San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel faced criticism for losing his composure on the sideline during Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He got into a brief scuffle with his teammate, long snapper Taybor Pepper. Pepper stepped in to defend kicker Jake Moody, who had missed three field goals in the game.
Afterward, Samuel acknowledged his emotions had gotten the best of him.
"Normally, I don't even get like that, but just frustrated in the heat of battle," Samuel told reporters. "You know, really close game, and I kind of got out of character a little bit. But I'll talk to Moody, and we'll get past it."
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One former NFL player supports Samuel in the incident, believing the veteran receiver was simply holding his teammate accountable after Moody struggled in his first game back from a high-ankle sprain.
"Yeah, it's frustrating," Sherman said Sunday on his podcast, per Angelina Martin of NBC Sports Bay Area. "Before the injury, I think [Moody] was 14 of 15, looked pretty good, looked like he was putting away all the all the doubt that people had, all the concerns. But then you come back from the injury after the two kickers that replaced you pretty much were flawless on PATs and field goals, if I'm not mistaken ... the third [missed] kick, you start to have a lot of questions, and you start to see a frustration from both players and fans
"And when Deebo Samuel goes up to [Moody] and says 'lock in,' and apparently that's what he said -- that's what Taybor Pepper said he said—you don't defend him from that. You don't get to defend him from from accountability from the team, when if I give up a touchdown pass and one of my teammates comes on like, 'Hey, come on now. Lock in,' somebody's not going to come in and save me.
"You got to be tough. This is the National Football League."
Sherman highlighted the 49ers' red-zone struggles, which have put greater pressure on their kicking game and made Moody's performance even more crucial. His missed kicks on Sunday nearly cost the 49ers the game, but he ultimately connected on the game-winning field goal, securing a 23-20 victory.
"You got to make the kicks," Sherman continued. "This game should not have been this close, and it's coming down to the final kick because of missed kicks. And so I'm totally with Deebo here. There are better ways to handle it, and I understand, kind of, what Taybor is doing, trying to defend his guy, but you cannot defend people from accountability.
"I don't care, not in this game. You can defend from people going overboard, or cursing him out, or saying you suck, or something like that. Then shield him from that. But if [Samuel's] telling him to lock in, get out of his way and let him tell him. Let him look [Moody] in his eye and tell him, 'lock in.'"
Head coach Kyle Shanahan addressed the incident on Monday, sharing that the team has moved past it and that he spoke to the players after the scuffle drew considerable media attention.
"I think it was a little bit of an overreaction," Shanahan said during a conference call. "You never want Deebo to throw a baby punch or anything on anybody on our own team, but Deebo also wasn't saying anything bad to Jake, like it sounded. He was meeting him on the field, telling them to 'lock in,' the same thing I'll tell to an offensive player who just dropped some balls or made some penalties or something.
"You never sit there and belittle anybody or try to embarrass anyone. You try to challenge guys that you believe in. That's how we speak to each other, and telling someone they need to focus and lock in because we know you can do this.
"I like Pep's (Pepper) intentions on it. I mean, he's got his kicker's back, but I think he kind of interpreted wrong what Deebo was doing to him and overreacted a little bit, and Deebo didn't like that and got him out of his face, and that's really about where it ended."