What REALLY Happened Between Javon Kinlaw & Grant Cohn - The FULL Story

me like yeah man I face down Javon kinlaw and saw him the next day and hased it out and shook hands and and worked in the same locker room with him for the next two years and like almost have it as a point of Pride was like would I could I take it back if I if if I could yes if that day could have never happened yes but it did and I think what would be really cool and I wouldn't bet against it if I see Javon kinlaw one day when we're like both 50 that we would get a kick out of seeing each other I think that's just how life works at least when it's good well how does it feel for you in the moment because in that at that point you were this figure of controversy we're in what I call the take Zone um I am wildly uncom where everyone has a take on you and it's the same one yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that you're bad yeah or maybe you know that's what m worse everything that's bad with journalism nay Society yes yes no you were held up as one of those guys I think McAfee might have taken a shot at you people were taking their shots at you when kinla went off on you as this underperforming draft pick the 49ers had yeah and you to the world present as somebody who relishes in the attention and is thirsty for battle a happy warrior yeah I don't know anybody who enjoys being in that situation I know I don't I wish I did I would be better off if I did but when it was actually going down I mean what were you experiencing how how did it feel uh it was kind of terrifying but all I could think was you got to stand your ground can't back down said what you said and now he's gonna say what he says and that's okay but you can't shrivel you can't take it back you can't seem scared even though you are uh I mean even though like you realize what's at stake this is being like first it was on the practice field then it was on my stream I mean then it was 3 days of being canceled or whatever it was awful I would wish that on anyone but when it's happening it's like well it happened now I got to keep my head up high and not believe when the whole world says you're the you're the worst person like you gota because what what really was it was a function of the offseason I mean nothing was going on it was May uh people people wanted something to talk about we gave it to them and then I think a week later someone in the Giants got slapped before a game who was it uh what was that guy's name can't remember P High what his name was he got slapped before a game by from someone on the Reds and then everyone was talking about that for three days no one cared about me and Javon anymore because it was essentially basically just like a schoolyard you know yeah drama it's F but as it's happening it feels like the end of the world and you go outside you can hear your heart pounding and you feel like you're the focus of this attention I'm fascinated by the inability of myself psychologically to transcend that kind of thing because it's all online it's not real necessarily yet it feels so real and I've just come to try and avoid it I wish I could just engage with those sorts of moments in a way and stay even killed I had like a mini flare up where I was on a very well listened to podcast last week and I had a very lukewarm take about how the NBA uh the wmba should have had the same names as the NBA teams because of the shared branding how dare you I'm offended I know it's sexist somehow I don't somehow that I wouldn't have came on Wow Wow I know it's like doing reputational damage you know is a bank shot right there no I I I could even have I know some media people were also expressing outrage but then it's just it's so fake I mean maybe somebody found some way to be offended by that I suppose but I don't one of the reasons why I don't even want to engage with the reaction is that you're almost bathing in the disingenuousness of others and it's an ugly it's an ugly thing versus I don't know a more analytical assessment of what one should do or should not do yeah I mean when everyone came down on javon's side I felt like wait a second no one really knows what happened no one was there no one knows that the the context and no one really cares about Javon like you're just using this as a vehicle to be outraged about something and then you'll be outraged about something else next week and then you'll stop caring about what happens to him and his career immediately so I felt like at the time like just check with your employers make sure you're not getting fired not getting fired cool cool like everything's gonna be okay I can't actually get hurt um but you know it's funny like since then yesterday I was at the Giants game and I was sitting I ordered a beer and the guy came up and he was like you're a sports Rider I was like yeah I am he's that's awesome man that's awesome so I pay and I gave him a 20% tip that I wasn't going to give he's just giving me a beer but I gave him the 20% tip and he goes hey I got to say though I hate your [ __ ] and he walks away oh my God I like wait a second back hate your [ __ ] man oh my God can we go back to the kinla moment by the way it just occur can we go back to the kinlaw moment because it just occurs to me that kinla is off the team he is no longer with the 49ers the statute of limitations I believe has ended