Jameis Winston and... Crab Legs

           Recently on ESPN's Draft Academy, Jameis Winston explained to Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh why he took crab legs from a Publix store in Florida. Apparently about a week before the event occurred, Winston and one of his friends went into Publix to pick up a cake for another friend's birthday. They met an employee while they were there who recognized Jameis and told him that he was covered any time he came in there. So when Jameis came back a week later the same guy gave him crab legs, but as he walked out another employee reported that the crab legs had not been paid for. This is how Jameis told the story to Jim Harbaugh, yet both Publix and Florida State's investigations into the incident yielded no such information.

         Normally a situation like this would not be worthy of news headlines, but we're talking about Jameis Winston- Heisman trophy winner, BCS champion, and potential first round pick in the NFL draft. No one questions his ability on the football field. It's his maturity level off the field that has NFL teams worried. Teams looking into drafting Winston want a franchise player that can be a leader of their team. They want to know if they can put their trust into Winston to do that. That's why a situation like stealing crab legs, as small as it may seem, really has a huge impact on Winston's future NFL career. The guy has got to grow up, and once he shows NFL scouts he has done so, he'll become the best prospect of the draft. Until then though, as good as he is at football, there will remain a question mark by his name as to whether or not he has really matured enough to be the face of an NFL franchise.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2439155-jameis-winston-discusses-crab-leg-incident-with-jim-harbaugh-on-espn?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=cnn-sports-bin

Fixing a pipe led to this?

          A recent story has come out about the quest an Italian man set out on to complete nearly 15 years ago: the fixing of a leaking pipe. Luciano Fagianno had just moved in with his family to a new house in Lecce, Italy with the hopes of opening a new trattoria. The only problem was that the sewage kept backing up, so Fagianno got his two sons to help him dig up the pipe. The job was only predicted to take a week, but this was before Fagianno discovered a false floor, and then below this a room of medieval stone. They dug even deeper finding a tomb of the Messapians, who lived during the time of Jesus. And if this wasn't enough, yet another set of chambers was discovered. One was the basement of a Franciscan nuns' convent, and the other was a Roman grain house. The excavation beneath the house went on for several more years before city officials were notified of it, and they responded by sending several archaeologists out to examine the findings. The excavation still remained under Fagianno's control, and it kind of became an obsession for him. More recently, Fagianno has been able to turn the hous into his own museum, while also fufilling his dream of opening his own trattoria.

          I was fascinated reading this article simply because as a guy living in Nebraska, I don't really walk over 2,500 years of architectural history daily. While this discovery may seem like a very rare occurrence to us living in such a young country, there are people digging up ancient history all over Italy. I will admit that the way Fagianno discovered the ruins beneath his house, and the manner in which he excavated it, was quite amusing. Nevermind the fact that the guy was lowering his 12 year old son in a bucket down into who knows what. He didn't even tell his wife what he was doing. She only discovered his secret after growing suspicious of all the dirty clothes around the house. More than anything, I want to know how Fagianno managed to hide his discovery from his wife. Even in all of the excitement, Fagianno still never lost sight of his original goal and after several years of digging he finally discovered the pipe that had alluded him so long. That's what I call perseverance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/world/europe/centuries-of-italian-history-are-unearthed-in-quest-to-fix-toilet.html?_r=0

I Hate Grayson Allen

          After the recent men's national championship game, in which Duke square off against Wisconsin, Duke-haters were given a new figure to focus their rage on: Grayson Allen. Grayson was part of the usual highly talented freshman class that Duke recruited this year. However, he never became a starter, averaging only four points per game on the season. His performance against Wisconsin did not reflect this, as he put up 16 points during crucial moments in the game to ultimately turn the tide in Duke's favor for the win. Allen has the potential to develop into a very good player over the next few years. He can shoot the ball well and also put it on the floor and drive. Many of these things combined with his confident attitude (including Duke's patented floor slap) have quickly turned him into a figure that all but the Duke fans will hate. He nay never take Christian Laettner's place as Duke's most hated player, but over the next several years he is sure going to try.


          No one but Duke likes Duke. That is just how it has been, and always will be. Chalk it up to their constant success, or image as a bunch of privileged boys coming from wealthy families. Grayson Allen, like many others coming before him, seems to fit the stereotypical image that Duke-haters view Duke in. It was different before last Monday night because he had never had any real success and struggled for playing time, but now things have changed. When Allen put up 16 points coming off the bench against a team that had just beaten undefeated Kentucky, he gained something that he had lacked all year: confidence. You could see that confidence manifesting itself throughout the game as Allen slapped the floor on defense and screamed and flexed his nonexistent muscles after an and-one. Everyone but the Duke fans were grinding their teeth as they watched this because they realized the potential for Allen to turn into a Laettner-like player. The similarities developing between the two are frightening. After Monday's game, Justice Winslow told reporters that Coach K often called Allen an "a*****e" in practice. If that doesn't sum up what Duke-haters are beginning to think of him as, then I don't know what does.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2422861-grayson-allens-title-game-shows-hell-be-next-most-loved-and-hated-duke-star