During Sunday’s postgame, Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Shelby Harris lashed out at San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings, who apparently crossed the line of trash-talking.
Harris wasn’t the only Browns defender to speak up. Myles Garrett took the podium on the subject. Here’s what he had to say:
I can’t speak for how he was raised, but if you’ve got nothing good to say, don’t say something to somebody. He had a lot to say that was demeaning and disparaging towards some of our players. I was just trying to separate everybody. I tried to go up and ask what the problem was, and he start coming at me. I mean, some guys just roll like that.
I don’t feel like that belongs in the game but, hey, if that works for him, or them, more power to them. I’m just trying to keep my guys focused on the game and not worried about stuff outside of it, because we’re focused about what’s on the field.
Nobody knows what was said, which makes it odd for 49ers’ fans to take Jennings’ side and assume it’s your typical trash talk. I have a hard time believing it was the usual trash talk when multiple players are coming out to speak about it, especially when we’re talking about a player who has been involved in a skirmish or six during his 49ers’ tenure.
John Lynch stood up for his player on KNBR Tuesday morning:
I think yeah, there’s a line. We’ve seen some terrible stuff, spitting and all that. Jauan never does that. I’m not out there, so I don’t know exactly what he says. There’s people I trust who are out there and have heard it. I don’t think Jauan has said anything.
I can’t speak for Shelby Harris. What I do know is Jauan plays incredibly hard, and plays through the echo of the whistle, and that’s how I was taught to play. I’ve got a great deal of respect, and I understand that can be frustrating for opposing players, because they’re not used to it.
When he’s on your team, I kind of liken it to Draymond. Draymond plays so hard that he’s an irritant. That’s very similar. Jauaun plays really hard, to the whistle, and they frankly aren’t used to receivers doing that. And he’s exceptionally strong, so he tosses these guys around a little. It’s a great thing that he’s on our side.
I don’t believe he crosses the line with the things he says out there. I think he just kinda gets under people’s skin because he plays a certain way. I can tell you this, they all wish he was on their team. We love having him on ours.
It’s not about Jennings “playing hard” or “being strong” or “playing through the whistle.” Nobody is debating that. The subject is about the words that were said.
Kyle Shanahan said he spoke with Jauan about the incident and when it occurred:
“It just sounded like there were players standing around for a while because of the injury, and then they got chirping at each other. I don’t know what words were said, but it sounded like he offended some guys with the words. But it was just about words during an injury time out.”
But Shanahan continued, and almost caught himself when he was going to go into detail about the verbiage used, and pivoted to Jennings, the player:
“No, I talked to Jauan, I asked him about it, but not in like, I love how Jauan plays. I think Jauan plays to the whistle as well as any player in this league. He’s extremely aggressive and plays as hard as he can to the whistle and he’s been doing that, as Niner fans know and you guys know, since he’s been here. I think sometimes that offends other players and rubs people the wrong way because they’re not used to people going that hard to the whistle. But I think what J.J. is very good at is not breaking rules. It’s just like at Arizona last year when he went to the whistle so hard it offended some of their corners, and they started throwing punches, and unfortunately, J.J. got kicked out too. But not because he didn’t throw a punch or anything. I think J.J.’s been really good at not breaking rules that way, and he gets other guys to break them a lot on him.”
It’s cool when he’s on your team, sure, but once again, we’re not talking about the style of play. It’s the words he is saying. I guess we’ll never know what was said. We’ll see if this is the last time Jennings gets into a dust-up. Whatever happens, he’s finding himself in the middle of these beefs more and more.
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