Richard Sherman Drops Blunt Take on Brandon Aiyuk

Unfiltered candor is hard to find in the NFL. Current and former players and coaches often conceal how they really feel with vague answers in interviews.

If there's one former player who is not afraid to voice his true feelings, it's former star NFL cornerback and likely first ballot Hall of Famer, Richard Sherman.

Sherman has a passion for several facets of the NFL game. Among those things is one of his former teams, the San Francisco 49ers.

The former Niners cornerback has been vocal about several things involving the team, but San Francisco wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has caught his attention. He does not appear to agree with Aiyuk's approach to rehabbing back to health.

Sherman shared his honest thoughts on "The Richard Sherman Podcast."

“Now everybody's like, 'Well, what did the 49ers do? They disrespected him.' They didn't. And then you got, LeSean McCoy is like, 'Man, we needed someone to fight the power like this.' I don't know, Shady. I don't know if I agree with that, because they paid him $30 million to catch the football. They paid him $30 million to show up and play receiver for the San Francisco 49ers. Not be owned, not be anything.

Like, it's goods and services. You get paid for your services. You have to provide the services. You don't get to get paid and say ‘hmm, I'm not gonna play receiver, I'm gonna chill. I'm gonna do whatever I want.' You don't get to get paid and then say, 'Hey, I'm not gonna rehab with the team.'"

To Sherman, and to most reasonably minded people, the Niners were not wrong in expecting Aiyuk to progress more, be present and simply go to the practice facility to rehab with the team. 

Sherman notes that while Aiyuk did not have to rehab at the team facility, he did need to show up early to be reevaluated by the Niners' staff to see where he was at before other players started practices.

Unfortunately, Aiyuk has not been amenable to the Niners' plans for his return. It's that difficulty that has left the 49ers without a receiver and Aiyuk without the contract that he signed.

Signing a contract and then not fulfilling it is generally viewed poorly by most. Sherman suggests the Niners had every right to expect more from Aiyuk. We'll keep and eye on how both Aiyuk and San Francisco move forward.