After 7 weeks in the practice squad, Hayne is surely primed for a return. |
But such has been the severity of the 49ers' dismal form, Tomsula even
cut their star-player, quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Clearly, an indication
that the team and coaching staff were at fault of their form, not Jarryd Hayne’s
fumbles. For more evidence, look no further than the 49ers record since
dropping the former rugby league dynamite; two wins, five losses. Nothing
improved, the team has been a shambles. The irony is, Tomsula was Hayne’s
biggest supporter. Right from the time he put on a San Francisco training
singlet, Tomsula has openly admitted his admiration for the ‘phenomenal athlete’.
He clearly believed in the code-switcher, giving him ample opportunity to
impress in the pre-season, and placing him on the 49ers game-day roster for the
first six-games of the regular NFL season.
Tomsula’s belief waned as the pressure from the media-hotpot of American
Football took over the struggling west-coast franchise. When Hayne was waived,
no other franchise wanted to touch him. He returned to the 49ers and signed
with the practice squad. Tomsula and the 49ers went on to sign two running
backs to replace the spots Hayne and injured players, Reggie Bush and Mike
Davis, left. Carlos Hyde has also recently joined the injured reserves list.
The replacements brought in for Hayne and the running-back group, Kendall
Gaskins, Shaun Draughn, and Travaris Cader, have been nothing more than
jersey-fillers. Hayne’s fill-in at Punt Return, Bruce Ellington, has dropped
just as many balls as Hayne did. He has looked shakier than a wobbling vase on
your grandma’s china cabinet. Put it this way, Hayne still holds the team’s longest
punt-return of the season at 37 yards.
Regardless of the stats, the facts and the figures, what the 49ers did
to Hayne was wrong. And its time they made it right by bringing him back on to
the active list for this Monday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. With the
season absolutely shot and gone, the 49ers must bring back Hayne to put in
front of their fans at their home ground of Levi’s Stadium. They deserve to see
the most exciting and only positive thing to happen to their team this season
get another chance. With the General Manager of most NFL teams deciding upon
roster line-ups, it doesn’t look good for Hayne. But with his biggest believer,
Jim Tomsula, still in charge of the team as Head Coach, he’s still a chance.
But for that to happen, Tomsula has to believe.
Jim, it’s time to believe. Throw the books, the theories and the ideas
out the window. Your one chance of not getting the sack next off-season is if
you can salvage three wins from your last respective games. You said it
yourself, Jarryd Hayne is a potential game-breaker. He has the ability to do
something special. If anything, he might provide a much needed shot of energy
to lift the struggling squad. He took his demotion like a man and has been
working his ass off in the practice squad. Seriously, what have you got to
lose?
You put your balls on the line at the start of the year and were willing
to play a player you thought could provide the team with an edge. So do it
again. Give a boy from Minto what everyone deserves in life; a second chance.
Put the stubbornness aside, take another chance. Playing it safe has got you
nowhere. Bring Hayne in from the exile. Pull the plane out of the maintenance hangar,
put it on the fly list and roll it out onto the San Francisco tarmac once more.
Let us have it. If it fails, you’ll prove a country, no a continent
right. He’s not ready. If it takes off, you’ll have us Aussies off your back
and your future back in your hands.
In the words of another United States Jim, American Pie fumbler, Jim
Levinstein: “God, let this be it.”