San Francisco 49ers star pass rusher Nick Bosa isn’t known for his social media. He distanced himself from Twitter since his first season as a pro.
Since then, Bosa has had several retweets. He shared former teammate De’Vondre Campbell’s post about the NFL needing to do away with turf fields. In between that, there’s a Joe Rogan podcast retweet as well as a George Kittle one. But on Thursday, Bosa took the time to quote a tweet where ESPN cut ties with former NFL player Ryan Clark:
Instantly, the internet came out in droves to attack Bosa, calling him a racist and saying that he hates black people.
Part of the reason Bosa has distanced himself from Twitter was some pre-draft tweets he had. In August of 2016, he had a tweet calling former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick a clown.
That was one of many deleted tweets that would’ve been viewed as controversial. During Bosa’s first press conference, he apologized, saying, “It wasn’t directed towards (Kaepernicks’ stance. 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.”
It has been quite the decade for Bosa and girlfriend-turned-wife, Jenna Berman. She had some regrettable tweets as a kid and some strong anti-vaccination thoughts during COVID-19.
After a few quiet years, Bosa was fined over $11,000 for wearing a MAGA hat during Brock Purdy’s postgame interview in November 2024. There’s a faction of people who assume you’re a racist if you support a specific president.
While the Bosas’ actions haven’t done them many favors to dispel that, his Ohio State teammates were outspoken about where they stand with Bosa.
If you click on the quote tweets, several Buckeyes and NFL players chime in on their thoughts.
Clark criticized Bosa in 2024 when he wore the MAGA hat, saying there was a double standard in how sports media treats political statements. Clark said that Bosa chose a side of division and called out media figures for not speaking up about Bosa in the ways they have told other athletes to “shut up and dribble.”
I think there’s more to it than that, though. Clark used to go out of his way to call Brock Purdy a system quarterback. Clark would have extended rants about how he hated that he had to pretend that Purdy was among the league’s elite and that Purdy never elevated the team around him; rather, they were the ones propping him up. I wonder how much that played a factor in Bosa breaking his Twitter hiatus.
Internet sleuths have brought up Bosa using the “okay” hand gesture as another reason to bring race into the conversation. You can read why that gesture has a negative connotation.
This feels like nothing more than somebody satisfied with one person who wasn’t good at their job and was criticized personally by said person reacting.
