Bob CollinsAfter the kind of year that football and the NFL had — wife beating and child abuse — the latest controversy around the treatment of women shouldn’t be terribly surprising.
Jameis Winston of Florida State, beaten soundly by Oregon in the Rose Bowl yesterday, was accused two years ago of rape and then treated lightly by his college and the local police department when it got around to investigating it.
“I remember pleading with him to stop clearly,” the woman told a Florida State hearing on student conduct that met only last month.
“I remember one of his friends telling him to stop and saying, ‘She is saying no clearly.’ ”
The New York Times got a copy of the transcript, and Winston’s response:
What did Winston have to say about all that? In a statement he read during the hearing, he called her a liar. Then, nothing. He declined to answer questions, as has been the case again and again for the last two years, until Harding cornered him.
Harding asked Winston “in what manner, verbally or physically,” did the woman give her consent to sex.
Winston said his accuser provided consent not with words, but rather by “moaning.”
His answer was ridiculous and infuriating, and just shows how Florida State rolls these days. Or, should I say, how Florida State football steamrolls these days.
The hearing officer said there was nothing to warrant discipline.
Who will be disciplined? The players on the Oregon Ducks who chanted “No means no” after last night’s game to the tune of the “Warchant” used by Florida State fans.
“We are aware of the inappropriate behavior in the postgame,” coach Mark Helfrich said in a statement released by Oregon on Thursday night. “This is not what our program stands for, and the student-athletes will be disciplined internally.”
A protest against rape and the attitude of football players toward women? Jemele Hill of ESPN doesn’t see it that way.
If I need to explain to you why the "no means no" chant isn't funny, then it's best you don't tweet me.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) January 2, 2015
In a few months, many of these players — Winston has until Jan. 15 to announce whether he’ll leave school early — become NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s problem.
Related: Minnesota falls to Mizzou in Citrus Bowl (Minnesota Public Radio News).
