Cowboys’ McCarthy: Diggs has to ‘be better’ after reporter incident

FRISCO, Texas —  Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy cited  Trevon Diggs confronting a television reporter after Sunday’s 30-24 loss to the San Francisco 49ers as an example of the team’s frustration with its 3-4 record.

“But I think we have to be better in those moments. I always talk about staying on a high road,” McCarthy said. “That’s part of our responsibility in this business. But I’m not ignorant or naive to the fact that this generation, that’s part of the world they live in, the social media world. You have to manage that. That’s part of being a professional athlete and that’s part of representing this organization properly.”

Not long after the players returned to the locker room from the field, Diggs, still in uniform, came outside to where the media was waiting to enter the locker room to approach a reporter about an in-game X post.

The post showed video of Diggs’ tracking after 49ers tight end George Kittle on a catch in which he eventually shoved Kittle out of bounds. The tweet appeared to question Diggs’ effort.

“That’s what you took from that?” Diggs said on video of the interaction. “Out of that whole play, that’s what you took from that? You don’t know football. You can’t do nothing that I do. You can’t go out there and do nothing. Stay in your lane, buddy. Stop trying me, dog.”

Diggs on Monday explained his reasoning for lashing out at the reporter in an episode of teammate Micah Parsons’ podcast.

Speaking on “The Edge with Micah Parsons,” Diggs said he felt the reporter’s post was “unnecessary” and an attempt to gin up a news headline by using “my name for clicks.”

“I went up to him and I just spoke how I felt,” Diggs said, admitting that he was hit with “a lot of emotions” fresh off the loss to San Francisco as he met with reporters.

“I just let my emotions get the best of me,” he added. “But at the end of the day still doesn’t make it right for anybody just to be saying anything, just trying to throw dirt on your name or make you seem like you’re doing bad or a bad job because I felt like I played my hardest game yesterday.”

Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer said it was important for Diggs, and all players and coaches, to write off the criticism as reporters doing their job.

“Obviously it’s important that we all be professionals with it and it’s not the kind of thing that we want to do,” Zimmer said. “You probably shouldn’t be reading tweets right after the game, but I don’t know if that’s what it was.”