Critical comments made earlier this week about Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston by one of his fellow Heisman Trophy winners, Bo Jackson, wrankled FSU coach Jimbo Fisher a bit. Wrankled him enough, apparently, to characterize the relationship between Jackson and Winston, or lack thereof, in a way that could be described as peculiar at best.
And disingenuous at worst.
Jackson, in short, told the Jim Rome Show that his efforts to help Winston were ignored by the Seminoles' embattled star, and that as such, he was no longer willing to offer advice or guidance to a Heisman winner clearly in need of it. Fisher responded Friday on the Mike and Mike radio show.
"Bo grew up with Jameis in Bessemer (Ala.) for 18 years and never spoke to him," Fisher said. "So why would he speak to him now? He never knew Bo and Bo lived in the same neighborhood, so Bo can 'wash his hands,' that's fine."
While Jackson and Winston grew up relatively close to one another -- Jackson himself told Rome they were raised about 20 minutes apart -- it's not as though the two ever had much of a chance to know one another. Jackson has lived in the Chicago area since the end of his athletic career, pretty much Winston's entire life. To hear Fisher tell it, one would think the two were brought up in the same era and that Jackson turned his back on Winston on Bessemer street corners on a regular basis.
What Fisher likely meant was that Jackson didn't do much to reach out to Winston before his problems began, so his guidance after his problems began is harder to embrace. But the way Fisher expressed that sentiment is absurd. Former Heisman winner Herschel Walker was critical of Winston earlier this week as well, the former Georgia Bulldogs star saying that he didn't give Winston his Heisman vote last year and couldn't do it this year, either.
"What Herschel and Bo think ... we're moving on down here, that has no effect on us," Fisher added.
None on Winston, for certain.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
