The San Francisco 49ers introduced newly drafted defensive end Nick Bosa via a press conference on Friday. His past social media activity remains a hot topic among the media, and he was bombarded with questions on the subject.
Bosa sounded remorseful of his decisions and said it was his agent's idea to take control of his social media accounts and remove any posts that might create controversy. Instead, the action of deleting them pushed the topic into the spotlight.
"He just went through and deleted whatever he thought would rub people the wrong way," Bosa said. "I didn't think people would take that as me trying to hide things."
Bosa was asked if he can understand why some of his comments can be viewed as offensive.
"I definitely made some insensitive decisions throughout my life," he responded. "I'm just excited to be here with a clean slate. 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 will help you grow as much as this one will.
"I'm going to be surrounded with people, all different kinds, so I'm going to grow as a person, and I'm going to be on my own. In college, you still have that support system around you. Now 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."
One of the controversial social media posts was Bosa calling former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick a "clown" following his protests against social injustice. Bosa regrets the comments and says he doesn't feel the same way anymore.
"It's not like I'm saying his stance and what he was doing, that's not what I was talking about at all," he explained. "It's just a specific thing that happened, and me as a young kid, a thought popping into my head, and boom, I decided to tweet it out. Bad decision.
"I respect what he's done. If it empowers anybody, then he's doing a good thing. I apologize for that."
Bosa believes no further explanation on the subject will be necessary once his teammates meet him and get to know him.
"They're going to see who I am as a person, and that will be enough," he added.
Bosa has learned a lot and will be more careful and respectful moving forward.
"I'm definitely going to think a lot more before I send something out," he said.
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