San Francisco 49ers superstar pass rusher Nick Bosa sparked a lot of controversy this weekend when he displayed a “Make America Great Again” hat during a television interview in support of Donald Trump. But that’s not the first time he’s gone viral for a controversial opinion.
Back in 2016, when Nick Bosa was a freshman with the Ohio State Buckeyes, he posted a Tweet in which he called Colin Kaepernick “a clown” in response to his protests during the national anthem.
The Tweet was one of many controversial posts he deleted leading up to the 2019 NFL Draft where Bosa was selected with the No. 2 overall pick by the Niners.
He addressed this controversy during his introductory press conference with San Francisco back in 2019.
“It wasn’t directed towards (Kaepernick’s stance),” Bosa said back in 2019 according to ESPN. “It’s not like I’m saying his stance and what he was doing, that’s not what I was calling or talking about at all. It was just a specific thing that happened and me as a young kid a thought popping in my head and boom, decided to tweet it out. Bad decision. I respect what he’s done. If it empowers anybody then he’s doing a good thing. So, I apologize for that.”
Bosa further addressed his controversial opinions in the press conference as he vowed to “grow up” and “learn a lot of new things” after being selected by San Francisco.
“I definitely made some insensitive decisions throughout my life and I’m just excited to be here with a clean slate,” Bosa said. “I’m sorry if I hurt anybody. I definitely didn’t intend for that to be the case but I think me being here is even better for me as a person because I don’t think there’s any city that you could really be in that would help you grow as much as this one will.
“I’m going to be surrounded by people, all different kinds, so I’m going to grow as a person and I’m going to be on my own. College, you have kind of like that support system around you. Now I’m here, I’m going to be on my own, I’m going to grow up, I’m going to learn a lot of new things.”
Clearly, however, his political leanings have not changed all that much.
While Kaepernick himself did not offer a response to Bosa’s MAGA hat, his girlfriend did offer a pretty firm response.
[ESPN]
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