Buccaneers admit Winston made a mistake

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter and general manager Jason Licht admitted Wednesday that their starting quarterback, Jameis Winston, made a mistake in comments to a fifth-grade class last week.

In a story by Jenna Laine of ESPN.com, the Bucs leadership defended the character of the 23-year-old Winston while speaking to reporters at the NFL scouting combine.

“Obviously the situation with the school last week, in the midst of a school presentation, Jameis, he made a mistake,” Koetter said. “And he owned up to that mistake. He’s 23 years old. I think anyone who has to stand behind a microphone and talk to a group of people, you’re going to make mistakes from time to time. There’s been other ones in the sports world very recently.”

The words Koetter is speaking of came during a visit last week to a fifth-grade class at Melrose Elementary School in St. Petersburg, as first reported by the Tampa Bay Times.

During his discussion with the students, Winston said, “All my young boys, stand up. 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.”

Licht, also speaking to reporters Wednesday, reiterated the team’s support of Winston.

“He unfortunately made a mistake, used a poor word choice. He knows it. He owned it,” Licht said, as reported by ESPN.com. “We are fully supportive of Jameis. I could sit here and talk for hours about how much we love Jameis Winston. From ownership to everyone in the building, we fully support Jameis.”

Winston is coming off a solid second season as Tampa Bay’s starting quarterback. The former Florida State signal-caller completed 60.8 percent of his passes for 4,090 yards with 28 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. The Bucs finished 9-7, their first winning season since 2010.

Tampa Bay just missed out on the playoffs, the ninth straight season the Bucs have missed the postseason.

This story was originally published March 1, 2017 at 10:12 PM with the headline "Buccaneers admit Winston made a mistake."