New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh in contrast quarterback Jameis Winston to former US President Abraham Lincoln.
The putting comparability was an unusually enthusiastic—and tenuous—one for an NFL journeyman. Given Winston’s controversial historical past, it could even be an uncomfortable parallel from a historic perspective.
Harbaugh based mostly the comparability on Winston’s relentlessly optimistic character. His fiery pregame speeches and memorable sideline remarks have grow to be defining options of the “Jameis Winston expertise” all through his NFL profession.
However that public persona represents solely a part of his story.
Winston’s unpredictable, high-energy model—and the eye that usually accompanies it—returned to the NFL highlight earlier this season after a season-ending damage to Jaxson Dart made him the New York Giants’ beginning quarterback.
Whereas Winston and his distinctive character are as soon as once more drawing consideration, the quarterback has additionally made headlines previously for much extra troubling causes.
Jameis Winston grew to become the New York Giants’ beginning quarterback after Jaxson Dart suffered a season-ending damage
The quarterback was pictured along with his spouse, Breion, on the 2026 US Open in New York
Winston, the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner and a nationwide champion, was accused of sexual battery and assault throughout his time as a pupil at Florida State in a 2015 lawsuit.
Erica Kinsman, a fellow former Florida State pupil, accused Winston of assaulting her at his house in December 2012, in response to courtroom paperwork from the civil lawsuit reviewed by the Each day Mail.
In response to the submitting, Kinsman stated she had been consuming at a Tallahassee bar in December 2012 when Winston and others took her to an house, the place she alleged that the quarterback raped her.
Winston, who now has two sons along with his spouse, Breion, denied the allegations. Tallahassee police by no means charged him, and the state legal professional’s workplace declined to pursue a felony case.
Kinsman nonetheless introduced a civil lawsuit in opposition to Winston in 2015, alleging sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional misery.
Winston responded by submitting a defamation lawsuit. The 2 sides reached an out-of-court settlement simply months earlier than the case was scheduled to go to trial, Kinsman’s legal professional, John Clune, stated in a December 2016 assertion. The monetary particulars and different phrases remained confidential.
Earlier in 2016, Florida State agreed to pay Kinsman $950,000 as a part of a Title IX lawsuit she filed in opposition to the college, in response to her legal professional.
The controversy didn’t forestall the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from deciding on Winston with the No. 1 general decide within the 2015 NFL Draft. On the time, the workforce decided there was no important danger—although that judgment would later come below scrutiny.
The quarterback gained a nationwide championship with Florida State College in 2014
Winston was named the Heisman Trophy winner as a Seminole in December 2013
Former Florida State pupil Erica Kinsman accused Winston of sexually assaulting her
In March 2016—9 months earlier than he reached a settlement with Kinsman—Winston was accused of groping a feminine Uber driver throughout a journey in Arizona.
The accuser, identified solely as Kate, claimed in a civil lawsuit that she was driving Winston again from a celebration in Scottsdale, Arizona, at 2am on March 13, 2016, when he ‘leaned towards her and positioned his fingers between her legs and pressed them firmly in opposition to her vagina over her yoga pants.’
Within the speedy aftermath of Kate’s alleged interplay with Winston, she filed a report with Uber, in response to BuzzFeed.
‘We stopped to get meals at a Mexican drive via,’ she reportedly wrote within the grievance. ‘Whereas we had been stopped, out of the clear blue, this rider reached over and put his fingers on my crotch. It wasn’t unintentional, and it was just for a really transient second.
‘It wasn’t my abdomen or my thigh, it was my crotch and I wish to be clear about that,’ she continued. ‘I used to be completely shocked, and I shook him off and simply stated, what’s up with that?
‘Wanting again I sincerely want I might have kicked him out however he’s apparently an enormous athlete within the NFL and he’s very bodily imposing, and I used to be afraid that I’d make him extra indignant. The remainder of the journey proceeded with out incident. He’s NOT secure for different feminine drivers.’
