Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said on Monday night that he would have had a hard time overlooking the stolen crab legs that were part of Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston's disciplinary track record in college had he been Winston's coach at the time of the transgression.
In an appearance on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Meyer kept his comments brief, but to the point, when O'Reilly mentioned the incident in which Winston was given a civil citation for taking crab legs from a Tallahassee, Fla., Publix grocery store without paying for them.
"It would have been hard to let that go," Meyer said.
Host Bill O'Reilly then put a few words in Meyer's mouth, saying "Alright, so you would have gotten rid of him," to which Meyer didn't respond.
Meyer appeared on the show in promoting his new book, "Above the Line: Lessons in Leadership and Life from a Championship Season." College Football 24/7 spoke with Meyer Monday as part of the book's promotion as well, and Meyer expressed high expectations for senior Braxton Miller's forthcoming appearance at the NFL Scouting Combine in February.
One piece of context O'Reilly failed to touch on was that Winston was indeed disciplined for the incident. It occurred during baseball season and the two-sport athlete was suspended by the baseball coach, before being reinstated days later. If FSU coach Jimbo Fisher issued Winston any internal discipline for the incident, it wasn't made public. Fisher, in fact, acknowledged that Winston's in-season sport had rightful jurisdiction for any punishment.
Neither that incident, nor the outburst of obscenities that later led to him being suspended by Fisher for a football game against Clemson, affected Winston's draft outcome. He was chosen No. 1 overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers earlier this year.
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