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So apparently a guy named Chris Ellsberry over at the Connecticut Post has used his Heisman Trophy vote in an unorthodox way. Florida State freshman Jameis Winston is the leading candidate, but has been tied to an alleged rape during his redshirt freshman season a year ago. No charges were filed mainly on account of the fact that it turns out the girl wasn’t drunk, as she initially claimed, and everything that happened now appears to have been consensual. Mr. Ellsberry’s beef with Winston wasn’t that he thinks Winston did it. His beef is that Winston DID IT. Apparently Ellsberry has drawn a line in the sand when it comes to the integrity of the Heisman Trophy: no Heisman winner can ever, ever, ever have premarital relations, lest the heavens smote the trophy from the hands of the heathens who bear it. This guy very easily could’ve just voted for someone else and moved on with his life, but that would be way too simple. Instead he decided to write an article for his newspaper in which he wrote about his completely rational explanations for the way in which he cast his ballot.

On its website, the Heisman Trophy mission statement is this: “The Heisman Memorial Trophy annually recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work.”

The key word in that statement is “integrity.” As a voting member for the Heisman Trophy, last week I stood in the middle of a crossroad. Do I vote solely by the numbers for the player that is far and away having the best college football season? Or do I look at that “integrity” factor and cast my ballot for someone else?

Florida State’s freshman quarterback Jameis Winston has established himself as the front-runner to win the Heisman this season, based on his 3,490 passing yards, his 35 touchdown passes and his 68.8 completion percentage (218 for 317). You can also throw in the fact that the Seminoles (12-0) were undefeated heading into Saturday night’s Atlantic Coast Conference championship game against Duke.

But last month, Winston was accused of sexual battery in connection with an alleged assault against an unidentified woman in a Tallahassee, Fla., apartment back on Dec. 7, 2012, according to a police report. However, the case did not reach prosecutors until last month because police reportedly told the accuser that Tallahassee “was a big football town” and that her life “would be miserable” if she pressed charges. Winston’s lawyer acknowledges that Winston did have sex with the accuser but says that it was consensual.

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.

I did put Winston second on my Heisman ballot and McCarron third.

Ohhhhhhhhh. So THAT’s how Tim Tebow won the Heisman. I always thought it was because of the National Titles and the pure creamy goodness he spewed on the gridiron. Turns out his real secret weapon was his virginity.

There have been 76 different men who have won the Heisman Trophy Award. All of them have several things in common – they all were really good college football players, and apparently they were all models for abstinence. Turtleboysports is a family blog, so this type of premarital behavior on the part of Jameis Winston is certainly frowned upon.

Granted, not every Heisman Trophy winner was an angel. Yes, OJ Simpson killed a few people and beat the bag out of a few others. Sure Ricky Williams was a stoner whose only involvement in the passing game was when he passed the dubey to the left. OK, Johnny Manziel has drowned himself in a cesspool of debauchery. But at least none of those guys had baseless allegations of rape thrown at them. Anyone falsely accused of a crime like that is obviously the antichrist and thus is ineligible for the Heisman.

This particular writer has taken a lot of heat for basing his Heisman vote based not upon his belief that Winston actually had non-consentual sex with the victim, (who it turned out was not being truthful), but because he didn’t wait until he was married, like a good Puritan boy should. Gotta love this guy’s rationale too:

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.

Yea, because giant, fast, strong, athletic men are always being preyed upon by small women. So basically this guy’s argument is that Winston should’ve resisted temptation because somewhere down the line he could be falsely accused of rape and lose this one guy’s vote for the Heisman. That’s a perfectly SANE reason not to vote for someone for college football’s most prestigious award.

This poor writer is taking a lot of slack for his noble stand against consensual premarital relations. But did you guys even read what he wrote? He was at a crossroads people. A crossroads. He was just standing there looking at two roads, not sure which to follow for the inspiration to fill out his ballot. One road was paved with touchdowns, wins, and ACC Championships. The other was paved with debauchery and sin. You pagans might who put football first may eventually even get to meet Jameis Winston someday…… in HELL!!!

People are also fired up about the police officer who told the alleged victim that her life would be miserable if she came forward with allegations because Tallahassee is a big football town. Even though this is completely and unfortunately a true statement, there’s a lot of potential Rhodes Scholars out there that are accusing the police of covering this one up. Perhaps these people would prefer if the police lied to her. Perhaps they should have told her that after accusing FSU’s star quarterback of a crime which she would have trouble proving, and thus ruining FSU’s push for it’s first National Championship since 1993 in the process (even though Notre Dame was the REAL National Champion that year), all the FSU diehards would just agree to sit down at a table with her and draw some rainbows and unicorns. Perhaps they should’ve told her that her life would go on as normal. No one would call her names or blame her for ruining FSU’s magical year. I mean, no one cares about football in Florida right?

And you gotta love the moral stand that Mr. Ellsberry is taking on this one. He can’t vote someone for the Heisman Trophy if they have consensual intimacy with someone they don’t love. He’s got no problem at all though voting him second. Yea, that makes a lot of sense.

Two of Winston’s biggest competitors are Alabama QB AJ McCarron, and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel. Obviously Ellsberry had no problem voting for these two, because when I see pictures like this:

all I can think of is “abstinence.”

And it’s safe to say that if Ellsberry saw this picture, it would shock him to the core:

Yea, nothing good can come from those two guys hanging out. Nothing.

So what do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts to keep the conversation going.

Follow us on Twitter and on Facebook

If you like what you read then please SHARE this with other people who enjoy TurtleBoySports hot takes.

To follow via email just click on “Follow” on the upper right hand of the column, where it says “follow via email.