An Uneven Response to Jameis Winston’s Wrongdoing

On Wednesday, shortly after he was suspended for the first half of Saturday’s game against Clemson for shouting an obscene comment in the student union the day before, Jameis Winston realized the significance of his action: It might cost his team a loss — a loss it could ill afford as it strives to defend its national title.

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Winston said, “I just want to apologize to the university, to my coaches and to my teammates.”

Visibly upset, he continued, “I really want to apologize to my teammates because I have now made a selfish act for them.”

Late Friday night, Florida State increased the punishment to a full game. The top-ranked Seminoles, however, escaped their crucial meeting Saturday against No. 22 Clemson, 23-17, in overtime in Tallahassee. But as the backup quarterback Sean Maguire — who had previously attempted only 26 passes in his college career — was sacked five times and intercepted twice, it became clear that Winston remains one of the best players in the game and that the Seminoles still need him badly.

Winston, 20, became the youngest winner of the Heisman Trophy last season in part on the strength of a statement game against Clemson, the Seminoles’ Atlantic Coast Conference rival. He also became college football’s most controversial figure after it was revealed late last year that a fellow student had accused him of rape. In April, he was cited for shoplifting $32 worth of crab legs.

His apology was prescient, then, if off-putting. The contrition did not seem primarily directed at observers offended by his crude joke but rather toward his teammates, whose chances of winning were harmed by his absence.

Richard M. Southall, a South Carolina professor who specializes in sports ethics, argued that Winston may as well have been taking cues from the university itself, which appeared to have acted mainly out of self-interest in first suspending Winston for a half of a game and then, on Friday, extending the ban to a full game. The change came amid a cascade of criticism for what many perceived to be a slap on the wrist.

“Is it wrong, or is it bad because he did it in public?” Southall said, adding that with the extension, Florida State was suggesting the latter.

“This is very strategic,” he said. “Now you hear the commentators saying that they did the right thing.”

The university attributed the extension to “the results of our continuing investigation.” Twitter posts from eyewitnesses, which the website Deadspin collated Tuesday, indicated that Winston might not have been truthful about how many times he shouted the phrase.

Southall said the current climate in the N.F.L., which has been roiled by episodes of domestic violence by players and harsh criticism of the league’s handling of them, probably influenced Florida State’s response.

The suspensions came from the university’s interim president, Garnett S. Stokes, and Athletic Director Stan Wilcox. They were not in those positions in late 2012 when a student accused Winston of raping her. It was later learned that although the athletic department knew about the claim long before it became public, the university did not investigate. It finally did so this month.

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In addition, the Tallahassee police did not contact Winston for two weeks after learning he had been accused. Prosecutors declined to file charges.

Winston did not miss so much as a day of practice as a result of that accusation, not altogether surprising given the uneasy coexistence between big business and amateurism at the top level of college football.

Myron Rolle, a former Florida State safety who is now a member of the Knight Commission, which works to ensure that athletics programs operate within the educational mission of their universities, said he understood that Winston was held to a higher standard than the average student but added that there should be wider awareness that life can in some ways be more difficult for prominent student-athletes.

“This pressure and movement toward proper conduct and properly comporting himself has been thrust on him immediately, quickly, vigorously and with some serious voracity,” Rolle said of Winston, a friend.

Even with the perks that come with being a star athlete, being as visible as Winston is at such a young age cannot be easy. But if his status makes his transgressions a national story, it may also be part of why he has avoided more severe consequences.