The soap opera surrounding Brandon Aiyuk and the San Francisco 49ers entered another chapter after the wideout posted a video to social media Sunday calling out his team.
Aiyuk addressed his situation in an IG post Sunday, accusing the 49ers of being scared of releasing him, among other things.
That post came a day after Aiyuk also posted a picture of himself wearing a Washington Commanders hat.
The Commanders are the team most likely to land Aiyuk should he be released, thanks to his relationship with Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels (they were college teammates at Arizona State University) and Adam Peters, who was a part of the San Fran front office that picked Aiyuk in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
But it could be a while before we see Aiyuk in burgundy and gold because the red and gold in San Francisco seem to want to drag this out as long as possible, and the team's fanbase wants the same thing.
49ers fans seem to think they are the warden from Shawshank Redemption. Photo by Archive Photos on Getty Images
49ers fans take sides in Shanahan Aiyuk drama
It's fitting that the Stanford prison experiment was conducted not too far from the 49ers' home in Santa Clara because 9ers fans seem drunk off the power they think the team has over Aiyuk.
Many of the fans' comments on social media are variations of "let him rot" about the 49ers.
They are right: the team doesn't have to release him right now, and since he still hasn't reported to them, the 49ers have no incentive to do so other than to move on from a bad situation.
Usually in the NFL, if a player makes it clear he doesn't want to play for the team anymore, that player is on the first thing smoking out of town.
Ironically, 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams was in a similar situation six years ago when the then-Washington Redskins traded the future Hall of Famer for a fifth-round pick and a third-round pick.
Williams had vowed never to don a Redskins jersey again after he claimed that team doctors misdiagnosed a cancerous growth on his scalp (though the team maintained that the heart of the issue was a contract dispute, not a medical one).
That vow tanked his trade value, as teams knew Washington had to get rid of him, especially if he was willing to miss games if he didn't get his way, as he claimed he would.
Commanders fans split on Aiyuk
Back on the Washington side of the fence, some fans are skeptical that Aiyuk's surgically repaired knee will be ready to go more than two years after his surgery.
Commanders fans on Twitter dug up footage of him warming up before a game in late October last season, and he looked healthy, accelerating and (most importantly) decelerating without issue. The comments under the 49ers' videos from the 49ers' faithful show that the fanbase saw Aiyuk as the missing piece of the puzzle for their offense.
Fast forward to less than a year later, and most Niner fans want to send Aiyuk to the puzzle factory.
Last week, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan took the unusual step of canceling mandatory minicamp as a supposed reward for the team's perfect attendance at voluntary offseason training activities (Aiyuk did not attend).
Now, Commanders fans are accusing Shanahan of doing that on purpose so that Aiyuk can't report, and this whole saga drags on later into the summer.
While on the surface that seems like a wild, unprovable accusation to make, Shanahan has been seen by some to be petty in the past, at times; even some 49ers fans would agree with that.
As for 49ers fans who say the team has no reason to release Aiyuk at this point, it's almost as if they haven't been paying attention to what's going on in their division.
They've been lapped by their once-bitter rivals, the world champion Seattle Seahawks, and their other rival, the Los Angeles Rams, just pulled off the biggest trade of the offseason.
Despite the high-priced roster full of talent and the boy genius coach at the helm, the San Francisco 49ers haven't won anything since the 90's. Those 5 Super Bowl trophies they like to trot out are gathering dust; meanwhile, the team's brass is fighting to punish a player who no longer wants to be on the roster.
Looking at how the Seahawks and Rams run their organizations, it's no wonder the 49ers will probably be fighting with the Cardinals for third place in their division.
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