The National Football League is set to hand Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston a three-game suspension, due to allegations that he grabbed a female Uber driver’s crotch.
The penalty results from an incident from March of 2016 in which the player was charged with molesting the driver in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to Fox News.
The NFL said Winston would have to sit out the first three games of the upcoming 2018 season and also noted that the number of games is not yet set in stone. The number could grow or shrink, the league said.
Last November, the driver known as “Kate” accused the player of grabbing her private parts as they sat in her car at a drive-thru window of a Scottsdale restaurant.
Winston initially denied the claims and said that one of the other passengers in the car had touched her, not him.
“The accusation is false, and given the nature of the allegation and increased awareness and consideration of these types of matters, I am addressing this false report immediately,” Winston said when the woman’s accusations were reported. “At the time of the alleged incident, I denied the allegations to Uber, yet they still decided to suspend my account.”
Winston has one other accusation of sexual assault in the past. He was accused of rape as a student at Florida State University in 2012 and settled a lawsuit over the accusation in 2016.
A 2015 first overall NFL Draft pick, Winston started in 13 games last season completing 63.8 percent of his passes for 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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