Chicago: Scandal-tainted college football star Jameis Winston was handed the daunting task of reviving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after being chosen as the top pick in the NFL draft on Thursday.
The Heisman Trophy-winning Florida State quarterback was widely expected to be chosen by the Buccaneers, who are desperate to halt a slide in fortunes that has seen them fail to reach the play-offs for the past seven seasons.
The Buccaneers have also failed to win a post-season game since their memorable triumph in the 2002 Super Bowl, and finished last year’s National Football League campaign with a dismal 2-14 record.
Winston will be saddled with the responsibility of forging a franchise-changing upturn in the club’s fortunes, but the 21-year-old, who did not attend Thursday’s event in Chicago, comes with baggage.
Winston, the youngest winner of the Heisman Trophy in 2013, has already faced his fair share of controversy.
He was accused of sexually assaulting a college student although he was never arrested or charged, and also courted controversy when he was accused of shoplifting crab legs from a supermarket.
He was banned for one game last year for shouting a sexually explicit obscenity after climbing onto a college campus table.
With player conduct the dominant issue in the NFL over the past year following a series of domestic violence scandals, the Buccaneers carried out extensive checks on the player’s character before the draft.
However, the likelihood he would be chosen by the Buccaneers was all but guaranteed in March when general manager Jason Licht spoke glowingly about the player’s qualities after meeting him.
“He’s lively, he’s engaging, he’s incredibly smart, he confirmed all the things we thought about him going into this process,” Licht said.
The Buccaneers owners, the Glazer family, who also own English Premier League giants Manchester United, were also reported to be enthusiastic about recruiting Winston despite his off-the-field record.
Buccaneers veterans had also signalled that they would crack down on Winston in the locker room if he stepped out of line, suggesting they would take a dim view of his brash style.
“If we draft him and he comes into the locker room, we have some veteran guys that will pull him to the side and make him understand that there’s a role here he has to play and sometimes he may have to tone that down,” star linebacker Lavonte David told The Tampa Tribune.
