Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter: Jameis Winston made 'mistake' with comments at school
INDIANAPOLIS – After the fallout from Jameis Winston’s comments at an elementary school last week, the leadership of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers acknowledged a “mistake” in the message the franchise quarterback delivered.
“Anyone who knows Jameis well knows that when he gets up in the morning, he wants to do good,” Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter said Wednesday at the NFL scouting combine at the Indiana Convention Center.
“Jameis made a mistake. He’s 23 years old and like anyone on that platform, when you have microphones in front of you to talk to a group of people, you’re going to make mistakes from time to time. There have been other ones in the sports world very recently. Jameis continues to exceed expectations as the face as the face of our franchise every single day. We couldn’t be happier with Jameis. It was an unfortunate situation, but he owned up to it and moved forward.”
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Winston spoke for nearly 40 minutes to a group of students from third through fifth grade at Melrose Elementary in St. Petersburg, Fla. last Wednesday. The majority of the speech was intended to deliver motivational messages to the students, that they can accomplish their goals if they work at them.
But Winston said he noticed a boy in the audience who was distracted and tried to get his attention.
“All my young boys, stand up. The ladies, sit down,” Winston told the children. “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.”
“The ladies, they're supposed to be silent, polite, gentle,” Winston continued. “My men, my men (are) supposed to be strong.”
Winston admitted later that day that it was a “poor word choice,” something Tampa’s general manager Jason Licht reiterated on Wednesday.
“He used poor word choice,” Licht said. “He knows that and he owned it.”
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