Football is an extremely competitive sport, and at the top level, that competition gets taken to another stratosphere, so it was no surprise when cornerbacks Deommodore Lenoir and Chase Lucas exchanged words after the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions met in the NFC championship.
Just months later, Lucas signed a one-year deal with the 49ers and spent the entire year on their practice squad, and since then, he and Lenoir have squashed their beef and have quickly become great friends.
“Everybody’s seen the video that went viral of us going after each other at the NFC championship game, but when I actually met him, he was like one of the coolest guys on the team,” Lenoir told reporters at a recent media availability. “Our personalities, we clicked right away. Then, when he started coming to my house and stuff, we play the game and get to talking ball. I found out that he kinda thinks like me. I looked at him as a unique person, and then we’ve just been tight ever since.”
Lenoir also gave some more background on their confrontation at the NFC championship.
“So, the initial (confrontation), it started off in college,” “There were like some tweets. We were tweeting at each other in college. We had never really met each other before. The NFC championship game was the first time we saw each other in like five years. Once we saw each other, it was like ‘Hey, I remember what you said.’ It was something like that. Then, we became cool, and that’s one of my best friends.”
Despite their growing bond, Lenoir remembers not being too pleased when Lucas originally signed with San Francisco.
“When he came, I called coach Hart, and I was like ‘Why would you sign him?’ I was like “Why would you guys do that? This is the dude I was beefing with in the NFC championship game,” Lenoir said. “Just seeing him in the room, we didn’t talk for like the first couple weeks. We were just kinda side-eyeing each other, like who’s going to say something first. Then, we were running off the field one time, this is like the first time we actually had a conversation, we were running off the field and we slapped gloves, and we kinda looked at each other like ‘Alright.’ And, we were cool after that.”
While Lenoir entered this offseason as the team’s top cornerback, Lucas was expected to fight for a spot on the roster or practice squad. However, throughout training camp and the preseason, Lucas has made such a good impression, that he feels like a lock to be on the 53 in Week 1.
“We hang with each other every day,” Lenoir said. “When he goes to the special teams meetings, I’ll be in the locker room, and he comes out, we link up. We talk about almost everything – life, football. Just seeing him make those plays, I was happy for him because we’ve all been counted out before, and I was in his position before, if I had a person like me in my ear, I would be happy for them too.”
There’s a strong chance that Lenoir and Lucas will finally get to share the field together again in 2025, but this time, they probably won’t be trying to attack each other.
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This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: Budding bromance between 49ers cornerbacks has been one of the best parts of training camp
Reporting by Mike Masala, Niners Wire / Niners Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
