The Columnist Who Got Owned by Chip Kelly Has History With Colin Kaepernick, Jim Harbaugh, and Joe Montana

Lowell Cohn of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat tried to get Chip Kelly to answer a certain way about how Colin Kaepernick was viewed in the locker room. Kelly was having none of it. The questions seemed bizarre, leading, and Cohn actually got into a disagreement over whether Kaepernick “took over the room.”

In searching our archives, Cohn has come up before on a couple of occasions. Most recently, in 2014, he was railing on Colin Kaepernick during contract negotiations when he said:

There are words to describe his position starting with “hypocrite” and ending with “phony.” You can fill in words in between.

I don’t even know what words to fill in between that. It prompted Kaepernick’s mom to jump into the fray at the time. (her account has since been deleted.)

When one has an inability to articulate their thoughts intelligently, they often resort to namecalling. Isn’t that right @lowellcohn ?

— Teresa Kaepernick (@mommakaep) March 5, 2014

Cohn also showed up on the site in 2012, in regard to a column he wrote about Jim Harbaugh after a loss. Cohn actually said this:

"The 49ers have been falling apart since the second half in New England. They barely held on that time, but the fall had begun and they’ve been plummeting ever since. What is the cause of the big plummet from the sky? Actually, who is the root cause? Harbaugh is. It is the coach’s job to get his team ready for a big game, something Harbaugh is unable to do."

That New England game referenced was just one week earlier, and was a game that the 49ers won, at New England (ask Houston how easy that is).

Here’s how it closed:

"He is not on the Tom Coughlin level or the Leslie Frazier level — Leslie Frazier? — and he sure isn’t on the Jeff Fisher level. He couldn’t beat Fisher in two tries this season despite having the better roster. We always assumed he was above the Pete Carroll level going back to college ball. Not anymore. After Sunday, he’s lucky to be on the Pete Carroll level."

Of the four coaches named, Carroll was the lowest on the pole. No one is on the Jeff Fisher level (anticipates a 10-year extension for Fisher any day after winning a game).

Cohn has a long history of covering the 49ers in the Bay area. Joe Montana referred to Cohn as “a master of the low blow. … I have no respect for a person like Cohn, who enjoys kicking us when we are down and does it for a living.” There might have been a few former 49ers getting a chuckle about what happened with Chip Kelly.