Player's Personal Life Impacts NFL Career
In April of last year, Jameis Winston entered the NFL through the same door that Peyton Manning walked through 17 years earlier.
Technically, Winston's career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has not yet begun and it already presents a clear difference compared to how Manning's career started in 1998, and it's not about anything other than personal stability.
There are many cases that show that being the first overall pick is not a guarantee of success for the team that drafts the best college player available in a certain year.
Whether the selection was correct is often literally a coin toss, but in some cases there are players who offer certainty about their future, like Manning, or who raise doubts, like Winston.
The difference is simple: an impeccable record, exemplary social behavior, and free from any kind of problems.
Winston had not yet reached the NFL, he had not even solidified his collegiate career at the University of Florida State and he already had serious legal troubles: a 2012 sexual assault accusation, another for firearm possession that same year, and one for theft in 2013.
Although no formal charges were filed for the alleged sexual assault after a university investigation that left more doubts than certainties, the victim filed a civil lawsuit that will keep the problem alive for a good while.
And what need do the Buccaneers have to deal with such problems?
It is not the purpose of this article to determine whether Winston is guilty or not, but the reality is that a highly rated quarterback does not arrive clean to the NFL and that puts into question his ability to maintain a stable career that leads to success and allows the team that drafted him to become a contender again.
These incidents were undoubtedly thoroughly investigated and analyzed by several teams before the Draft, especially by the Buccaneers, who also did not have many other options to fill their biggest need in the past Draft and surely had to make a difficult decision.
Tampa Bay bet on a player with problems to maintain his social life stable, but brilliant on the field, and they will have to use many of their resources to keep Winston focused on his work and make him the catalyst for their resurgence.
A similar situation is currently being dealt with in Cleveland with Johnny Manziel, who also did not stand out as a model student at Texas A&M with an arrest in 2012 and other troubles.
Mark Sanchez, who decided to enter the NFL in 2009, a year before finishing his college career with the University of California, is another passer who arrived with a tainted record into the professional ranks.
In 2006, his first year as a college student, Sanchez was accused of sexual assault. No formal charges were filed, but he was suspended by the university.
It is not surprising that Sanchez did not enjoy a successful and stable career in the NFL, nor that Manziel, although just entering his second year, is more newsworthy for what he does off the field than on it.
In 1998, the Indianapolis Colts did not have to face any dilemmas. Manning was already an exemplary citizen who only dedicated himself to studying and playing at the highest level at the University of Tennessee.
Indeed, luck smiled again at the Colts in 2012, when they had to replace Manning and with the first overall pick in the Draft, they found another reliable and highly rated quarterback in Andrew Luck.
Only time will tell if the Buccaneers made the right decision or if they should have waited another year to find their franchise quarterback. And literally, that answer is in Winston's hands.