Gerald McCoy Finally Calls Out Jameis Winston For His Stupid “Eat The W” Pregame Speech: “We Had No Shot To Win That Day”

The toxic plague of near-universal adulation for Cleveland Browns quarterback Jameis Winston is one of the stranger sports-related phenomenons of my lifetime. Nothing about the guy has ever been likable to me. He hasn't lived up to his billing as a No. 1 overall draft pick, but that's really the least of his issues. In fairness, as somebody who quite often covers Tyreek Hill in a favorable light purely for what he does on the football field in spite of his rather troubling past, I'll just leave it at this from Dolphins safety Jevon Holland when it comes to Jameis' misdeeds over the years: https://twitter.com/FinsXtra/status/1833938766777499775 We'll keep the criticism strictly quarterback-related (retroactive self-edit: this is a lie; you'll see why), but feel free to do your own research . Stealing crab legs from a grocery store was the least of Jameis' issues. Jameis was always reckless throwing the ball. He's never been terribly accurate, which is OK if you're a game-changing runner like Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts, or Anthony Richardson, but he isn't. The last time Jameis got a shot to be a full-time starter, he threw 30 interceptions in a season. Granted, in 2022 he had another shot with the Saints, but was injured and couldn't claim his job back from Andy Dalton upon his return. Mind you, that was post-LASIK surgery. When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did Hard Knocks back in 2017, I was already predisposed to dislike Jameis because of how he carried himself in college. Then there was all this corny nonsense about leadership, and a screaming voiceover of a motivational speaker who Jameis allegedly listened to every day when he woke up. Everything about the way Jameis acted seemed put on, phony, and inauthentic. Mugging it up for the cameras essentially. Y'all think Russell Wilson is corny? I do too, but Jameis is levels above Mr. Unlimited. Apex Corny, Inauthentic Jameis was his infamous pregame "Eat a W" speech that literally none of his Bucs teammates asked for or were inspired by. Former Tampa Bay star defensive tackle Gerald McCoy hasn't told his side of the story until now, on the 25/10 Show with DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy. It's well worth a listen, or you can read the key bits of his perspective as transcribed below: "I was like, ‘Dawg what are you doing?' And I remember Cam Brate…he said, 'Come on, Gerald, that's our quarterback.’ I said man shut up! I don't care about that! What are you talking about? Why is he doing that? The crazy part is, [linebacker] Kwon [Alexander] was supposed to give the speech. Jameis pushed me out the way. ‘I got it, Kwon! Hold on Hold on!’ When he did that, I was like, bro what is he doing?" https://twitter.com/2510show/status/1834013720990875742 OK sorry I know I said I wouldn't bring up Jameis' past, but it's relevant to the context of this story because of the next point McCoy makes. At FSU, Jameis was accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit, just like the man ahead of him on the Browns' QB depth chart, Deshaun Watson, but many times over . In the wake of that lawsuit, Jameis stood on a table at the Florida State student union to scream a vulgar refrain that resulted in a suspension . Florida State didn't admit liability but paid out $950K to Winston's accuser. He also groped an Uber driver in 2018 and received a three-game suspension. When they were back in the locker room after that rousing "Eat a W" Jameis speech, McCoy described how the overeager QB just kept digging himself a bigger ditch regarding leadership credibility. "The thing is, hey, this is where we at. I'm glad I’m not playing no more because you can just tell it how it is. We got in the locker room and it got worse! It got worse. Right before we ran on the field he was like, 'Hey, this is one of them games, sometimes you gotta just pull it out and show ‘em whose is bigger!' Right before we ran on the field. […] All y'all know is that eat the W. Y'all don't know that whole day. Bro, we had no shot to win that day." Maybe I'm just a little in my feelings or being pedantically critical of Jameis in this case. Phallic references aren't always terrible, but for someone with his history with women and sexual misconduct, um, I would've opted for an alternative choice of words. But hey, that's just Jameis being Jameis and we love him so much for it, right guys? Anyway, that "Eat the W" hype preceded Winston injuring his shoulder in the first half of that 2017 Week 9 game against the Saints. McCoy was right about having no chance to win. The Bucs lost 30-10 in New Orleans to Drew Brees, Sean Payton and Co. Jimmy Haslam and the Ivy League brainiacs who run the Browns really outdid themselves. As if they hadn't tripled down on moral bankruptcy by acquiring Deshaun, they took it one step further with Jameis. https://twitter.com/MattFitz_gerald/status/1832931940334211208 Highly recommend the 25/10 Show , if only because DJax and Shady McCoy ripped Chip Kelly to pieces for an entire episode a while back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKo6xPBp_aY