Jameis Winston definitely doesn’t have a way with words.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback found himself in hot water Wednesday after giving a speech to third- through fifth-graders at Melrose Elementary School in St. Petersburg, Fla. In it, Winston told all the boys to stand up and talked about how strong they were while he told all the seated girls they were “supposed to be silent.”
“All my young boys, stand up,” Winston said, per the Tampa Bay Times. “The ladies, sit down. But all my boys, stand up. We strong, right? We strong! We strong, right? All my boys, tell me one time: I can do anything I put my mind to. Now a lot of boys aren’t supposed to be soft-spoken. You know what I’m saying? One day y’all are going to have a very deep voice like this (in deep voice). One day, you’ll have a very, very deep voice.
“But the ladies, they’re supposed to be silent, polite, gentle. My men, my men (are) supposed to be strong. I want y’all to tell me what the third rule of life is: I can do anything I put my mind to. Scream it!”
Woof.
That part of the speech caught the attention of many of the adults, and unfortunately, it didn’t go over well with all of the kids, either. Melrose speech-language pathologist Bonnie Volland had a particularly sad interaction with one of the girls in the room.
“One of the girls turned around and looked at me and said, ‘I’m strong too,'” Volland said.
Winston later lamented his “poor word choice” and said he was trying to get through to one of the boys without making an example of him.
“I was making an effort to interact with a young male in the audience who didn’t seem to be paying attention, and I didn’t want to single him out so I asked all the boys to stand up,” Winston said, per the Tampa Bay Times. “During my talk, I used a poor word choice that may have overshadowed that positive message for some.”
Winston’s comments are particularly unsettling considering his dark past when it comes to women. The 23-year-old was accused of sexual assault by a fellow Florida State student in 2012, and though he was never formally charged, he settled a federal lawsuit with his accuser in December. There was another incident after he was accused, too, when he yelled an inappropriate phrase about women in and FSU cafeteria.
Thumbnail photo via Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports Images
