By Alex Kennedy | @AlexKennedyNBA June 14, 2016
"You control your own destiny. You control the decisions you make, you control the mistakes you make and, more importantly, you control all of your successes. I’ve got a strong background of getting in trouble and doing the wrong thing, but you bounce back.”Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston is on a football field at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, Florida, addressing a group of teenagers at his teammate Louis Murphy’s ninth annual 1st Downs 4 Life football camp.Winston’s off-field issues have been well-documented, from his shoplifting citation to the sexual-assault allegation for which he wasn’t charged. He believed it was important to bring up his own struggles in life in order to connect with the campers and make sure that his message resonated with them. As he told them, “If you can’t take criticism, you shouldn’t be playing football.”“A lot of these kids face adversity and may feel stuck there,” Winston explained to The Undefeated. “But you always have to get back up and try again.”The quarterback arrived at 7:30 a.m. and stayed for nearly seven hours. During that time, he ran the campers through stretches, conducted drills, timed 40-yard dashes and gave multiple inspirational speeches to the 400 children. To an onlooker, it might have seemed that this was Winston’s camp.“It blew me away,” Murphy said with a laugh. “People were surprised, and I didn’t even expect him to be so involved. But he cares so much. He cares about the kids and this community.”Continued at: http://theundefeated.com/features/the-continued-maturation-of-jameis-winston/
