Friday, December 18, 2015

Time for Tomsula to end Hayne exile

After 7 weeks in the practice squad, Hayne is surely primed for a return.
Let’s get one thing straight, in late October after six rounds of the NFL season, the San Francisco 49ers' coaching staff threw Jarryd Hayne to the wolves. He became nothing more than a scapegoat for those in charge of the franchise’s terrible season form. Hayne wasn’t just banished from the game-day team of 46, but kicked out of the 53-man squad altogether. Despite setting the sport alight with his runs in the pre-season, three measly-fumbles cost Hayne his spot on the team. It was a disgusting piece of work by Head Coach, Jim Tomsula, in an effort to save his own ass.

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.”