Cowboys’ Trevon Diggs explains heated exchange with reporter; Mike McCarthy encourages taking the high road

FRISCO, Texas — Frustration is brewing in Dallas following the Cowboys’ fourth straight loss to the San Francisco 49ers – the last being a 30-24 loss on “Sunday Night Football” in Week 8.

Quarterback Dak Prescott said “it’s frustrating. I’ve got to make the plays, period,” when asked about the 49ers’ four-game losing streak after the game. Cornerback Trevon Diggs took his frustrations out directly on WFAA’s Mike Leslie, sports anchor and reporter for the local ABC affiliate in Dallas, as he exited the locker room to confront him over a tweet about Diggs’ latest perceived hustle on the back of San Francisco tight end George Kittle’s 43-yard catch-and-run. It’s unprecedented to see a player come out of the locker to directly confront a member of the media before being allowed into the locker room after the game, but that’s exactly what happened. Diggs explained his reasoning in-depth with teammate and All-Pro Edge Rusher Micah Parsons’ “The Edge with Micah Parsons” podcast on Monday.

“I just felt like it was unnecessary. I just felt like he was trying to use my name for clicks,” Diggs said. “After the game, I saw it by chance. I looked and clicked on it and saw who it was, and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s right there. I just saw you.’ I went over and explained how I felt. I felt like it was a lot of emotion coming out of the match. I’m a competitor, I wanted to win, so it’s a lot of emotion. .I’m just letting my emotions get the better of me. Ultimately, that doesn’t give someone permission to say anything, smear your name or make you feel like you’re doing something wrong or wrong. bad. I feel like I played my hardest game yesterday. I felt like I did everything I could, tackle, do everything to help my team win. doesn’t suit me because you were completely wrong.”

According to Diggs, Week 8 was his best game of the season in terms of coverage: he didn’t allow a single yard on two targets against the 49ers. However, Leslie’s tweet was not criticizing Diggs’ coverage skills, but rather his pursuit of the end of the play. Diggs was running a route that had him running to the right side of the field while Kittle’s route took him to the left sideline, and he ultimately pushed the Pro Bowl tight end out of bounds at the 4 line yards. San Francisco scored a 4-yard rushing touchdown on the very next play. The Pro Bowl cornerback’s tackling and pursuit efforts first became a topic of conversation following Dallas’ 47-9 home loss against the Detroit Lions in Week 6. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy’s stance on the matter was that it was best to take the high road, but he also expressed empathy for Diggs, who is still only 26 years old.

“I think it’s definitely an example of frustration,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said Monday. “I think we have to be better in those moments. I always talk about staying on the right path, that’s part of our responsibility in this business. But I’m neither ignorant nor naive to the fact that this generation, it’s part of the world that they live in, the world of social media. It’s part of being a professional athlete and it’s part of representing this organization well… I’m probably not the right person to talk about. being in this position. and what it feels like. I have children in their twenties, and this generation, this is the world they live in. They have to deal with it.

Dallas defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, 68, gave Diggs this sage advice: Don’t go on Twitter right after games.

“Obviously, it’s important that we all be professional in this area, and that’s not the kind of thing we want to do,” Zimmer said. “You probably shouldn’t read your tweets right after the game, but I don’t know if that was it.”