Javon Kinlaw has no shortage of supporters in the 49ers’ locker room after his spat with Sports Illustrated reporter Grant Cohn.
Cohn has been persistently critical of San Francisco’s decision to select Kinlaw, a defensive lineman who missed most of last season a year after tearing his ACL, in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Cohn claims that Kinlaw confronted him at OTAs on Tuesday, and knocked his hat off.
Later that day, Kinlaw went on Cohn’s YouTube show and berated him.
“Stop playing with me like you know me,” Kinlaw said. “I’m not one of your friends. You don’t f–king know me. Stop playing with me on this f–king internet. Stop playing with my name. I got kids to raise. Stop playing with my f–king name on the internet.”
After that video went viral, a number of Kinlaw’s teammates came to his defense.
“This is the type of low life we let into our building. He would rather antagonize and provoke players into hitting him so he can retire instead of doing his ‘job’ of journalism,” Kinlaw’s linemate Arik Armstead tweeted, sharing a video of Cohn saying he could’ve retired a “multi-millionaire” if he’d been physically attacked.
All-Pro tight end George Kittle quoted Cohn saying he could retire, and responded on his Instagram story.
“It’s crazy to me that someone who is allowed into our building has the mindset/goal to antagonize and irritate players with their endgame of being this,” Kittle wrote. “I thought players and reporters were supposed to work together.
“Being in this building, let alone this league, is an opportunity, it’s not a right. People get really comfortable typing behind a screen! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but continuing to go after a player habitually seems like someone who’s goal isn’t to report or write a story.”
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Running back Raheem Mostert, who played six seasons with the 49ers before signing with the Dolphins this offseason, concurred.
“We’re always told journalists and reporters have a job to do,” he tweeted. “Ok, understood. But this??! He admitted ‘retirement’ as a ‘multi-millionaire’ went through his mind. THIS is unacceptable, @nfl@49ers.”
Holdout wide receiver Deebo Samuel also chimed in for Kinlaw’s defense.
“Nah FR [for real] …. I been had to block grant ahhh he do the most FR,” Samuel wrote on his Instagram story.
Cohn responded in an interview on the 49ers web zone.
“I was making a joke,” Cohn said. “I feel like the players were trying to act like I go to work in the facility hoping that someone’s gonna punch me in the face so I can sue them. Of course I don’t do that. I don’t take personal shots at players. I’m not walking around, hoping I get punched, thinking, ‘I want to retire. I’m gonna take your money.’
“I don’t want to get Javon Kinlaw in trouble. I don’t want to get players in trouble. I don’t want to retire. I just bought a house in Oakland. I want to be here a very long time. I was making a joke. I was trying to make light of the whole situation.”
