Jameis Winston stays pretty busy in the offseason as he's doing more than just working out and trying to get better for next season. He's also speaking to young children at schools in the area as he was found at Melrose Elementary in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
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Winston was speaking to a group of third to fifth graders when some of the boys were getting rowdy and lost focus. He tried to get them back in line and he might used some of the wrong wording to do so. Here's what he said via Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times:
"All my young boys, stand up. The ladies, sit down," Winston said. "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. 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!"
While at first that seems like a simple enough message of being able to do anything you want if you put your mind to it and work for it, there also seemed to be a sexist message in the speech. The directive that girls are supposed to be quiet while boys are expected to take the lead took away from that immediately — especially considering that it was coming from a player who faced sexual assault allegations while in college.
Winston did realize his mistake afterward when he was asked for comment on it and understands that he might have undermined his own message:
"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. During my talk, I used a poor word choice that may have overshadowed that positive message for some."
Here's video of the speech:
[h/t Pro Football Talk]
