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Jimmie Ward of the San Francisco 49ers has been relentless with his actions and words this week — from intercepting two passes in Week 10’s Monday Night Football romp, to planning retaliation on Odell Beckham Jr. to now, responding to the team’s criticism from two legendary 49ers.
Appearing on the Wednesday, November 17 morning edition of the “Murph and Mac Show” on KNBR 680 AM in the Bay Area, the veteran safety was made aware of comments made by Steve Young and Jerry Rice.
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Young appeared on the radio network’s “Tolbert, Krueger and Brooks” show on November 10 revealing a conversation he had with the receiver he once threw touchdowns to while both were at a charity event. Young said:
“I go, ‘What do you think?’ He goes, ‘There’s no dogs.’ And I got to interpret that,” Young said on the show. “There’s no dogs on there.”
Ward clapped back at the franchise and NFL legends.
“I respect their game when they played, but at the same time, they’re not playing no more,” Ward said on “Murph and Mac.” “They doing what they need to do. They need to talk, and they need to grab the headlines. That’s kind of how it goes when you hang up the cleats.”
Ward Says Both Are Trying to ‘Pull the Headlines’
The verbose 30-year-old Ward then went ahead and made his attempt to clarify what he thought the 49er legends said about the “there’s no dogs” statement.
“If I’m not mistaken, I want to say they said it’s ‘not enough dogs.’ I don’t think they said there’s ‘no dogs,’ because if there was no dogs, I think we would lose a lot more games,” Ward said. “It’s hard to win games, and there’s no dogs on the field.”
Ward added that he believes Young and Rice do watch enough reels of the 2021 49ers.
“And I’m pretty sure they watch the film,” Ward continued. “They know who are the dogs and who’s not. Basically, what they’re saying, they’re just trying to, like I said, pull the headlines.”
Ex-49er Says Ward Was ‘So Disrespectful’
One former 49er didn’t take too kindly of Ward’s response to Young and Rice.
Larry Grant, who played linebacker and special teams for the 49ers and was on the 2013 NFC championship team, took to Twitter to respond to what Ward said.
Ward insists that he has no beef with the 49er legends. He views it as them wanting to see the team do well, despite the wording that was used.
“They’re just trying to pull the headlines and they’re former 49ers players so they really rooting for us, man. So that’s like a message to other guys to say ‘step it up.’ I think that’s why they throwing their shots,” Ward said. “Because I’m pretty sure when they were playing, there were guys who used to play or media, who really cared for the 49ers and were just trying to push them. They were probably saying the same thing.
“So I don’t really look at it as disrespect, I don’t really look at it as motivation,” Ward continued. “At the end of the day I’m passionate enough about this game, I don’t need nobody telling me what I need to do or what I don’t need to do unless you’re in this building grinding with me. Then I’ll listen to you. If you’re going through what I’m going through right now, then I’ll listen to you.”
The entire Ward interview can be listened to here.
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