Commentary | An open letter to Derrick Brooks: Let's have a truthful conversation about Jameis Winston

Dear Mr. Derrick Brooks:

You made a splash last week when you recommended the Tampa Bay Buccaneers draft Jameis Winston with the first pick in this year's draft.

In response, I would like to invite you to watch the movie "The Hunting Ground," which is scheduled for release in March, about six weeks before the draft.

It is a documentary about females who have been sexually assaulted and raped on college campuses in what the movie says has become an epidemic.

One of the young ladies in the film is Erica Kinsman, who has gone public with her name and gives a harrowing account of how Mr. Winston raped her.

You may not believe her and have gone on to praise Mr. Winston as a person of high character in an ecclesiastical manner. Your words seem similar to what she says in this movie.

Kinsman said she was called disgusting names while everyone praised Winston. "I just want to know why me? It doesn't really make sense," she said.

Kinsman said she pleaded with Mr. Winston to stop, and he wouldn't until he was finished. Then she claims he said, "You can leave now."

Now we understand you played for FSU and for the Bucs and maybe your thinking has been clouded into getting an FSU quarterback for Tampa Bay.

You may not even believe this young lady, though it seems hard to understand why a 19-year-old would go into gruesome detail about being sexually assaulted with false accusations.

You are not alone of course.

Winston has claimed the

sex was consensual. In December 2013, state attorney Willie Meggs made a decision not to charge with him with a crime, and the school cleared him in a recent student-conduct code hearing.

Regardless of those opinions, this movie puts a different touch on claims of female college students who say they've been raped. Can they all be lying? Or is it just this young FSU coed who has manufactured false accusations?

Do you want to put the Bucs under all the scrutiny and publicity that is going to accompany Winston to whatever team selects him?

The movie adds a human touch to these cases that is sure to have a more dramatic impact.

It puts names and faces on the young females, replacing the "accuser" label that has made them easy targets to the fanatical fan bases that chastise them.

This is not to say Winston is innocent or guilty. It's to say the Bucs can't afford the expected backlash that will come from drafting him.

If he were in the NFL last year, Winston would've probably missed a good part of the season until the rape allegations were cleared up. His other antics very likely would have earned him a suspension from an NFL.

Mr. Winston's actions right up to the college football semifinal game with Oregon when he mimicked smoking marijuana to cameras are disturbing, you have to admit.

It follows a pattern of behavior from Mr. Winston that depicts a person who believes he is invincible or doesn't understand the enormity of his actions.

You are good friends with Bucs head coach Lovie Smith. Do you really want to entrust him with Winston?

Let's go to that movie and talk afterward. Let's invite Lovie and Jason and some of those females in the movie. It would be good for you to talk with them. Don't you think?

Oh by the way, did you see what happened to Warren Sapp at the Super Bowl?

Alan Dell, Herald sports writer, can be reached at 941-745-7056. Follow him on Twitter @ADellSports.

This story was originally published February 3, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Commentary | An open letter to Derrick Brooks: Let's have a truthful conversation about Jameis Winston."