Buccaneers: No room for Jameis Winston sympathy

Some fans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers still feel some sort of obligation to root for, or at the very least hope for the best when it comes to Jameis Winston. The thing is, he is now the Buccaneers’ enemy and this must come to an end from Bucs fans.

It’s perfectly normal for a player to leave a team and have the fans of his former team still support him while he’s elsewhere. Fans of the New England Patriots still want nothing for the best for current Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady because of everything he gave them for 20 years, the most significant being six Super Bowl championships. It’s the same for coaches. Philadelphia Eagles fans still were happy for Andy Reid when he finally won himself a Super Bowl as coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.

When it comes to Winston, why the obligation? The most significant accomplishment the former NUMBER ONE OVERALL pick in the draft achieved was a 5,000-yard season, which granted is nothing to sneeze at, but wins and playoff berths are generally more noteworthy. This isn’t trying to slam Jameis though. He’s an easy guy to root for because he is such an entertaining and naturally funny human being, so that is something that’s easy to understand.

Here’s the thing Bucs fans need to understand. Winston is now the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints. That throws everything out the window.

You can’t support someone else within the division. You just can’t. The other thing is, while we have been all happy about the Buccaneers’ dominant 6-1 start, it’s been easy to miss that Jameis has his Saints sitting at 4-2 currently. That means that this divisional matchup is a huge one.

It’s hard to let go of rooting for some players. That’s natural. In the case of Jameis Winston, all bets are off now that he’s the signal-caller for the Saints. Simply put, he is now the enemy and should be treated as such.