After years of being bombarded by sports media over his personal travails, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston insists he is trying to stay on the straight and narrow. But now one of the QB’s teammates is saying that Winston has been unfairly vilified by the press because it is filled with racists.
Alex Kennedy, who recently published a puff piece on the former Florida State QB, highlighted the accusation. Kennedy didn’t include the anti-media quote in his article, but did highlight it later after his piece, “The Continued Maturation of Jameis Winston,” appeared this week.
Kennedy said that during his interview of the Bucs’ Louis Murphy, the receiver was adamant that much of Winston’s treatment by the press was unfair and racist.
The Bucs QB has had a long series of personal troubles including a rape accusation that didn’t stick, at least one shoplifting charge that did, and a list of other offenses that include a BB-gun war unwisely fought amid windows and a loud proclamation of a crude internet meme in public. Naturally, the press has been keen to report on each case.
According to Sports Nation, Murphy attacked the press outright over its coverage of Winston.
That’s just how the media plays it; you would think Johnny Manziel is this freaking great kid, but he’s f**ing terrible. Jameis didn’t do half of the s**t that (Johnny) 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. If you’re a different color, it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s not a big deal.’ But if you’re a black kid who makes a mistake or gets falsely accused, they’re going to make it seem like the kid is terrible. This dude didn’t do nothing wrong. He was a 19-year-old kid in college who made some of the same little mistakes that everybody else made. But because the color of his skin, he gets labeled a bad person and that stigma rides with him. Meanwhile, Johnny Manziel beat a woman, (did) drugs and was in and out of rehab, and you barely hear about it. It’s a story for a day and then it’s gone. I’m tired of that.
Murphy concluded decrying the “prevalent” racism in the U.S. today.
“Racism is still prevalent today,” Murphy insisted. “I don’t want to get into it too much, but yeah, he deals with stuff [in road games]. Everybody deals with stuff. Racism is still alive. It’s real.”
Apparently, though, author Kennedy had second thoughts about releasing the accusatory quotes via Twitter and later deleted the tweet.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com