Early in the third quarter of the Cowboys’ disheartening 30-24 loss to the 49ers on Sunday night, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy found tight end George Kittle over the middle for a short completion. Kittle turned upfield and plowed ahead for a 46-yard gain to the 2-yard line. At the end of the play, Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs entered the frame and attempted—meekly—to push Kittle out of bounds.
A replay of the catch-and-run by Kittle was posted on Twitter/X by Underdog NFL, and in a quote-tweet over the replay, sports anchor Mike Leslie of WFAA wrote, “What is Trevon Diggs doing on this play?”
It is a fair question. As Kittle was running down the sideline, Diggs appeared to pull up and slow down before picking up speed toward Kittle again.
But Diggs did not much care for the post, and somehow saw it in the locker room shortly after teh game ended. In one of the more bizarre postgame media exchanges of the year, Diggs left the locker room to confront Leslie in the tunnel just outside.
Cowboys Coverage on George Kittle Failed
Diggs clearly did not like being singled out. He has a case—the coverage on Kittle failed, which was the real source of the problem, and other Cowboys had a shot at taking Kittle down. But Diggs was one of those Cowboys.
When he went out into the tunnel, Diggs approached Leslie and said, “Out of that whole play, that is all 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 playing me, bro.”
Leslie responded: “Just asking the question, Trevon. I am happy to have you answer the question …”
Diggs went on: “Out of the whole play, that is what you took from that? That’s what you got from that? From that whole play, that’s what you got from that?”
Leslie said, “I am asking. … We can talk about it more, what were you doing then?”
To which Diggs, very maturely, said, “Talk about deez n**s.”
Trevon Diggs Should Show Better Leadership
And it was those four words that sent Diggs viral on Sunday.
But in the wider picture, though the entire night was not a highlight for the Cowboys, the Diggs interaction was especially worrisome. Diggs is expected to be a leader for the Cowboys defense, and is on a five-year, $97 million contract. His postgame priorities, though, are questionable, at best.
The Cowboys had just lost on national television and their record was now just 3-4. Rather than focusing on the loss, Diggs was instead focused on a perceived personal slight.
Diggs probably should have had more to worry about than a tweet from a sports anchor.
