The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

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Jameis Winston waited 12 years to make this crab-leg joke — and it was worth it

by

BS BULLETIN:

  • Jameis Winston is going viral again for a DoorDash commercial that contains an unmistakable callback to his infamous 2014 crab-leg incident.
  • The former Florida State star was cited after leaving a Tallahassee Publix without paying for roughly $33 worth of crab legs and other food.
  • Twelve years later, Winston apparently decided the best defense was to make the joke himself.

Some scandals follow an athlete forever.

Jameis Winston has apparently decided that if the crab legs are going to follow him, he might as well bring butter.

The New York Giants quarterback is going viral again this weekend over a DoorDash commercial containing an absolutely shameless callback to one of the most infamous moments of his college career.

The setup puts Winston back where longtime college-football fans immediately know he probably shouldn’t be: A grocery store.

And then come the crab legs.

The gag reaches all the way back to 2014, when Winston was Florida State’s reigning Heisman Trophy winner and received a civil citation after leaving a Tallahassee Publix without paying for crab legs and crawfish worth roughly $33.

Winston completed 20 hours of community service and was temporarily suspended from Florida State’s baseball team.

The explanation for what happened has evolved over the years. Winston initially described it as a mistake and took responsibility. He later said a Publix employee had previously offered to “hook him up” with free food and that he believed the crab legs were being given to him.

Publix said its investigation found nothing corroborating such an arrangement.

Whatever happened in that seafood department, the episode became inseparable from Winston’s college-football mythology. And Winston has increasingly decided to own it.

Last year, he even joined a viral TikTok trend with some advice for his younger self:

“In your 20s, you will walk by the seafood section at Publix… it’s very important you keep walking.”

“Trust me,” he captioned it.

Now DoorDash has taken the joke to its logical conclusion.

Its “Don’t Fan for Free” college-football campaign features Winston alongside Reggie Bush and Lane Kiffin, with the company deliberately sprinkling references to the pre-NIL era throughout the advertising.

DoorDash itself says the campaign includes “hidden references, nostalgic callbacks, and Easter eggs” involving Winston and Bush. And judging from the reaction this weekend, football fans found this one.

Sometimes the Internet doesn’t forget. Sometimes you just have to beat it to the punch line.

MY QUICK TAKE:

I respect the commitment.

Twelve years of crab-leg jokes, and Jameis finally figured out the only possible escape route: Monetize the crab legs.

That’s not running from your past. That’s getting DoorDash to sponsor it.

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

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