This is a real comment, from a real reporter, who has a Heisman ballot courtesy of Deadspin. The voter in question is Chris Elsberry of the Connecticut Post
Although he did not have rape charges leveled against him (the case was closed on Thursday), it seems to me that Winston, 19, showed little or no “integrity” in having sex with his now accuser. College athletes aren’t just role models, they’re often singled out and even preyed upon. And Winston should have known that something like this might come back to haunt him, which it has, big-time. Even though he’s innocent, the dark cloud of the incident will likely never go away.
With the deadline for the Heisman ballot looming (it’s Monday) and unsure if or when any action on Winston’s case might take place, I decided to go with the “integrity” aspect and voted on Wednesday for Boston College senior running back Andre Williams.
I just want you to think about this rationally. Before Winston ever takes a snap at FSU, he has sex with a woman who according to witnesses was a willing participant. The woman readily admits her memory is shaky about exactly what happened.
We often talk about blaming the victim, but what about blaming the presumed innocent? If we call the accuser a “hoe” for having having sex with multiple men in the same day and having sex with Winston shortly after meeting him, people would say that’s wrong. So, how can you question Winston’s integrity when he wasn’t charged anything. Why is he being blamed for the “dark cloud” if according to the police he didn’t do anything wrong?
Furthermore Mr. Elsberry didn’t wait until he had all the facts. If he would have read the police report, then maybe he could have been a better judge of who was the person who lacked integrity here.
If we are going to use the integrity clause on every college athlete who has had sex with a woman who weren’t their girlfriend and who they just met at bars, no one would be on the ballot. Mr. Elsberry should be careful about throwing those stones living in that glass house.