Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Monday that quarterback Lamar Jackson’s postgame tweet Sunday in which he lashed out at a fan was “so out of character for him” and a reminder of the perils of social media.
About an hour after the Ravens’ 28-27 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Jackson, a pending free agent, responded to a fan who’d tagged him in a tweet saying the Ravens should not commit to him financially. Jackson told the fan to “STFU” — “shut the [expletive] up” — and ended his comment with a vulgar insult. Before the message was deleted hours later, it had been retweeted thousands of times.
Harbaugh said he spoke with Jackson on Monday morning about the exchange, a rare outburst from a typically poised team leader.
“That’s not the way he speaks, it’s not the way he talks, it’s not the words he ever uses,” Harbaugh said. “I’ve never heard him say things like that before. ... He wants to win. I’m sure he’s frustrated, just like we all are, and that’s just a place you just don’t want to live right after a game. I know he understands that.”
Jackson, who typically addresses reporters on Wednesdays, seemed frustrated at times in his news conference after Sunday’s loss, in which his 343 total yards of offense and late go-ahead touchdown pass to tight end Josh Oliver weren’t enough to hold off the Jaguars. He tweeted at the fan about a half-hour after speaking with the media.
Harbaugh said he talks with players about the media and social media, advising them to avoid scrolling through Twitter after games, especially losses.
“It’s never going to be positive,” he said. “It’s not going to be a nice place. And I think that’s kind of reflected in Lamar’s response, because what he said was just so out of character for him.”
Harbaugh said Jackson has “one of the biggest hearts of anybody I know.”
“You all have seen him, the way he treats people, the way he treats kids, the way he treats the media,” he said. “And he’s also one of the biggest competitors I’ve ever met. So those kind of conversations he takes very seriously, you know? So you get trapped sometimes by someone that’s baiting you just a little bit, and you can’t live there. It’s not important. ... That’s something I love about him, but I think that’s not a place he wants to be and that’s certainly not things that he wants to say.”
