Behind the Helmet of Jimmie Ward
Friday was a game-changing historic moment in 49ers sports journalism history, made possible by the appearance of safety Jimmie Ward in a one-on-one hour-long live streamed interview with Sports Illustrated's All49ers Publisher Grant Cohn. The interview with the longest-tenured current player of the franchise represented a quantum shift in the already skyrocketing ascendance of Grant as THE premiere bay area 49ers sports journalist.
Allow me to elucidate why.
The interview was noteworthy because in a time when journalists are being kept from the players by a combination of Pandemic restrictions and NFL teams using the Pandemic as a means to further restrict and control player access, we the fans were able to see a journalist speak to a player live. Gone are the days when Grant’s father, the Iconic Lowell Cohn, prowled the hallways of Candlestick seeking to corner the likes of Joe Montana or Bill Walsh in the sweat filled air of subterranean concrete hallways.
This was an interview born directly out of Grant’s mastery of the transition of sports reporting from one of print or even online print into a social-multimedia empire. Two industry professionals, pretty close to each other in age, both hard-hitters in their respective fields and yet both also with a generally kind and polite demeanor otherwise, sitting in the comfort of their own homes, linked by cameras and wires to the adoring eyes of the 1,400 fans watching the stream live.
The content of the Q&A of the interview itself will be dissected and covered by other writers. I am more focused on the event itself and the dynamic between the three parties: Interviewer, interviewee and fans-in-the-comments-section.
Right away you could see that Jimmie had the same friendly and respectful attitude that he showed Grant recently in a Zoom call with bay area Journalists that might be said to have led us all to Friday's event. Grant was clearly a combination of thrilled, a hair nervous and yet professionally prepared for this, his playoff level interview. (True he had done a phone interview with The Great Joe Montana, but this was his first direct interview via live-stream with a current player and as such represented a next-level step for his career) He started by setting the format, first some questions from him and then more interspersed with questions from the fans.
Grant wisely started by asking Jimmie to give us all some insight into his past. How he got into football, what it was like to be drafted. These sorts of questions were easy on all parties and did instantly humanize someone who, for most of us, has appeared on a screen behind a gold and red helmet as he crushed fools who dared, for example, to run a route across the middle while he was on patrol.
Jimmie is soft-spoken, extremely humble and yet comports himself with a deep rooted quiet confidence that comes from being a first-round pick, an established veteran and without being uncouth, a millionaire. I was struck right away how he spoke to Grant as an equal. He was not defensive or too-cool-for-school. He accepted all topics with a grace and familiarity that showed he was working with the interviewer not against them or worse yet solely for himself.
It was really enjoyable to hear his stories of being paid cheese fries to play football as a kid or how he has only ever played defense. Little pearls not available anywhere else were littered about this interview in a gaudy feast for the fans. As they went to high school together Jimmie shared that his current fellow 49ers Safety Jaquiski Tartt wanted to be in the NBA (and still does!). We learned Jimmie’s head hurt when he got drafted and that much like Frank Gore he counted every same position player taken before him and has marked their progress since. Coming from a small school let him truly shine. Draft position is more about “brand” than “skill, ability, experience” (which are now just subsets of “brand”).
It cannot be overstated how much fun it was for we fans to gain these sorts of insights. The comments section was a litany of different forms of celebration throughout the whole stream. Fans were celebrating Jimmie for coming on the show and Grant for the “W” of having him. Donations of $2-$20 flew in with questions, comments, praises and one guy who just could not stop trying to get Jimmie to play him in Madden. Over and over Fans communicated how much they appreciated this unique experience and the insights they were gaining. I guarantee a look at how the real-time Jimmie Ward Jersey sales went during this interview would be a wise move by the head honchos over at 4949 Marie P. DeBartolo Way.
The interview progressed easily into a phase of answering questions from fans. Grant, by now, is an expert at weeding through a group of questions from fans in order to move a discussion forward. Looking back on his many months of talking to everyone from his dad to other sports journalists to even aspiring teen-streamers, you can see time invested in his skills development paying dividends right before our very eyes.
The Jimmie Ward quotes from this interview were too many to track. Among my favorite was when he said “The Money Good Bro” when discussing the irony of having become so proficient at coverage that he does not get as much “action” (read: crushing people he DOES NOT like on the field with low hits that aim to extract a price) as he otherwise might. That his very efforts to improve may cost him everything from increased salary to rankings by analysts is an irony he shrugs off with a sly grin. Slights may motivate him but they do not run his experience of being a person or a football player.
As they pivoted from the fan questions back into a discussion of his current play, Grant again showed his mettle in asking questions that were designed to give fans insight to both Jimmie as a person as well as what it is like to be a football player at his position.
Delving into some more tough topics like what it’s like to be a player approaching age 30, led to Jimmie reminding us that due to injury he has not played as many games as his age implies. The viewers at this point could really see that they had settled into the interview dynamic. Jimmie was comfortable and did not evade any questions. He was humble and polite while also being very generous with his responses and stories.
Then, a fan asked a more hardball question: “What does the team say about Grant in the locker room?”
This was the section where Ward showed enormous respect to Grant. Rather than talk too deeply about what teammates might have said (clearly not his place to do) he went into several distinct reasons why he respected Grant even though he had been hard on him, especially in the early years of his career. Jimmie, like a true veteran, understands Grant's place in the reality-TV multimedia ecosystem that they both inhabit. He led off this section of the discussion with another classic quote that applies not just to their player-journalist dynamic but is perhaps, the most succinct summation of Grant’s career to date:
“Grant is Grant.”
