{"id":840183,"date":"2026-09-08T03:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T03:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/840183\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T03:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T03:54:11","slug":"daejon-loves-49ers-scam-merits-more-than-just-laughs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/840183\/","title":{"rendered":"Daejon Love’s 49ers scam merits more than just laughs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wanted to laugh at Daejon Love \u2014 if that\u2019s his real name \u2014 and his impersonation of a San Francisco 49ers wide receiver. I really did. <\/p>\n

I did laugh at a meme that was posted after Aaron Donald announced his return to the Los Angeles Rams. The top caption read \u201call this,\u201d with Donald, Myles Garrett, Puka Nacua and Matthew Stafford pictured, while the bottom caption read \u201cto stop one man,\u201d with Love pictured at the bottom.<\/p>\n

Memes and spoofs, such as the one Lou Young crafted at Love\u2019s expense, are harmless. What\u2019s not harmless is the reality of the situation. Love stole more than a million dollars from more than 20 women. Some people think that\u2019s funny, because the women should have \u201cknown better,\u201d or that it\u2019s a type of retribution for \u201cgold diggers\u201d who scam pro athletes.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s all absurd \u2014 and that\u2019s not just celebrity for you, but America. Hell, people are scared of lettuce these days. Speaking of greenery, one of the top shows on TV follows an American ex-pat who built a weed empire in London and has since started to move like a mob boss. Meanwhile, in real-life America, we still don\u2019t know what really happened to Nolan Wells.<\/p>\n

Collectively, we\u2019ve responded to celebrity and calamity the same way we do most things in this country: humor, cynicism and disregard. The laughs, again, are harmless. But our inaction and sense of justice are not.<\/p>\n

I listened to Stephen Jackson and LeSean McCoy weigh in on the saga. Jackson, who famously mourned the murder of his longtime friend George Floyd, offered an odd defense of Love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see y\u2019all laughing at the dude. Y\u2019all ain\u2019t no better than him,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cA lot of y\u2019all still got hoop dreams, y\u2019all just ain\u2019t walking around with a uniform on. \u2026 The only difference is he\u2019s wearing a helmet and a jersey. Most of y\u2019all are fake, and none of y\u2019all know what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Floyd as a reference point is important, because the trauma that Jackson holds on to should be a source of empathy, even if the stakes of Love\u2019s alleged crimes are not life and death. Instead, the former NBA player\u2019s focus shifts away from the victims and accountability for Love\u2019s actions, and Jackson uses the story to punch downward on those less accomplished than he is.<\/p>\n

McCoy leaned into his \u201cShady\u201d nickname by offering a gender-based, retribution-forward narrative: \u201cI love Daejon Love, and let me tell you why. \u2026 Every time a man does something, they want to crucify us for it. I watch women do this all the freaking time!\u201d<\/p>\n

This is, of course, an exercise in intellectual dishonesty. Love\u2019s scam used fake investments to target and defraud women. What Shady did on his podcast was project his personal dealings of his dating life, and he tacitly admitted as much: \u201cI\u2019ve been finessed a lot,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"YungYung Miami speaks during the BET Experience Celebrity Basketball Game at USC\u2019s Galen Center on June 25 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Aaron J. Thornton\/Getty Images for BET<\/p>\n

Blurring the lines of decency \u2014 of mutual respect between men and women, of celebrity and accountability \u2014 are essential to scamming.<\/p>\n

People have tried to suggest Love\u2019s behavior is the response to an incantation from rapper Yung Miami, born Caresha Brownlee, whose \u201cSpend Dat\u201d is an ode to scheming and is arguably the song of the summer. \u201cWhere all my scamming ass n\u2014-s at? \/ Spending that money fast,\u201d the City Girls founder sings on the hook. \u201cBoosting b\u2014-es, where y\u2019all at? \/ Stuffin\u2019 that s\u2014 in y\u2019all bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song is a case study in how we interpret entertainment and empowerment, and ultimately, the throughline for most people is not education. It\u2019s exploitation. But before detractors of Yung Miami groan and declare, \u201cCaresha, please,\u201d understand that the game is bigger than her, and has been for a while.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I revisited a 2018 profile on Yung Miami and her former City Girls bandmate, JT, with the headline: \u201cCity Girls Are More Like You Than You Think.\u201d It painted the duo in a stunningly honest light and discussed their upbringing, along with the realities of jail time for JT, who had been locked up in federal prison for credit card fraud.<\/p>\n

