Follow me … don’t cost nothin’ @PeteFiutak

Jameis being Jameis

Yeah, he has a great arm. Yeah, he can be molded into a potentially great professional quarterback. Yeah, he might be great on a whiteboard, he’s an NFL-caliber alpha male leader in the locker room, and tremendous at compartmentalizing, but we just did this.

We just went through a draft with a guy – Mr. Manziel – who had red flags with laser beams and fireworks shooting out of them, and many tried to ignore them because he seemed like a really, really talented football prospect.

And yet we still know who the No. 1 overall player in the 2015 NFL Draft is going to be.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you believe Jameis Winston’s carefully choreographed excuse about how the crab legs went from inside a Publix grocery story to out the door.

He … stole … them.

Unless Mr. Publix himself decided that he didn’t care whether or not Winston got free crabs – and then we’re talking NCAA issues – just because some store employee said it was cool doesn’t mean it was kosher.

It’s not okay if the checkout girl tells you “don’t sweat it, sweetie” as you’re walking out of the Food King with a roast tucked underneath your sweater.

We all know people who hook us up for various things from time to time, but no, Jameis, you can’t walk out with merchandise you didn’t pay for from some “dude” who said he’d hook you up. If that actually works, and Winston is allowed to slide on his ridiculous answer, then tomorrow I’m finding a way to become besties with a “dude” at a Mercedes dealership.

But more than that, it’s yet another aspect of the Winston body of work that makes him come across as immature at best, a disingenuous phony at worst, and like everything else with him, it’s just going to slide on by.

Jameis Winston can certainly sling it – both on and off the field.

Have fun, Tampa Bay.