Ex-Niners QB Jeff Garcia made an appearance on 95.7 The Game's "Steiny & Guru" to talk about the controversy surrounding his comments towards ESPN's Mina Kimes. The four-time Pro Bowler doubled down on his statement and said he 'doesn't owe anyone an apology.'
In the interview, (which you can listen to above) Garcia started off by saying there was nothing sexist about what he said towards Kimes, in reference to the comment he made towards her after seeing a post from a 49ers fan page on Instagram that showed a video of the ESPN personality ripping Jimmy G on an episode of First Take, saying the 49ers are winning with Garoppolo, but not necessarily because of him.
when insecure dudes can’t attack the points they attack the person. mina is brilliant and we’re lucky to have her. y’all be nice and not sad and angry like jeffrey here pic.twitter.com/kvEVoPiOPo
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) January 27, 2022
Garcia claims if he heard it coming from anyone else, he would've called it out, whether it was a man or woman if they chose to slam Garoppolo in the same manner as Kimes did.
"I don't owe anyone an apology for my beliefs and my experience of playing the quarterback position," Garcia said. "People want to comment and tear apart, tear down individuals based upon statistics. The only thing that matters right now is are you winning games? There was nothing sexist about what I had to say, outside of the fact that yes, women don't play professional football, there are some women that do participate in football but had it been a man that said the same thing, I would've had the same response for that man."
When asked by one of the hosts, Matt Steinmetz on why he chose to come after Kimes specifically and not any of the other media pundits who have criticized Garoppolo, Garcia claimed he simply saw the post on his timeline and decided to defend Garoppolo and Kimes just so happened to be the voice behind the video.
"I don't seek out what other people are saying, I'm not sitting here listening to ESPN. There was a post that came through on my feed from a 49ers faithful. I made a comment on his post, or at least that's what I thought I was doing to the 49er faithful saying hey, I'm behind Jimmy, he knows he has to play better. We are all very self-critical at this level of how we play the game. If we are not, we wouldn't be at this level. It just so happens she was the mouth on the end of the video post that was shared. If it would have been Skip Bayless, if it would've been you, if it would've been anyone else and I happen to see that, ripping into the 49ers quarterback I would've said the same thing. It had nothing to do with her being a woman."
Garcia continues, listing his accomplishments in the NFL as the reason he can talk the way he does about the game and sent what seems like a subliminal shot at former Lions teammate and ESPN commentator Dan Orlovsky who works alongside Kimes on NFL Live and defended her on Twitter in wake of Garcia's comments.
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"I don't care what anyone else has to say about me and my experience and what I did as a player cause I know what I obtained as a player, overcoming a lot of obstcles to get at that elite level. I'm a 4-time Pro Bowl quarterback and I led teams to playoffs, and I led 3 different division titles in 3 different divisions. Tell me how many QBs did that s--t without being drafted? There are a lot of quarterbacks out there who were wasted draft picks, talking, and sticking up for her, that didn't do a damn thing on the football field."
After continuing on the same path about his comments towards Kimes not being about her being a woman, Garcia decided to cut the interview short after being asked multiple questions about his comment.
"I'm not here to talk about yesterday because it's yesterday's news I'm want to talk about what's going on with the 49ers and why they're more physical than the Rams. I'm here to talk about Sunday. I'll get off the phone right now, I'm not going to talk about this crap anymore if this is what the conversation is gonna be. I was brought on to talk about the 49ers game, that's yesterday's news, move on."
If there is one positive to come out of this story, Garcia still has a lot of love and passion when it comes to the Niners. However, the fact that Garcia claims you had to play in the NFL in order to talk about the sport and voice your opinion is by far one of the most absurd sports takes in the early parts of 2022.
Even though Garcia insists on not talking about this story, with his fiery interview, this story will continue to persist, and it will likely follow him for a long time.
Follow Jasper Jones on Twitter: @jonesj2342
