The 49ers asked defensive end Nick Bosa about his controversial Twitter statements before they drafted him, but they say his tweets didn’t affect the decision to take him second overall.
Team President Al Guido told Bloomberg that Bosa was asked about his praise for Donald Trump and scorn for Colin Kaepernick on Twitter, but the team didn’t consider the issue in deciding to draft Bosa.
“Not at all,” Guido said, via the San Francisco Chronicle. “It doesn’t mean we didn’t do background on the kid, doesn’t mean we didn’t bring it up and ask him the question, but look -- if we’re going to get in a world where we’re not drafting Republicans or not drafting Democrats. . . . The way that I think about it is, ‘he’s a young kid, he had a perspective.’ That perspective is fine, some of other stuff he did I think was a little insensitive and needs to learn from.”
Guido said Bosa had good answers to those questions and the 49ers aren’t concerned.
“Honestly, I spent no time worrying about it, I know John Lynch spent no time worrying about it, we worry about the kid himself, not necessarily his political leanings,” Guido said.
Bosa said before the draft that he would stop tweeting about politics because he might get drafted in San Francisco, a liberal city. That’s fine if it’s his choice, but it’s not a choice he has to make. He’s entitled to express his opinions, and the 49ers were happy to draft him even knowing that some fans in the Bay Area may not care for those opinions.