{"id":498240,"date":"2026-10-16T16:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/498240\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T16:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:40:11","slug":"49ers-reporter-accused-of-hugging-players-in-locker-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/498240\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers reporter accused of hugging players in locker room"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan hasn\u2019t always been the biggest fan<\/a> of Grant Cohn\u2019s questions<\/a>, but that\u2019s part of life on the beat.<\/p>\n

According to Cohn, David Lombardi didn\u2019t get that memo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t stand David Lombardi,\u201d said Cohn, a reporter for 49ers On SI, on his postgame livestream<\/a> last Sunday. \u201cIt\u2019s bad enough that he\u2019s a fan of the team that he covers, but he thinks he\u2019s on the team. So, for example, after a game, you might hear some of us interviewing players and the coach at the postgame press conference. You know who never asks a question? Dave Lombardi. You know why? Because he\u2019s not in there. You know why? Because he\u2019s in the locker room. You know what he\u2019s doing? Hugging the players!\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohn said that Lombardi, who covers the 49ers for the San Francisco Standard, celebrates with the 49ers \u201cas if they won together\u201d and grew increasingly visibly irritated at Lombardi\u2019s alleged behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does bother me,\u201d Cohn said. \u201cThey say before you go in the locker room, \u2018If you\u2019re not in here conducting interviews, you have to leave.\u2019 He\u2019s hugging the players! [\u2026] You\u2019re a player on the 49ers. You just won, [and] you\u2019re celebrating with your brothers. Here comes this freaking guy to give you a hug as if you guys accomplished something together. Who the f*ck are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

As any journalist knows \u2014 or should know, though lines are blurrier than ever in sports media now \u2014 \u201cit\u2019s not your job to bro out with the players,\u201d Cohn said.<\/p>\n

Cohn conceded that he would hug 49ers All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner if he ran into him at San Francisco International Airport in the offseason. He\u2019d even hug Shanahan at the annual NFL league meeting. But he said there must be a \u201cprofessional distance\u201d during the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t give Kyle a hug in the locker room after the game and say, \u2018How\u2019d it feel? How\u2019s it feel to be 5-0?\u2019 Man, f*ck that!\u201d Cohn said. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, dude. I do disapprove of fans covering teams, but still, Brian Nemhauser is a fan of the Seahawks. He does a great job, even though he\u2019s a fan of the team. He doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s on the team, and he holds their team accountable. This f*cking guy pretends to be a journalist and takes shilling to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Simon of SFGATE<\/a> reached out to the San Francisco Standard for comment on Cohn\u2019s allegations, but editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney declined. Neither Cohn nor Lombardi responded to Simon\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan hasn\u2019t always been the biggest fan of Grant Cohn\u2019s questions, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[151469,193414,752,101,296,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-498240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-david-lombardi","tag-grant-cohn","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}