Mike McCarthy addresses Trevon Diggs’ incident with reporter
Dallas Cowboys (3-4) head coach Mike McCarthy said Monday that cornerback Trevon Diggs has “to be better” after confronting a television reporter following Sunday’s 30-24 Week 8 road defeat to the San Francisco 49ers (4-4).
“But 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.”
Diggs, still in uniform, came out of the locker room before the media and engaged in a verbal back-and-forth with Mike Leslie of WFAA. During the game, Leslie quote tweeted 49ers tight end George Kittle‘s 43-yard catch in the third quarter and appeared to question Diggs’ effort on the play. Diggs was tracking Kittle as he ran down the sideline, eventually pushing him out of bounds just before reaching the end zone.
“What is Trevon Diggs doing on this play?” Leslie wrote.
Trevon Diggs opens up about viral confrontation with Cowboys reporter after SNF
Diggs immediately found Leslie and took exception with his analysis.
“That’s what you took from that?” Diggs said. “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. Can’t go out there and do nothing. Stay in your lane, buddy. Stop trying me, dog.”
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Speaking on “The Edge with Micah Parsons,” Diggs told his teammate he felt the tweet was “unnecessary.”
“I just felt like it was unnecessary,” Diggs said Monday. “I just felt like he was trying to use my name for clicks. After the game, I just happened to see it. I looked, clicked on it, seen who it was, and was like ‘Oh, he’s right here.’ I just saw you. So, I went up to him and spoke how I felt.”
Diggs admitted his emotions got the best of him in that moment.
“Felt a lot of emotions,” Diggs said. “Just losing, coming out of the game, fresh off the loss. But I’m a competitor so you know I wanted to win. Just a lot of emotions and I kind of let my emotions get the best of me. At the end of the day, it doesn’t make it right to be saying anything or trying to throw dirt on your name or make it seem like you’re doing a bad job.”
Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer said of the interaction between Diggs and Leslie:
“Obviously it’s important that we all be professionals with it and it’s not the kind of thing that we want to do,” Zimmer said. “You probably shouldn’t be reading tweets right after the game, but I don’t know if that’s what it was.”