The 2013 Heisman Trophy competitors are Jameis Winston of Florida State, Alabama’s AJ McCarren, Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel, Jordon Lynch of Northern Illinois, Auburn’s Tre Mason, and Andre Williams of Boston College.
While Tre Mason and Andre Williams had incredible years, and Mason gained over 300 yards rushing in the SEC Championship, the Heisman Trophy favorite is Jameis Winston.
Indeed, it should be Jameis Winston.
Jameis Winston threw for 3,820 yards and 38 touchdowns, and his Florida State team is undefeated and set to play Auburn in the BCS National Championship. All of that should set the table for his winning the Heisman Trophy for this year.
Winston is the clear favorite in the ESPN expert’s poll, and by a wide margin.
But there are two problems: that six players have been invited, and for the first time since 1994, and how some voters may change their decision based on the Jameis Winston rape case.
And considering that Jameis Winston emerged without being charged, and that there are a number of fans who, regardless of color, feel his name was unfairly dragged through the mud, Winston just may be the recipient of more than one sympathy vote.
Yes, you read that correctly.
All too often black men are accused of sexual assault by white women (let’s tell the truth regarding what this is really about) when the evidence does not prove their was any action of rape or in some cases contact at all.
Now, and because of social media’s ability to get out all of the facts of a case, and also to separate truth from fiction, there seems to be a kind of back-lash against a white woman who cries rape against a black man when the picture is anything but.
The World has been served up one too many examples of cases overturned, or black men freed from prison, after new evidence discovered that a rape did not happen.
That’s the hard truth about that case with Jameis Winston: America has reached a new place in it’s way of treating black men.
That said, I was all set to say that Jameis Winston should not be the Heisman candidate because he was involved in that situation. But after I read all of the documents related to the case, for the first time, I changed my mind in this situation.
I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Stay tuned.