I had assumed that reinstatement required that sort of thing. Apparently not, and I don’t think that’s right.

… but seems to be closely corroborated by what others have written about the incident. I can see it if Dantonio thinks Winston did his part of the deal by coming clean and accepting the ensuing punishment,. I can see that people can have a life altering experience and this may have been it for Winston (certainly was for Sturges). I can see the value in second chances in life. But I don’t see how this was “a stupid mistake by a kid.” A stupid mistake by a kid in college is stuff like “partied too much my first semester and flunked chem lab”, or “got careless and got caught with some ‘paraphernalia’ when cops busted a house party.”

For all of us who went to MSU, we know there were plenty of opportunities to do stupid things. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one here who took some of those opportunities. But I’m also pretty sure very few of us took such opportunities that would have landed with A 6 MONTH JAIL SENTENCE FOR ASSAULT. That wasn’t “a stupid thing a kid did”, that was “6 f’n months of jail reduced to 4.” Winston may deserve a second chance, but that second chance shouldn’t be putting on pads at practice the next day following release, that second chance should have been some counseling, some strong but encouraging words from Dantonio, and a facilitated transfer to any D-1 takers in the region (Butler, Miami, Central, UM, etc and whatever).

Since when did MSU turn into Miami football? I also agree this was an awful decision. I’m really very disappointed with Dantonio. Apparently he’s not particularly concerned with the character of kids on his team as long as they’re good. If this was an isolated incident that’s one thing – but when tight end Kellen Davis beat down a kid who was half his size for talking to a girl he also just got a slap on the wrist from Dantonio as well simply because he was a good football player. If I wanted to cheer for a team that was good because they put winning above all else and would accept any player as long as they had talent I would be a USC fan.