San Francisco 49ers defensive end Arik Armstead is definitely paying attention to what people write about him as he prepares to enter free agency.
Armstead started something of a one-sided Twitter feud with Santa Rosa Press Democrat columnist Grant Cohn earlier in the week after Cohn said on Twitter that the 49ers should pursue Jadeveon Clowney instead of Armstead if they cost the same amount of money in free agency. Armstead did not take kindly to that, and blasted Cohn on Twitter.
If you knew football and how to build a team you’d work in the front office of a NFL team instead of whatever you call yourself. Imagine that https://t.co/hjy9OFTNqe
— Arik Armstead (@arikarmstead) February 6, 2020
Armstead was not done there. He dug up video from before the season of Cohn predicting the 49ers would go 6-10, then continued tweeting about Cohn.
hating so much wishing your stupid predictions came true. A know it all that is wrong majority of the time . The worse @grantcohn pic.twitter.com/wMmFrMTuU4
— Arik Armstead (@arikarmstead) February 9, 2020
It makes so much sense now. Sometimes you need a friends that’s like “ yeaaaaa we probably should do something else “ @BEASTwriter_ @grantcohn pic.twitter.com/AcLciyeT8q
— Arik Armstead (@arikarmstead) February 9, 2020
All I’ve done is work hard and give back to my community. All I’m doing now is saying what everyone whats to say ( Gms, coaches included) y’all talkd bad about me , teammates , coaches , front office , ownership for too long. “ 2 bums in a pod “ @grantcohn https://t.co/xrudm90PRd
— Arik Armstead (@arikarmstead) February 9, 2020
I’m really not mad I just got time today its the offseason
— Arik Armstead (@arikarmstead) February 9, 2020
Cohn, for his part, was understated in his responses to Armstead’s tweets.
This guy is still mad lmao.
— Iggy (@grantcohn) February 9, 2020
I never criticized that guy.
— Iggy (@grantcohn) February 9, 2020
Arik Armstead is a good football player.
— Iggy (@grantcohn) February 9, 2020
A lot of people will love Armstead standing up for himself, especially since he can convincingly argue he had a better statistical season than Clowney did. It may not be best for him, though, especially with free agency coming up. Noise like this can easily be ignored, which is something Baker Mayfield, another player who was not shy about responding to his critics in the media, learned the hard way in 2019. It probably won’t hurt him much, but he’d probably be better off not worrying about what columnists are writing about him and his team.
This isn’t the first time Armstead has had something to say about some media speculation about him.
