As U.S. President Gerald Ford once said, “Our long national nightmare is over.”
He said this shortly after being sworn in following the Watergate scandal, which resulted in the resignation of President Richard Nixon, and that sentiment is probably shared by a great deal of San Francisco 49ers fans as it pertains to wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk.
The big news on Wednesday was that Aiyuk is planning on being reinstated to the NFL, and he is reportedly planning to report to the 49ers facility on Friday. While the whole situation with Aiyuk is so bizarre and odd, at least the Niners are finally going to get some sort of resolution in this saga.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked about Aiyuk by the media on Wednesday and gave a very Shanahan-like response. 49ers players were also asked about Aiyuk, and Nick Wagoner of ESPN shared some of their responses on social media.
49ers players respond to Brandon Aiyuk news
Christian McCaffrey said the following, "I don't make any of those decisions, so it's not on my radar. I just focus on my job. I haven't thought about it."
Nick Bosa had this to say, "Oh man. I don’t know. Not my place, really. I’ll dap him up. No hard feelings between me and him."
Fred Warner said, "Yeah. I don't know if I really have anything to say about it. Kind of let that work itself out."
49ers quietly can't wait for Brandon Aiyuk drama to be over
These are all examples of the right thing to say in a situation like this and it shows that this team, which has so many veterans who have kind of seen it all at this point, is not going to be distracted by anything. They’ve been asked questions this year about a car accident their head coach was involved in, the owner of the team getting busted in a prostitution sting, whether their bodies are being slowly deteriorated by an electrical substation, and about an imposter 49ers player named Daejon Love who allegedly scammed people out of millions.
The Aiyuk situation is crazy but at this point crazy is simply to be expected with this franchise. At the same time, though, the Niners have to be happy to have the Aiyuk situation behind them. Even though he hasn’t been around or even part of the team for over a year, it’s just something that has loomed over the franchise for a long time and has served as a distraction for so long.
Surely, some guys in the locker room have to feel like Aiyuk quit on the team. He got paid a ton of money, and while his form of quitting was not as obvious and dramatic as De’Vondre Campbell walking off the field in protest back in 2024, it is still pretty egregious.
The most likely outcome is that the 49ers will release Aiyuk, but whether they let him go or trade him, it will be very nice for the long Aiyuk nightmare to finally be over.
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