FAB 4. An Enlightening Conversation With Winston’s Father

I had the distinct privilege to speak with Antonor Winston, Jameis Winston’s father, at the second annual Jameis Winston ProCamps youth football camp two weeks ago. This interview was supposed to appear in last week’s SR’s Fab 5, which was sabotaged when the hard drive in my laptop went kaput last Thursday.

“Ant” Winston, as he’s known to virtually everybody, is King Charisma. He’s where Jameis gets his effervescent personality.

I love the elder Winston’s candidness. He’s a reporter’s dream, and so as he indulged my questions, I delighted in his answers. I think you will, too.

I began by asking Winston if he thinks two years of incident-free behavior and much good work in the Tampa Bay community has changed the perception of his son for the better.

“It’s kind of still going on,” Winston said. “First of all, the Tampa area is home to us now. It’s like a second home. Jameis’ first home now. The city of Tampa has been marvelous. People like yourself at Pewter Report, Pat Donovan and others have always been supportive with him. Once the people got the chance to fellowship with him, you all helped us spread the word about how he was and make some of the people of Tampa want to come out and see for themselves.

“Now the national media? We have a long way to go.”

I asked Winston if he thinks the national exposure of HBO’s Hard Knocks TV series this summer could help change any misperceptions of his son.

“I’m not a Hard Knocks fan,” Winston said. “I had to deal with three years of slander through the media and I know how they can do it sometimes. Now for our team, I’m expecting us to win and go to the Super Bowl. I love it for our team, but for Jameis? Uh, I don’t know.

“He’s going to be himself, but it’s really about the team. The common goal is to make it to the playoffs and win a Super Bowl. Most people say Hard Knocks is going to be a distraction. It’s not going to be a distraction. I think it will help our team overall inside and out, but the common goal is to win a Super Bowl.”

Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston and father Antonor – Photo by: Mark Cook/PR

I asked him his opinions on what the highs and lows of Tampa Bay’s 2016 season, which ended with a 9-7 record, were.

“The high was how close the team got together and the fans, too,” Winston said. “They are getting closer and closer, and the more we get like a family the more wins we’ll get. The low was the fans. Sometimes the fans showed up and sometimes they didn’t. I think we’re going to do better this year.”

In fairness to Bucs fans, I did point out that the atmosphere was far different for the Tampa Bay vs. Seattle contest – a game in which the crowd resembled a crowd in full throat from yesteryear, perhaps in 1999 or 2002.

“The Seattle game, though,” Winston agreed. “Boy did they show out. That Seattle game was something. Look what it brought us. That energy brought us that victory. They were what – 9-3? The fans help the family survive. It helps the family succeed. We play off the fans.”

I asked Winston to take off his father hat and don his coaching cap and dissect where his son improved the most last year from a football standpoint.

“I’ve seen Jameis become more mature – mostly off the field,” Winston said. “He’s taking care of his body. He’s eating the right stuff. The other stuff comes naturally to him – getting up early and working hard. As Coach Winston – not his dad – I’m still going to work with him on his turnovers and accuracy. I know that will come with time as he learns his teammates. He’s been doing a marvelous job working on his game. It started months ago.”

We talked about how Winston has shed some of the pudginess he had coming out of Florida State over the past two years, becoming more sleek and muscular as he enters his third year in the NFL.

“I love it,” Winston said. “I don’t like none of the food that he eats, but I love it because anytime your kid tells you something that they’re going to do and they keep that determination in their minds. That’s what you love as a parent. You can do all things that you put your mind to. He eats salmon, sushi – he’s just made a complete change in his diet. It’s marvelous, but I can’t eat some of that stuff. I like fried fish. He’ll eat grilled fish. I like fried sweet potato and onions, and he’ll eat his out of the refrigerator cold.”

I asked him if he marveled at son’s 50-yard heave to Mike Evans against Chicago on a highlight reel play made for ESPN’s Sportscenter in which he seemed to elude Dick Butkus, Brian Urlacher, Richard Dent and half of the other Chicago Bears team while scrambling back 30 yards before he threw the ball and almost got a safety in the process. Winston shrugged as if he’d seen the young Jameis do those kinds of things in Pop Warner football or in high school.

Antonor and Jameis Winston – Photo by: Mark Cook/PR

“Let’s go back to the brothers because it was the offensive line that kept blocking for him,” Winston said. “Mike didn’t give up on the play because of the scramble rule. That play was a 7-and-out, so on that play with the scramble route he has to release and go long. For Jameis to make a big play like that he had to have his teammates make plays.

“All of the big plays Jameis makes I put on his teammates. All of the interceptions and screw-ups I put on him. It sounds crazy, but that’s it. I’m kind of odd like that.”

Winston will be the first to stick up for his son when he’s done no wrong, but also the first to point the finger at him when he has done something wrong. It’s an admirable quality from this Southern gentleman, and you can tell that he raised Jameis with a fair amount of discipline.

When I mention some of the new weapons his son has to throw to this year, Winston’s eyes light up and his smile grows wider.

“DeSean Jackson is awesome,” Winston said. “He’s going to take the top off of every defense we play. He’s a veteran. We hope Dirk [Koetter] will move away from the long balls and put the ball in his hands real quick. He’s a special breed that loves winning.”

From what my fellow Pewter Reporters and I have seen, there are plenty of short routes designed to get the ball in Jackson’s hands lickity-split – just like the elder Winston wants. And there are plenty of deep balls, too – because that’s what Jackson does so well.

