One of the bigger stories around the NFL offseason has been San Francisco 49ers star wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s trade request.
Naturally, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has been asked plenty of questions about the situation. But when it came to a question from one rather unpopular reporter, Shanahan was in no mood to give much of an answer.
Grant Cohn, who covers the 49ers for Sports Illustrated’s FanNation site, has his fair share of enemies in the 49ers locker room. His past feud with former 49ers defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw was most notable. Kinlaw is no longer with the team but Cohn’s rather unprofessional criticisms of Kinlaw, most notably ripping him for having “80-year-old knees”, had plenty of players inside the 49ers locker room at the time stepping up to defend their teammate.
This is the type of low life we let into our building. He would rather antagonize and provoke players into hitting him so he can retire instead of doing his “job“ of journalism. pic.twitter.com/jL5ZGTq8yZ
— Arik Armstead (@arikarmstead) May 25, 2022
It seems like Shanahan certainly isn’t Cohn’s biggest fan either.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Cohn brought up a previous quote from Shanahan from when Deebo Samuel requested a trade from the team.
According to Cohn, Shanahan had claimed that he had “a personal relationship” with Samuel, citing that as a reason why he was confident he could work things out with him, contrasting that trade request to Aiyuk’s. However, Shanahan offered a rebuttal, claiming that he “doesn’t know if that is exactly what he said.”
“When Deebo requested a trade a couple of years ago, you were asked why you were confident it would work itself out,” said Cohn. “You said you had a personal relationship with him and you hadn’t even talked to him yet. Why are you confident that you can work things out with Aiyuk if things get wonky?”
“Uhm, I mean I don’t remember exactly. Knowing you, I don’t know if I exactly said that,” replied Shanahan as 49ers general manager John Lynch began to laugh. “But I don’t remember. I have a personal relationship with all our players. You like to be able to talk with those guys. Usually, when it does get close, it can work out. I feel the same with Brandon. I’ve known Brandon here for four years, going into our fifth year together. I’ve got a lot of love for B.A. Hopefully, that can help, but it can only help so much. There is a business side to it. But when you have relationships with people, it helps.”
Kyle Shanahan just rocked a reporter when asked about WR Brandon Aiyuk 💀
“Knowing you, I don’t know if I exactly said that.”
(h/t @Coach_Yac)pic.twitter.com/VzrkWNevPX
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) July 23, 2024
When you criticize someone as heavily as Cohn has criticized 49ers players in the past, it’s no surprise that Shanahan had no problem throwing shots in his direction.
Cohn may have some work to do to get back in the good graces of the 49ers locker room, if that’s even possible.
