Jameis' photo shows fans might be in for rough seas
Jameis Winston caused more controversy when he posted this photo Thursday night. INSTAGRAMMartin Fennelly TBO.comPublished: May 3, 2015TAMPA — Couldn’t he have just taken a picture with the cheese and fruit tray?Not a chance.Jameis Winston is at the helm. And already the deck is pitching.Stuff my clams, he’s done it again.Somewhere between the moment the Bucs made him the first pick of the NFL draft and he became The $23.5 Million Man, Winston got tangled in the net. He made a public spectacle, not to be confused with a Publix spectacle.It again raised the question:Will this kid ever get it?We’re trying to have fun with this. No need to break out the foul-weather gear. I mean, the guy just dropped anchor here.Friday, Winston, accompanied by his father, mother, sister and brother, was introduced at Bucs headquarters. It was a sweet photo.It certainly caused less of a stir than the draft-night snapshot Winston posted, then removed, from his Instagram account: a smiling No. 1, at his party, saluting his Santa Claws, captain Keith Colburn of “The Deadliest Catch,” who’d sent a gift of, well, you know.Thanks Capt for the crab legsOh, and in the photo, Winston is wearing a Bucs hat and his No. 3 Bucs jersey.So went one of Winston’s first decisions as face of this franchise.I’m sure Bucs coach Lovie Smith and GM Jason Licht cringed. And I’m positive the wheels are already in motion in the Bucs community relations department. Maybe Jameis could visit supermarket seafood sections and talk to young, at-risk tilapia.Back to the photo …“I wasn’t thinking what would come from it,” Winston said at his news conference. “I was just showing thanks to a dear friend of mine that I was blessed to have him provide the party for my family with the crab legs.”I wasn’t thinking what would come from it.That’s the problem, isn’t it?Winston, 21, continues to display an extraordinary lack of self-awareness. Or is he thumbing his nose at us?I’m going to vote extraordinary lack of self-awareness, with a dash of young and clueless.But I don’t know who is going to clue the guy in, or if he can be.Understand, this latest deal is infinitely less troubling than the time Winston, less than a year after not being charged with sexual assault, stood in the Florida State student union and shouted what he shouted.The latest crab legs fiasco? Winston somehow didn’t see it coming, but come it did.“That’s the only reason I took the picture down,” he said Friday. “I didn’t want any negative publicity for this day, because it took it away from this whole organization and my family. I never would have expected that.”I never would have expected that.That’s the problem, isn’t it?Winston’s parents, Loretta and Antonor, seem like very nice people. Antonor didn’t understand the ruckus over the photo.“It didn’t cause a ruckus in our draft party,” he said. “It caused a ruckus when other people took up with it. We were enjoying ourselves eating them. Hey, can I ask you all a question, though? Do you all like crab legs? Would you all eat some? Would you? Do you think you would have been on ESPN for it, though? Case closed.”After the Bucs picked Winston, Smith said the Bucs “wouldn’t bring anyone in that needs to be babysat or anything like that.” Winston said he wasn’t trying to make any sort of statement with that photo, that, again, he was just giving thanks to his dear friend. Someone asked him just how far back he goes with dear friend captain Keith.“I’ve known him for about two weeks. I can make a friend out of anybody. Right now, you got a friend in me.”That’s a song, right?“It’s from ‘Toy Story,’ ” Winston said with a smile.Everyone laughed.So begins our voyage with Cap’n Jameis.Hope somebody brought the Dramamin link
