Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Jameis Winston spent yesterday afternoon at Melrose Elementary in St. Petersburg, talking to kids about his "three rules of life" which include, God, school and the idea that "I can do anything I put my mind to."
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Winston's positive messages to the kids were well received by the group of 3rd-5th graders but when a few of the students appeared to be bored by his speech, Jameis tried to rally them again.
Unfortunately, he made some regrettable, stereotypical gender comments about the girls in attendance.
Per 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 (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!"
"One of the girls turned around and looked at me and said, 'I'm strong too,' " Volland, a speech language pathologist at Melrose, said.
A couple of hours after the speech, Jameis was asked to reflect on what he said and he tried to clarify his remarks about how 'ladies are supposed to be silent, polite, gentle.'
"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. "During my talk, I used a poor word choice that may have overshadowed that positive message for some."