TAMPA, FLORIDA - JANUARY 01: Flags are run in the end zone to celebrate a Tampa Bay Buccaneers touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Carolina Panthers at Raymond James Stadium on January 01, 2023 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
TAMPA, Fla. — On a sweltering Saturday morning one year to the day before Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. inked his record-setting four-year, $84.1 million contract, he laid out how his next 12 months would go — and nearly every facet of that premonition came true.
It was May 20, 2023, and his fiancée, Teesa Mpagi, who had been leading his drills and whom he calls “the best DBs coach in Tampa,” grabbed her phone and started recording. These training sessions had become routine for Winfield ever since he was a little boy longing to follow in his father Antoine Winfield Sr.’s footsteps to the NFL.
“I want 10 [takeaways]. I want All-Pro. Pro Bowl. Super Bowl. I want it all,” Winfield proclaimed for himself in the video.
“And the final goal?” she asked.
“Highest paid,” he said. “Highest paid this year. Mark my words. I’m going to come back to this video and be like, ‘I did it.’ I’ll probably shed a tear because on this work that we put there right now, we’re going to make it happen. … The power of the tongue. You’ve got to speak it into existence. All-Pro, highest paid. All-Pro, highest paid. All-Pro, highest paid. And eventually it’s going to become reality.”
