49ers’ Talanoa Hufanga gets into postgame scuffle with James Conner

Cardinals running back James Conner shoved Niners safety Talanoa Hufanga in the face after San Francisco defeated Arizona 35-16 on Sunday.

The Fox broadcast cameras captured the postgame incident. While Conner approaches Hufanga, it appeared as though the two had been exchanging words. The Cardinals running back, who still had his helmet on, then grabbed the Niners safety, whose helmet was off, by the chin and then shoved him away.

Teammates for each player then came to separate the two as they continued to jaw at one another. The closest Hufanga got to any physical retaliation was grabbing Conner’s arm as the Arizona player grabbed at him again.

KNBR’s Jake Hutchinson asked Hufanga what exactly the scuffle was about, but the safety left things pretty open-ended when he replied, “Honestly, I don’t know what he was on.”

The safety then noted that it was Conner who came up to him first.

“Yeah, my man came up to me,” Hufanga said. “It’s all good though. It’s all respect at the end of the day, it’s love for the game, but it wasn’t my thing. He just wanted to show me something. I honestly don’t know what he was trying to show me. He only ran for 52 yards, so I don’t know what he was really on, but told him we’ll see him next time again. Took the L today, but they’ll be good.”

Unless Hufanga was keeping meticulous track of Conner’s output on the field, the safety must have found out about the running back’s yardage some time between the scuffle and his time with reporters.

Conner did not appear to have any postgame comments regarding what happened, which begs the question of why this all went down in the first place. 49ers defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw commented on an Instagram post of the incident, calling it, “Sucker s—t.”

As Hufanga noted, the Niners and Cardinals will play each other one more time this season, Dec. 17, where fans will get to see if there’s any leftover bad blood from this first contest.