I ask Winston about tight end O.J. Howard, Tampa Bay’s first-round pick, and he becomes the happiest he’s been during our 15-minute interview.

“O.J. is a ‘Bama boy!” said Winston, who lives in Bessmer, Ala. “Everybody in the state of Alabama loves him. We’re going to have even more Bucs fans from Alabama now. O.J. is awesome. He’s a specimen. Those two people alone – he and DeSean – and what they’re going to bring … it’s marvelous.”

As much as Winston likes the new weapons his son has to throw to, he believes the Bucs’ best offseason move came in changing the personnel that will be snapping the ball to Jameis.

“The change at center to Ali [Marpet] is probably the best move we’ve made,” Winston said. “Not only because he’s big and wide enough, but the cat is smart. I think he’s going to do real well. J.R. [Sweezy] is coming back healthy and everybody knows he’s one of the best run blockers in the league. If he grabs you, he’ll have you. I’m really looking forward to having J.R. back. He’s really going to help us.”

I asked Winston for his thoughts about left tackle Donovan Smith, who was selected in the second round right after his son in the 2015 NFL Draft. Smith has come under fire from some fans and some in the media for not yet living up to expectations, although I don’t necessarily subscribe to all of the criticism Smith has received.

“I think Donovan and Jameis and Roberto [Aguayo] have the same fair criticism,” Winston said. “It’s well deserved sometimes and not well deserved other times. Donovan and Jameis came in together so they are going through the same ups and downs. They’re trying to get stronger together. There are going to be a lot of defensive ends that are going to whip Donovan’s butt. That was true last year and I’m sure it will happen again at times this year. But after his third or fourth year I’m sure he’s going to learn and progress – just like Jameis. By his third or fourth year, Jameis is going to cut down on those interceptions. It just takes time.

“The only thing with Roberto is that he’s not going to have that third or fourth year. He’s only got this year and I’m pretty sure he’s going to do it then. I’m always going to support those guys because of their youth. I give anybody that is coming into a professional league four years. Experience is the greatest teacher.”

Sticking with the offensive side of the ball, I asked Winston his thoughts about a rejuvenated Doug Martin coming back into the fold this offseason. Although he’ll miss the first three games of the 2017 campaign due to a PED suspension, Martin is in tip-top shape and dazzling onlookers in the team’s OTAs. Martin looks as good as he did when he was heading into the 2015 season where he finished as the league’s second-leading rusher and earned his fourth Pro Bowl trip.

“The problems at running back hurt us and helped us last year at the same time,” Winston said. “It helped us because it took the training wheels off Jameis. We had to throw the ball to move it. It hurt us because our running backs got injured and we didn’t have a lot of experience behind Doug.

Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston and father Antonor – Photo by: Mark Cook/PR

“When Doug comes back we’ll be better, and look out for Peyton Barber. People are sleeping on Barber. Jacquizz [Rodgers] is going to carry us for the first three games. Those three running backs will take us through the season. The only question I have for our organization is when are we going to use two running backs at the same time? I don’t think we got the chance to use two running backs like most teams do as a 1-2 punch. We only had the chance to use two tight ends and one running back last year.”

That’s a question for Koetter, and I asked Winston about how he thought Koetter fared in his first season as an NFL head coach and playcaller.

“I’ve got to give Dirk Koetter a lot of props,” Winston said. “We’ve never sat down and went over X’s and O’s yet, but just looking at what he’s done I really like the way he’s operating the program. I like the way he’s holding people accountable. I wish I could sit next to him and help him call some plays sometimes (laughs). But he’s doing an okay job.”

Hmm. An “okay job?”

I can’t tell if the elder Winston is really a big Koetter fan or not.

Winston and I both agreed that the Bucs will be deadly this year in “12” personnel sets, which means one running back and two tight ends (and two receivers), with both Howard and Cameron Brate on the field at the same time. Both are dangerous, pass-catching tight ends, and having two tight ends on the field at the same time confuses defenses because it can be a run formation or a pass formation.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” Winston said. “I think me and Dirk are going to be best friends because I’m not going to complain about any play-calling this year with those two tight ends. Cameron Brate is probably one of the smartest guys we have on the team. He’s a Harvard guy. O.J. is not too far behind, so running two tight ends is going to create two match-up problems. It’s going to be unreal for defenses. It really is.”

As my time with Winston winds down in the sweltering heat at Sunlake High School in Land O’ Lakes, I ask him about his son’s connection with Evans, who became a Pro Bowl receiver with a record-setting season in Tampa Bay last year.

“They had a great season but Mike and Jameis won’t really be great until their fifth year together,” Winston said. “God help them and stay healthy. The reason why I’m saying they won’t be great until their fifth year is because they are so competitive at a high level. I think in their fifth year they’ll really blossom because their expectations are to be so great – it’s the same for both of them and they’ll continue to rise together.

“Their chemistry has taken so long but that’s not unexpected. I know some people think Jameis and Mike are already on the same page all the time. I’m talking as a coach now, and I think they have a ways to go. Once they get on point they’ll be the best duo in the league. Adding DeSean now only helps them going forward because it’s going to help Mike. But they’ll be the best in the league. Just you wait and see.”

With all due respect, Mr. Winston, it may not take two more years for Winston and Evans to be the league’s best quarterback-receiver combo. It could very well happen this year.