When it came time for team leaders to speak about an uncomfortable off-the-field controversy after Jaxson Dart chose to introduce President Donald Trump at a rally last week, Jameis Winston was one of the players to stand and deliver a message.
The backup quarterback is rarely given such a platform, but Winston is not an ordinary personality in the locker room.
And so, when the principals in this drama — Dart and edge rusher Abdul Carter — were finished addressing the media after Friday’s organized team activity practice, it was Winston who stepped behind the podium to try to make some sense of all of it.
“We’re living in it right now,” Winston said. “We’ve got a blond-haired, blue eyed white kid [Dart] and a Black Muslim religion, black kid [Carter], who are coming together and showing y’all, showing the world, that we can come together.
“We don’t have to see everything — everything doesn’t have to be viewed in this perfect little snow globe and everything doesn’t have to be perfect.
“But we have to support each other. We have to promote love because love is a stronger feeling than hate, and eliminate these unwanted opinions. Everybody has something to say. But how many people are willing to act on change? How many people are willing to be the change that they desire to see instead of just pointing fingers and saying, ‘Oh, he said this, let’s cancel him. Oh, my God, he believes this. We’ve got to get him.’ That was uncomfortable, wasn’t it? That’s how it happens.
“You educate. You grow from it. You build calluses.’’
Carter took to social media to criticize Dart’s Trump introduction but the two 2025 first-round draft picks insist their differences are outside of their football realm and that they were and remain close friends.
Winston, an 11-year veteran, was the No. 1 overall pick by the Buccaneers in 2015 and has gone through an eventful and nomadic NFL journey. He came to the Giants last season and served as the No. 3 quarterback, initially behind starter Russell Wilson and Dart, a rookie elevated into the No. 2 spot. Winston ended up starting two games — the Giants lost both of them — and quickly became a sounding board for Dart. On any given day, Winston, 32, could be seen — and heard — talking football, religion, current events and pretty much anything else with teammates on both sides of the ball.
When assessing what seemed to be a Dart and Carter embroglio, Winston often grew passionate about outside forces trying to tear the Giants apart.
“I think it reflects what togetherness looks like, in terms of we don’t have to agree,’’ Winston said. “We don’t have to respect or even understand people’s perspective. But I think we should support their perspective because that’s what they believe in, right?”
“So I think these two young guys being resilient and showing that uncomfortable situations and coming to a, not a compromise, but coming to a position of strength, of authority, of the impact that they have, that we have as athletes with this platform to the world, is so good for them to experience. Because guys, they were drafted together. You don’t have a tighter bond than that. They sit next to each other in the team meeting room. That’s what we see in this world. Sometimes we try to normalize just opinions, people’s opinions. Everybody wants to jump on, ‘Oh, he said this, she did that,’ but we don’t normalize togetherness. We don’t normalize perspective.
“At the end of the day, as a team, I promise you it is our burning desire to find ways to unify, to come together and to be great football players.’’
When the Giants assembled this past Tuesday, Dart, Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux spoke to clear the air. Winton also spoke at that meeting.
