's buddies who also got hook-ups were FSU athletes.
Again, I don’t blame Winston for cashing in on his status. I just don’t think it’s wise to talk about it. I say that not because I care whether Florida State gets in trouble for the possible violations, but because of the inevitable backlash from Seminoles fans mad at Winston for getting their program in the wringer.
I heard it when salty Georgia fans ridiculed Todd Gurley for cashing in on his name because he “hurt the program." They don’t see the irony in their expectation that Gurley will be a Damn Good Dog and put the interests of the school above his own at the same time they trash him and defend a system in which he isn't allowed to seek his real market value.
Fans will instantly turn on athletes who don’t live up to their expectations. Schools will find a way to discard them as soon as they have no use for them. But the athletes are supposed to look after the interests of those two selfish groups instead of their own?
Funk that. If athletes can make money by signing autographs or save some money with a crab legs hook-up, go ahead and do it. Just don’t talk about it.
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