A feud between 49ers defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw and longtime Bay Area sports writer Grant Cohn merged spectacularly on Tuesday, with Kinlaw confronting Cohn in training and then scolding him later on the author’s livestream.
Cohn, a second-generation team gadfly who now writes about the 49ers for a Sports Illustrated blog, has mocked Kinlaw as an injury-prone bust since almost the moment he was drafted in 2020. According to Cohn, Kinlaw stared him down at Niner’s OTA ‘s in Santa Clara on Tuesday. Som Cohn told with a huge smile on his facehe replied by asking Kinlaw “Why do you look at me like that, Javon?”
At that point, Kinlaw apparently decided he had heard enough. Kinlaw reportedly responded by calling him a “bitch-ass” N-word and hitting the hat off his head, according to Cohn. AP writer Josh Dubow, who was there, confirmed Cohn’s report.
In a video recounting the first confrontation with Kinlaw, Cohn freely admitted that he had said a “a hundred negative things“about Kinlaw, including saying he has an” 80-year-old knee. “But when Kinlaw appeared on his stream hours later, Cohn pretended not to know why the player was crazy. This is the difference between Cohn and the real Jim Rome trolls: He could not keep his story straight.
Kinlaw eventually jumped on Cohn’s evening stream – while eating – and that was when things went completely wild. “Do you think you represent the 49s well right now?” Cohn threw repeatedly. “Do you think the 49ers are proud of what you’re saying right now?” Kinlaw responded by cutting wrestling promos while dinner spilled out of his mouth.
Kinlaw more or less admitted that Cohn’s version of events from practice was accurate. Added a little color.
“When I pushed you up into f-king person, your f-king shook like a coward, voice lighter than my f-king baby, fam,” Kinlaw told Cohn. “What’s up with that?”
Cohn, in the safety of his home at the time, asked Kinlaw if he thought he was scared of the 6-5, 320-pound NFL player.
“I do not give off — k if you are [scared] or not, ”Kinlaw replied. “All I know is when I went up on you, your f-king body temperature was cold as ice … your f-king balls had shrunk, little cock [N-word]. “(The size of Cohn’s genitals was a theme Kinlaw often revisited on the stream.)
Despite all the insistence that “my nuts are bigger than yours”, Kinlaw had a reasonable point. “Stop talking about me like I’m an animal or something,” Kinlaw Cohn asked. “No f — ks with you. … You need to find a new job. “
For his part, when he did not whine about being alleged “threatened“, Cohn rejoiced at the attention.
“Javon Kinlaw called me a ‘sucka ass bitch’ today. You can not say that. For me, it was one of the better days of my life. ” said Cohn. “Definitely one of the better days of my career. I’m honored that Javon Kinlaw thinks I’m an ass bitch. I’ve worked so hard in my life to achieve this status. Thank you, Javon.”
Later in the stream, Cohn admitted that he was thrilled to have made Kinlaw so angry and that he learned his tricks like a legacy blowhard.
“My dad was in the business,” Cohn said of his father, Lowell Cohn, a notorious longtime columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and Santa Rosa Press Democrat, who once compared PED users to killers, among many other things. “He started me when I was very young. Because if [Kinlaw] touched me if he pushed, me, dude… I could retire today. That’s what went through my head: I’m becoming a multimillionaire thanks to Javon Kinlaw. “
Niner’s defensive end Arik Armstead, who has been tired of the younger Cohn since working at his father’s newspaper, shared that part of the livestream with disgust. “It’s the kind of low life we shut into our building,” Armstead said wrote Tuesday night. “He would rather antagonize and provoke players to beat him so he can retire instead of doing his ‘job’ of journalism.” Long snapper Taybor Pepper said Cohn’s writing was “low effort s — tposting.” (More NFL players on other teams, including a perennial 49er, agreed.)
Deebo Samuel wrote on Instagram that he had blocked Cohn, while another 49er, Brandon Aiyuk, pointed out Cohn’s cowardice in dealing with it all. “If you’ve gone and said something about someone, stand on that s – t,” Aiyuk wrote. “Do not step back and start playing victim.”
The 49ers and Cohn did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday, though Cohn spent most of the morning complaining in a Twitter room.