This quote from music producer Kevin \u201cCoach K\u201d Lee got my attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think [City Girls] are political, but the situations that they\u2019ve been put in are political. This world is male-dominated and crazy,\u201d he told Naomi Zeichner of New York Magazine\u2019s The Cut. \u201cMiami and JT, they\u2019re the voice for women who have voices, but don\u2019t get to use them. They\u2019re like, \u2018Oh I got a voice?\u2019 Then we gon\u2019 really let them have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tRelated Story<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Steve<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tSteve Wilks, Kyle Shanahan and scapegoating Black NFL coaches \u2013 Andscape\t\t\t\tRead now
\n\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Daejon Love is no innovator. Like Jackson, he disregards the meritocracy and self-esteem of former athletes who didn\u2019t make the professional ranks. Like McCoy, he offers commentary that suggests a disdain for women. There are times when a scammer\u2019s actions sound like a cry for help, or in the case of City Girls, is more of an F-U declaration. And then, there are folks like Love who scam for the love of the game.<\/p>\n

Being fair, that \u201clove of the game\u201d is bigger than our dear friend Daejon. The game, of course, is greed. Capitalism. The love of money over everything else. The Federal Bank of Cleveland just released a report about the record number of wage thefts occurring in the United States:<\/p>\n

In fiscal year 2025, the US Department of Labor recovered more than $259 million in back wages and damages owed to 176,957 workers (US Department of Labor, 2025). These recoveries were in response to various forms of what is termed \u201cwage theft,\u201d including unpaid overtime, unlawful wage deductions, and minimum-wage violations. However, this figure comprises only the amount recovered through government enforcement. Existing research estimates that from 2013 through 2015, workers in the 10 most populous states experienced minimum-wage-violation underpayments of $8 billion annually, affecting 2.4 million workers, with the average affected worker underpaid by about $3,300 per year.<\/p>\n

\"DaejonDaejon Love<\/p>\n

Instagram<\/p>\n

By now, you\u2019ve heard about the Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 scamming ways, and how Mark Walters\u2019 majority sale of the Los Angeles Lakers has drawn scrutiny as he faces federal investigation. Terrell Owens, a real former 49ers receiver, said the energy the feds are directing toward Love should be directed toward NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, who is linked to the largest welfare scandal in Mississippi history.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Niners] in the news again for all the wrong reasons. And I know this is probably not good to say, but you look at what he\u2019s done, scamming women out of X amount of dollars, Brett Favre scammed a lot of people outta money too, and he\u2019s still walking around. So if that\u2019s the case, Brett Favre should be in jail too,\u201d Owens said.<\/p>\n

I can hear detractors of this column now. \u201cIt ain\u2019t that deep,\u201d you\u2019ll tell me. <\/p>\n

I wish that were true.<\/p>\n

But the response to Love\u2019s shenanigans suggest something different, from rich and famous former athletes who see this as retribution against women, to the people who will say and spend anything to be in close proximity to fame.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a picture of Love looking over a birthday cake with a likeness of a Niners No. 7 jersey. The irony is caked on thick, to put it mildly. For starters, that\u2019s Colin Kaepernick\u2019s jersey, not Love\u2019s. A decade after he kneeled, Kaepernick\u2019s status in cultural history is undisputed. <\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another reason why \u201clove\u201d shouldn\u2019t be anywhere on that jersey. We\u2019ve become far too cynical about things that really matter.<\/p>\n

Ken J. Makin is a freelance writer and the host of the Makin\u2019 A Difference podcast. Before and after commentating, he\u2019s thinking about his wife and his sons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I wanted to laugh at Daejon Love \u2014 if that\u2019s his real name \u2014 and his impersonation of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-840183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}