PHOENIX -- The NFL Annual Meeting was dominated by anticipation of at least one team , perhaps as soon as 2016. might be coming in May, in time for the 2015 season. But in a meeting that seemed to finally move the NFL past its handling of the personal-conduct i sues that consumed much of the 2014 season, the fates of three players with character questions remained the biggest source of personnel chatter and might indicate how the NFL will handle similar cases. On Wednesday, Commi sioner Roger Goodell provided some details of his meeting with , the former Florida State quarterback who is widely considered the favorite to be chosen first overall by the in the 2015 despite a college career checked with behavior that suggests, at best, a lack of maturity.During the meeting, which Winston requested, he met with several members of the league's staff. Such meetings are unusual, but the NFL took the opportunity to e sentially put Winston on notice even before he arrives. "I think we were incredibly clear about our expectations of anybody who enters the NFL, or is in the NFL," Goodell said. "What we expect of them as men, and how they represent not only their franchise, but the NFL; and the full insight into our personal conduct and the reasons for it, and our services. He met with several people. The conversation was very candid -- extremely candid. This is a young man who understands his responsibility, and now it's up to him to live up to that."With the draft a little more than a month away, Winston's future -- and the potential risk of selecting him -- is almost certain to Roberto Clemente Jersey  be the most prominent theme. Bucs coach Lovie Smith spent nearly an hour of the annual NFC coaches' breakfast and how deeply Tampa Bay has looked into his behavior. The Bucs have made no secret about their interest in Winston -- he is considered much more ready to immediately step into a pro offense than -- and also have been blunt about the significant work they say they are doing to a sure themselves Winston will not become a discipline and public-relations problem.While at FSU, Winston was investigated -- -- in connection with an alleged sexual a sault. Last year, he was from a supermarket and in the school's student union. But Winston is also an electrifying player, and the Bucs are desperate for a quarterback."Everything checks out on him, too ... the guy can complete every throw," Smith said. "A lot has been said about his football intelligence. He's just a leader."Smith was asked if a player's prodigious talent would make a team more likely to overlook off-field concerns in the draft. "We don't overlook anything," Smith said. "Maybe if I was perfect and never made any mistakes, I'd want a perfect team."Smith said that his experience with young people is that they will sometimes let you down, but "I believe in second chances after I do my own research."The Bucs' decision would likely not draw quite as many questions had the NFL not just endured a season in which the off-field conduct of players -- and the NFL's reaction to that conduct -- sparked a national conversation about domestic violence. The NFL instituted , and upcoming decisions about and will likely provide a road map for what to expect from future cases, particularly in Hardy's case.Hardy -- who was convicted by a judge in a domestic violence case, only for when the alleged victim declined to testify again in Hardy's appeal to a jury trial -- . The NFL has gone to court to try to gain acce s to the evidence -- including pictures -- that was presented in the bench trial. A decision on the evidence could come by the end of the month.This is the first significant investigation the NFL has undertaken since deciding it could not rely on how cases are handled by law enforcement and the courts before deciding its own discipline. Given the nature of the allegations, the NFL seems likel
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