Nike no longer wants to be involved with Jameis Winston.
Winston, the Buccaneers quarterback who is suspended for the first three games of the season because he groped an Uber driver, is not under contract with Nike anymore. A Nike official told ESPN that the company decided not to renew the deal with Winston. The deal expired before Winston’s suspension was announced.
Some will wonder why Nike ever wanted to be in business with Winston, given the rape accusation he faced in college at Florida State. But despite that accusation, Nike and other businesses, not to mention the Buccaneers and the NFL, were perfectly happy to be in business with Winston.
This latest incident, however, seems to have changed public perceptions of Winston. Big companies like Nike may have calculated that they never want to be in the Jameis Winston business again.