Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston admitted he made a “poor word” choice after giving a pep talk to some elementary school children that implied girls were subservient to boys and should be “silent, polite and gentle”.

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Winston was talking at Melrose Elementary in St Petersburg, Florida, but went off-message in an effort to rouse the children, and used a damaging stereotype that suggested boys were strong and women were not. Winston later said: “I used a poor word choice that may have overshadowed that positive message for some.”

In a video captured by the Tampa Bay Times, Winston was trying to energize the schoolchildren after a lull in the room. He told the boys to stand up, but not the girls.

“All my young boys, stand up,” Winston said. “The ladies, sit down. 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!”

As Tom Jones in the Tampa Bay Times wrote: “[That] this charismatic authority figure thinks girls are to be quiet and polite while the boys stand up and take charge and be strong is not only wrong, but heartbreaking.”

Bonnie Volland, a speech language pathologist at Melrose, told the paper: “One of the girls turned around and looked at me and said: ‘I’m strong too.’”

Winston, 23, later clarified his remarks, but stopped short of an outright apology. He said: “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. During my talk, I used a poor word choice that may have overshadowed that positive message for some.”

Winston has worked hard to rehabilitate his image after he was accused of sexual assault during his college days at Florida State.

He was never charged in the 2012 incident, and following an investigation the university found he had not violated the student code. Winston settled a lawsuit with the woman in December “to the satisfaction of the parties”.

In January 2016, FSU agreed to pay $950,000 to settle the Title IX lawsuit filed by the woman against the university. Title IX is the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.