Pittsburgh sports radio host Andrew Fillipponi made some waves earlier this week when he reported that the 49ers and Steelers had a verbal agreement in place for a trade involving wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. Since then, however, there hasn't been any movement.
Fillipponi responded to some critics and doubled down on his reporting on his Audacy Sports Podcast “1st & Pod” on Friday.
“I understand right now how it looks when I say that the deal is done besides hammering out details and crossing t’s and dotting i’s and we’re taping this on Thursday night and a deal is not done,” Fillipponi said. “That does not make me look great.
“I’ve had people on social media go after me like crazy for that. I would say to some of those people that I am 100% convinced of this: any person in sports media with any degree of reporting training with any rudimentary knowledge of how reporting stories is supposed to work would have phrased what I put out there the other day, in my opinion, the same exact way. If I told them how that story happened they would all say the same thing: ‘Oh, I would’ve done the same thing.’ So in that way, I feel fine about what I said.”
There have since been some reports that the 49ers are looking to acquire another wide receiver in an Aiyuk or Aiyuk-adjacent trade. But Fillipponi still believes Aiyuk will end up in Pittsburgh.
“I don’t see how there’s a Plan B or how there’s another way this ends up working out. Just remove my reporting from my story right now and go with everything else that’s out there. How is it another team other than the Steelers? Explain that to me,” he said. “There’s no mystery team. It’s not the Patriots. He doesn’t want to play for the Browns. He’s not getting a contract extension in San Francisco. The only thing that leaves is him playing there for $14 million dollars. Do you actually think that that could happen?”
“I don’t have another team for you but I would just say as an outsider who has not done any reporting on this story, the fact that he is not just saying ‘Oh, the Patriots are willing to give me $24 million a year? Not good enough because it’s New England.’ That’s rare,” co-host Danny Parkins replied. “I’m not saying it’s unprecedented, but it’s not normally how these things go.”
Aiyuk not only wants a raise but also a chance to compete for a Super Bowl. He’s almost negotiating as if he were a free agent rather than a player under contract.
The head coach may have something to do with Aiyuk landing in Pittsburgh.
“He wants to play for Mike Tomlin. That’s his desire,” Fillipponi said. “The Steelers got to, I think, a place with him on the contract very early on in the negotiating. I don’t think that was the hang-up in this whatsoever. I think that was actually a very easy part of this whole convoluted complicated puzzle was being able to get that part of it done because he holds Mike Tomlin in such reverence.”
Fillipponi likened it to someone valuing a positive workplace with a fun boss, which is what Tomlin could be to Aiyuk.
He remained steadfast in his reporting.
“The last person I talked to about this, which would’ve been on Thursday at 10 a.m. (eastern) time, said that nothing had changed,” Fillipponi continued. “So that made me feel just as good if not better.
“Look, some of the reporters on this had to backtrack and change their reporting, Most importantly in that respect was Schefter, who said that the Steelers were not a likely landing spot then had to send out a tweet hours later that said they actually were in the mix."
“I think in the end I’ll be vindicated on this,” Fillipponi concluded. “I really believe that.”