Rugby player turned running back Jarryd Hayne retired from football last month to pursue an opportunity to play rugby for Fiji’s National Team in rugby sevens in the Olympics later this summer.
Though Hayne played in eight games for the 49ers last season, he said he saw himself as behind his teammates who’d played football for much of their lives and in danger of falling further behind with the coaching change that brought Chip Kelly to the 49ers in January.
“I just think with Chip’s playbook, it’s such an intense playbook that it would just take too much time,” Hayne said in an interview with Australia’s Fairfax Media.
Hayne, 28, said it came down to making the right decision for his athletic career, that “guys who played in college were just that far ahead” and that because “time of the essence,” he thought he should choose rugby.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t want it anymore. I still wanted it,” Hayne said. “I would have loved to have played both. I would love to have played three sports or four sports. I would love to play league, union, sevens, NFL...I would have loved to play all four but you just can’t do it.
“It was hard at the 49ers. With the new coaching staff and the guys that really put the study and that in -- it all changed. It was tough, but I worked hard and made the 90-man squad. That meant I’ll be back in preseason, but time isn’t on my side. I had to make a decision and being in Fiji was it.”