Dirk Koetter, Jason Licht Respond to Jameis Winston's Speech to Schoolchildren

Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht and head coach Dirk Koetter stood behind starting quarterback Jameis Winston on Wednesday following the controversial comments he made last week during a speech to children at a local elementary school.

Jenna Laine of ESPN.com passed along comments the Bucs brass made about the subject during the 2017 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Koetter was pleased with the QB's decision to quickly apologize for his poor choice of words about gender roles in society.

"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."

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times provided the portion of the NFL player's original remarks at Melrose Elementary School that sparked widespread outrage.

"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."

He added: "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!"

Asked later to clarify the message he was trying to send, Winston told the Tampa Bay Times he was trying to make an impact with one student without identifying him directly.

"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," he said. "During my talk, I used a poor word choice that may have overshadowed that positive message for some."

Licht stated at the combine the face of the franchise now understands the error of his ways and the incident doesn't change the organization's overall view of its quarterback.

"He unfortunately made a mistake, used a poor word choice. He knows it. He owned it," Licht said. "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."

The situation raised additional concerns because Winston was accused of rape during his time at Florida State.

Eliott C. McLaughlin of CNN noted the university settled its part of the case for $950,000 in January 2016. TMZ Sports reported Winston, who didn't face criminal charges in the case, and his accuser settled the civil lawsuit in December, though details of the agreement weren't released.

Koetter said the quarterback, the first overall pick in the 2015 draft, has been able to "exceed expectations" and that they "couldn't be happier" with him.