Showing a savvy perspective that usually only comes with experience, Jimmie spoke of how he used any sharp and/or critical coverage by Grant as motivation. Especially for a first-round pick who has taken a longer time than normal to ascend to his personal level of greatness, Jimmie understands as he put it so well: “As long as my name is in your mouth. May not be the stuff I wanna hear... but it’s a privilege to have someone talk about your name.”
He closed with something that ALL professional athletes should say to ALL professional journalists.
“You motivate me. You push me. That’s why I am still playing.”
Could you really ask for a more respectful comment from a player you have covered for almost a decade, often critically?
Another glorious element of this event was getting to watch Grant’s face as he went through it. The mild nervousness of the start of the interview was gone almost instantly. Though Grant is confident in a way that boils over into cocky on the regular, he is also imminently well-mannered as is evidenced by the fact that he was calm and cool in his words while his eyes gleamed with the brightfire of a human who knows they are frigging crushing it in the moment in a way that is impacting the bigger picture of their life.
You could see that they were both enjoying the experience of this interview. Obviously this was unique for them both. Yes, Jimmie had been interviewed many times, but never by someone who he clearly was so familiar with from having consumed so much of his content. As a result, Jimmie not only was generous in his answers, he often took off and wandered near and far afield from the query in a way that frequently led to unlooked-for comments or stories from his life or career.
A fan inquired: What was it like to be the longest running member of the team and see a whole team turn over? This led Jimmie to reflect on the chaotic situation he matriculated into as a rookie. He made a polite mention of The Kaepernick Situation and then pivoted to a frank commentary on the leaks of the Trent Baalke era (he did not name names...I’m just saying what we ALL know about that era). Phrases like “it’s a business” and “that’s somebody playing politics” were spoken with a grudging understanding of the Game of Thrones played by all front offices of the NFL.
Another supreme gem of an answer came in response to being asked about his Favorite Match Up in the League, i.e. the one he likes to cover man to man the most. Jimmie responded without hesitation: “Kittle.” This led to a description that was part how unique Kittle is to cover (“They put Jalen Ramsey on him…”) and another part how covering Kittle has led to Jimmie improving his coverage. Coach Harbaugh would call this a classic “iron sharpening iron” and it shows why this group has exponential rather than arithmetic potential at this phase of their evolution under the current regime.
Perhaps the best example of both Jimmie's humility and his ability to start on one topic and wander elsewhere was his really sweet story about reaching out to Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed about tips for interceptions and how they did not take the time to respond. While it may seem derogatory to use the word “sweet” while describing a top NFL safety, this speaks to one of the core things about this whole experience. The further humanization of Jimmie Ward gives greater depth to the experience of being a fan, one that is sure to enhance viewing him play in games later this year.
As the interview entered it’s last quarter, it showed no sign of slowing down. Jimmie was so kind to the fans by giving not only his time, but doing so in a relaxed and unrushed manner which communicated to all of us that we were worth his time and attention. That he knew he would get this direct link to us by agreeing to let Grant interview should be a strong and happy message to all his teammates. While 1,400 people watched live, well over 10K will watch it at their leisure.
The insights grew more poignant as we neared the end of the interview. They discussed the contrast of being nice on the field and brutal when playing the game. Grant compared Jimmie Ward to John Lynch (who I bet my hat has already watched this interview (like the rest of the team)) another human both deadly vicious and politely soft spoken.
Jimmie linked this dichotomy back to the childhood lessons of learning to channel his energy into football. He spoke of being calm on the field by channeling the energy of excitement into a deep: “Woosa”
Jimmie shared excellent advice for professionals and amateurs at all levels of human society: To paraphrase: “Breath is a tool for focusing the mind and relieving pressure.” In a few months, when it’s 2nd and 3 and the camera cuts to Jimmie Ward under his helmet, I will be saying to myself, “Woosa”
The interview wound up with a re-visitation of the earlier topic of Grant’s style of coverage. Jimmie played this section like it was the fourth quarter of a Rams game in 2019. Strong 'til the finish.
“Football is a reality TV show, bro” (Note he called Grant "bro (much like Skip calls Stacy Peralta “bro” in Lords of Dogtown)).
“It’s all entertainment,” Ward continued, laying down some commentary that is sure to resonate up and down the staffing tree of the franchise “Even you. That’s why I watch you.”
In saying this, Jimmie is providing Grant with invaluable tape that further legitimizes his growth as a sports journalist while implicitly supporting both his sometimes-acerbic style along with the clear validation that his content is worthy of the attention of a true NFL pro.
To watch Grant's face as Jimmie is saying these things (and there is a literal stream of money being thrown by fans frantic to “be part of the show” with their questions and comments) was truly an ouroboros moment. It’s not a full circle, it’s an ascending spiral.
Grant’s pleasure at the acceptance of his style of reporting by Jimmie is massive. Jimmie is not just “some player,” he is a leader. What he says and does are most assuredly being noted by his fellow players. As a result, not only can you see the joy coming off Grant in waves, the entire east bay sky is lighting up from the glow coming off Lowell as he watches this interview. The layers of why this interview is, and will be looked back as, historic, are manifold.
The entire dynamic of professional respect that exists between these two successful humans (who have essentially come up together) can be encapsulated by the final comment of Jimmie Ward, who, in an extremely safety-like fashion, levelled one final hit just as the time expired
“You continue to be an asshole(Grant),” and the giant, knowing, humble, respectful grin with which he said it, told all concerned all that they needed to know.
