Brandon Aiyuk runs through practice with San Francisco 49ers - ESPN
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — After one of the most turbulent — and public — contract negotiations in recent memory, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk doesn't believe that any hard feelings between him and the team will linger.
When asked Tuesday if he and the Niners can move past the back-and-forth that led to the four-year, $120 million contract extension he signed Friday, Aiyuk acknowledged the role he played in extending the negotiations.
«I'm not going to lie: I made it a little bit more difficult than it needed to at the end,» Aiyuk said in his first comments since signing his new deal. «I mean, it was like that for me, I'm not going to say the whole entire time, but for about the past month, I think we were pretty good.»
When the Niners returned to the field for Tuesday's «bonus» practice in preparation for Monday night's opener against the visiting New York Jets, Aiyuk was in his No. 11 jersey and working in his usual spot with the other wideouts. It was Aiyuk's first practice with the team since the Friday before Super Bowl LVIII, a span of 207 days. Those days were largely marked by the strained negotiations between the team and Aiyuk that saw him take often to social media to air his grievances about not only how they were going but how long they were taking.
At various points, Aiyuk attempted to apply pressure to the Niners to get a deal done.
In March, Aiyuk used his social media platform for emojis that translated to «money talks, bulls--- walks» after general manager John Lynch insisted at the league meetings that the team wanted to pay Aiyuk. The receiver stayed away from the team's offseason program and didn't show up for the full-squad minicamp in early June, incurring $101,000 in fines.
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