Deebo Samuel Says He has Received Death Threats from 49ers Fans

Yikes.

Grant Cohn | Apr 15, 2022

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San Francisco 49ers

This is ridiculous and sad.

Deebo Samuel made a video today in which he indicated that San Francisco 49ers fans are sending him death threats and racial slurs essentially because he's in a contract negotiation with the team and has taken down pictures on Instagram in which he's wearing 49ers gear.

"For all y'all fans that's in the DMs sending death threats and racial stuff, that don't bother me," Samuel said. "It don't. Because y'all was the same ones that was just hoo-rahing and saying, 'Go Deebo!' Now y'all want to send death threats and all this racial stuff -- it don't bother me. I'm cool. I'm chilling. I'm happy."

Yikes.

Obviously, it's never OK to send anyone death threats or racial slurs. But where is all this anger and hatred for Samuel coming from?

Is it Samuel's fault that wide receivers are getting paid so much these days?

Should Samuel apologize for having an All Pro season in 2021 and gaining 1,770 yards from scrimmage -- second most ever by a 49ers wide receiver after Jerry Rice, who gained 1,884 yards from scrimmage in 1995?

Is Samuel not allowed to take down certain pictures from his Instagram account during a contract negotiation?

Did Samuel ever demand a trade?

Has Samuel ever thrown a teammate or a coach under the bus?

Did Samuel complain when the 49ers cut his targets in half midseason and asked him to play running back?

Some people act like Samuel is a diva and the second coming of Terrell Owens, but that's grossly inaccurate. Plus, Owens wouldn't have deserved the treatment Samuel is getting these days from certain 49ers fans.

Do better.

Published Apr 15, 2022

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.