America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, took a right uppercut from columnist Tom Jones and Tampa Bay’s newspaper last night.

Was it fair? Maybe. But it was incomplete and Joe is confident the Times won’t bother filling in the blanks.

Jones makes the case that during a 40-minute motivational speech to St. Pete elementary school students yesterday, Jameis delivered a terribly wrong message. While trying to muster an off-the-cuff analogy preaching internal strength for all, Jameis said, ‘The ladies, they’re supposed to be silent, polite, gentle. My men, my men (are) supposed to be strong.”

Jones went all-in explaining that Jameis was “irresponsible,” injected archaic, discriminatory thoughts into kids’ heads, and he especially shouldn’t do those things because he has sexual assault allegations in his past. You can read it all here and watch Jameis on video.

Maybe in today’s political climate some want to rationalize that we’re being too touchy, too uptight. So go to our website. Watch the video. Decide for yourself. But what we cannot know is how the children in that room took Winston’s message. [Jones wrote] It wasn’t until several hours after the speech that Winston was asked about and reflected on what he had 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,” Winston said. “During my talk, I used a poor word choice that may have overshadowed that positive message for some.” … … Let’s also address the elephant in the room: Winston’s past at Florida State in a sexual assault accusation. Fairly or unfairly, that is a part of Winston’s story and that means he must be even more careful when talking about how boys and girls are treated and viewed and should act.

(There’s much more Jameis bashing in the full story linked above).

Joe has three daughters and gets that Winston’s couple of sentences were unfortunate and inaccurate. Bad message.

But notice how none of the seasoned educators Jones referenced, who were watching and listening to Jameis, interrupted Jameis to correct him?

Heck, one of these deeply troubled educators Jones referenced easily could have said, ‘Excuse me, Jameis. Everybody here at school knows girls are every bit as powerful as boys. You must have misspoke. Right girls!’ Joe could give loads of other examples.

A Bucs representative there or a teacher or administrator could have walked up to Jameis and gently whispered in his ear and asked him to correct/clarify his comments to the group.

But nobody said a word. It was soooooo bad, sooooo worthy of Jones’ finger wagging, but not one mature adult there stepped in to spare the innocent children.

And Jones seems just fine with that — but happy to bash Jameis.

Hey, Jones, the school is responsible for the message impressed upon the kids in its care. If Jameis’ message was really so ugly and horrible, as you wrote, then why are you not holding them accountable?

Joe would wager that the Times won’t bother following up to report on whether the students officially were deprogrammed by the school administration, or how/if their parents and guardians were all informed about the brutal sexism placed in their impressionable children’s brains.

Why? Because in the context of a heartfelt, long inspirational presentation, what Jameis said really was insignificant.