Last night, Jameis Winston celebrated his No. 1 overall selection in the NFL Draft by chowing down his favorite food: crab legs. A fitting, perhaps cathartic choice, especially considering all the crap Winston put himself through by stealing crab legs from a local Publix last year and coming up with some dumb story about it. Shortly after being picked by the Tampa Bay Buccanneers, he posted a photo on Instagram posing with a catch of crab legs, captioning it, "Thanks Capt for the crab legs."
Almost immediately, and rather predictably, Winston received backlash on social media for his perceived trolling. Fuel to fan the flames, if you will:
Didn't think pic posted by Jameis with crab legs was amusing. Leave it alone. Become a pro.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 1, 2015
What was point of Jameis Winston serving crablegs at his draft party? Thumbing his nose at laws against shoplifting? Grow up, dude.
— Jeff Schultz (@JeffSchultzAJC) May 1, 2015
Eventually, the Bucs called up Winston and had him take the photo down.
Once #Bucs became aware of the Instagram pic of Winston, they encouraged having it removed from his account.
— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) May 1, 2015
Translation for "encouraged": "called his agent and said "What the %#@!" https://t.co/jDbVyWHUTr
— Andrew Brandt (@adbrandt) May 1, 2015
In all, a disappointing end to the life of an amusing piece of content. Because the photo was deleted after the mob of the negative feedback, critics have been criticizing the critics for criticizing Winston. To clear the air, former NFL quarterback and current Yahoo! Sports analyst Shaun King tweeted an interesting backstory behind the Instagram. According to King, the caption, "Thanks Capt for the crab legs," was directed at an actual captain who catches crabs for a living.
If U I MEAN U had a problem with jameis winston crab legs picture its time for some serious self evaluation
— shaun king (@realshaunking) May 1, 2015
I was seated at the table right next to jameis at the mike alstott charity auction, when captain keith asked jameis to help him auction off
— shaun king (@realshaunking) May 1, 2015
This huge king crab he had flown in for the event. Captain keith is from the deadliest catch show. I wasnt sure how jameis was gonna
— shaun king (@realshaunking) May 1, 2015
Handle the request, but it didnt faze the young man at all he simply said ok sure, we r here to help the alstott foundation right.
— shaun king (@realshaunking) May 1, 2015
That same captain keith in a gesture of thanks sent jameis and his family 25lbs of king crabs legs for his draft event last night.
— shaun king (@realshaunking) May 1, 2015
Thats the backstory behind last nights picture for those of you who need to seriously have some self evaluation done
— shaun king (@realshaunking) May 1, 2015
So there: Winston did Captain Keith a solid for charity, and the favor was returned. Can we all never mention Winston x crab legs ever again now? We can? Good.
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