49ers tight end George Kittle was right, sort of. Receiver Brandon Aiyuk won’t “get in” the team facility on Friday, because he’s not trying to.
Per agent Drew Rosenhaus, Friday’s meeting will happen at the team’s business offices and not at the team’s practice facility.
That makes the session not a formal reporting-for-duty by Aiyuk, in the hopes of forcing the team’s hand. As explained earlier today, the NFL still hasn’t reinstated Aiyuk from the reserve/left squad list — even though Rosenhaus filed the request on October 27.
Instead, it’s a meeting presumably aimed at negotiating a resolution to the situation.
The 49ers pushed to reporters on Thursday night the idea that Aiyuk’s return to the NFL is tied to the $13 million the team believes he owes in previously paid signing bonus. That shouldn’t be part of the analysis as to whether he’s reinstated by the league, whether the 49ers put him on the roster again, and/or whether the 49ers cut him.
But they’re making it an issue, because they can tie his ability to play to his willingness to wire the disputed funds to the team.
So that’s what’s happening. The brakes already have been applied to what should have been an administrative and automatic process. The league and the 49ers are working together to help the team get money back from Aiyuk before Aiyuk is permitted to get back into the league.
Then there’s the fact that an active arrest warrant is pending for Aiyuk, arising from a speeding incident. The business meeting could potentially be interrupted by an attempt to enforce a specific item of police business.
