Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs’ confrontation with a television reporter after Sunday’s 30-24 loss to the 49ers stemmed from frustration, coach Mike McCarthy said Monday.
McCarthy, though, did not excuse Diggs for his angry exchange with Mike Leslie of WFAA for the reporter’s in-game social media post.
“I think we have to be better in those moments. I always talk about staying on a high road,” McCarthy said, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “That’s part of our responsibility in this business. But I’m not ignorant or naive to the fact that this generation, that’s part of the world they live in, the social media world. You have to manage that. That’s part of being a professional athlete and that’s part of representing this organization properly.”
Leslie replied to a post showing Diggs’ tracking 49ers tight end George Kittle, eventually pushing him out of bounds after a long gain. The reporter appeared to be questioning Diggs’ effort, writing, “What is Trevon Diggs doing on this play?”
“That’s what you took from that?” Diggs asked Leslie while reporters were outside the locker room waiting for it to open. “Out of that whole play, that’s what you took from that? You don’t know football. You can’t do nothing that I do. You can’t go out there and do nothing. Stay in your lane, buddy. Stop trying me, dog.”
Diggs skipped his media obligation in the locker room.
“Obviously it’s important that we all be professionals with it, and it’s not the kind of thing that we want to do,” defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer said. “You probably shouldn’t be reading tweets right after the game, but I don’t know if that’s what it was, so . . . .”