On the time, Winston denied the allegations in a press release on social media, contending he rode at the back of the automobile and that the lady should have confused him with the person sitting within the entrance passenger seat.
Nevertheless, the NFL launched an investigation into the allegations, finally handing down a three-game suspension for violating its private conduct coverage. He served the ban initially of the 2018 season, forfeiting a reported $124,000+ in base wage.
Winston would finally settle the lawsuit with the accuser on this case, as properly.
Winston shares two sons along with his spouse, eight-year-old Antonor and five-year-old Taurus
Whereas nonetheless at FSU, he acquired a quotation for shoplifting $32.74 price of crab legs and crawfish at a Publix grocery retailer in 2014. The identical yr he was suspended for one sport after clambering atop a desk on the school’s pupil union and yelled out, ‘F*** her proper within the p***y,’ referencing a crude, sexually objectifying meme that was fashionable on the time.
Then got here his 2017 go to to Melrose Elementary Faculty in St Petersburg, Florida. Winston instructed the boys within the classroom to face up and left the women sitting down, telling the boys, ‘We robust, proper? We robust!’ His message for the women? Be ‘silent, well mannered and delicate.’
Most not too long ago, Winston issued an impassioned protection of then-Cleveland Browns teammate Deshaun Watson after the quarterback was booed by his personal followers.
‘I’m very upset with the response to a person that has had the world in opposition to him for the previous 4 years,’ Winston stated in the course of the 2024 season.
For context, in these 4 years, Watson was accused of being a serial sexual predator. He confronted sexual misconduct allegations from 24 totally different therapeutic massage therapists, a lot of whom claimed he uncovered himself, touched them along with his genitals and – in some instances – pressured sexual acts throughout massages.
Watson denied sexually assaulting or harassing anybody and stated that any sexual encounters had been consensual. He was not criminally prosecuted over the allegations however was suspended by the NFL for violating the league’s private conduct coverage.
Winston issued an impassioned protection of scandalized quarterback Deshaun Watson in 2024
Winston has performed for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints, Browns and Giants
Winston and Watson will not be the one NFL stars to face such allegations. But, in relation to Winston, it’s tougher than most to reconcile the grizzled previous of the scandalized shot slinger with the present-day media darling of the NFL.
Winston’s time with the Bucs resulted in 2020 when he was changed by Tom Brady. He then took the ‘Jameis Winston expertise’ to New Orleans Saints, then to the Cleveland Browns, and eventually, final yr, to the Giants.
At every pitstop across the league, Winston has seemingly endeared himself to followers away from the sector, his charisma, humor and eccentricity glossing over his historical past and permitting a seamless rebrand.
When HBO’s Laborious Knocks centered on Tampa Bay in 2017, the workforce’s basic supervisor, Jason Licht, gushed about Winston: ‘He’s the most effective chief I feel I’ve ever been round. In something. He conjures up me.’
Giants coach Harbaugh provided related reward along with his comparability to Lincoln and Michael Jordan. In the meantime, Winston’s New York teammates voted him onto their management council.
In the meantime, he has spawned numerous memes along with his gimmick of ‘consuming Ws’ and his rapturous pregame ode to snow video games – each viral second lapped up.
His comedic worth hasn’t been restricted to the NFL both. Winston landed himself a job as a centerpiece of Fox’s World Cup protection, and he has even mocked his personal scandals, cheekily referencing his crab leg shoplifting scandal in a DoorDash industrial final month.
Earlier this season, Winston was requested following a win over the Cardinals how he recovered from the 2 interceptions he threw.
In response, Winston closed his eyes. ‘One factor I do,’ he stated, shaking a clenched fist within the air for emphasis, ‘is forgetting that’s behind me, and reaching ahead to what’s forward.’
That, maybe, greatest summarizes the complete Jameis Winston expertise: forgetting and transferring on.