what happened in this legendary meeting with you and John Lynch and Javon kinlaw what happened there how are you feeling I think I think it's it would be wrong for me to go into detail I think we we shook on it let's this was between us but I can summarize I mean he said why he was upset with me he exp expressed exactly what he had a problem with me doing and questions he had about how I did my job and I did my best to explain you know why I do and how I do what I do and we ended up shaking hands and and it was very like kind of thing Barack Obama would set up between people it seemed very presidential the beer Summit yeah absolutely so it allowed him to get whatever he wanted off his chest he could yell at me he could curse at me he could say whatever he wanted he could ask me whatever he wanted I sat there and take it and took it and then we shook hands and coexisted for two years so I don't want to like go back on that and be like he said this exactly you're not going to believe that this one moment like I'm not going to do that because it's I want more I want more Mind's Eye how it felt walking into that that's a very you've had this public blowup on a live stream with Javon kinlaw saying all the stuff about you the GM has set up this meeting I believe Lynch was there I mean are you are your knees shaking as you go into that I mean what sort of what are you even expecting of that situation yeah I didn't know what to expect I mean it was me John Lynch PR director Matt mayoko and kinla so I didn't know I mean up until then like when he came up to me on the sideline he was kind of joking around and then on the stream he was angry so I didn't know what his emotion was going to be but and so I was kind of at first I was sitting there like man if he decides he wants to hit me no one in this room can stop him like it's going to be our secret and no one's G it's like this sucks I really hope that in a you know in a conversational mood and really what he wanted to do was express how much I had hurt him without getting into too much but it was a lot of emotion and I could only respect that I mean he was extremely vulnerable with me uh and I could only respect that so I answered any question he had and I'm not saying he likes me um but he did shake my hand and never we never got into it again and I I've told this after the uh NFC Championship game he was sitting at his locker I knew it was going to be the last time I saw him in that locker room and no one was talking to him because he didn't start so he's sitting there taking his tape off of his wrists and I go walk up to him I say hey Javon and he looks at me kind of surprised and says hey I said congratulations and he said thank you and that was that that was the last time I talked to him so I think I think it's okayish is yeah it's a it's a tricky thing because I don't want to hurt people's feelings but I want to be honest right I don't want to be gratuitous about it I was just thinking if we were to have a conversation about your various um sons that you've spawned of 49ers YouTube If you were to start asking me about them I feel like I would struggle to be honest with some of them I have very positive things to say about others I would go yeah he's not that good but I know that they would ultimately get back that would get back to them you know if you're talking on here if I gave that assessment that's something I struggle with sometimes where I I think I almost default to talking more generally about media Dynamics because perhaps I've gotten soft now that I've lived a little and I know that the things we say actually are absorbed and psychologically impact people yeah and it's not just them it's their families this is what I've learned from kinlaw and other players like Dante Pettis you if you start going in on players because they're a first round pick and it wasn't the right one and it's the conversation and you're saying this was the wrong pick it's the wrong pick like their parents are going to hear it their brothers and sisters going their friends are going to hear it and those are the ones are going to get really upset and those are the ones who are going to be talking to the guy the player about it so yeah like on the one hand you want to keep it real but at the same time you don't need to like Hammer that every single day and like Relish in it like that took me a while too because when I first started doing on YouTube like fans would love it like oh yeah make fun of Mike mgit you like okay I'll give them what they want and then you got to look the guy in the eye in the locker room and Michelin is like really nice and he would never you know like acknowledge that it hurt his feelings or affected him but clearly like I'm like oh he has more dignity than I do so it took me a while to kind of find a middle ground that I felt comfortable with like Javon kinla I probably was too snarky about a guy whose biggest sin was having a messed up knee like it's not like he didn't work hard it's not like he didn't want it I think that's basically what he wanted to express to me like dude I want this I'm doing everything I can my knees messed up and why does that make you happy and I try to explain them it doesn't it really doesn't and I apologize if I um disgust you in those ways like it with Glee because I don't feel that way and I try hard not to do that anymore