Jarryd Hayne’s life of football, fatherhood and the troubled 49ers
HIS life has been about football and fatherhood, but it’s Jarryd Hayne’s brief interlude at the troubled 49ers team which has now come back to haunt him.
YEARS before Jarryd Hayne joined the San Francisco 49ers to fulfil his dream of playing American football, the team had a reputation for run-ins with the law.
While Hayne was still playing rugby league in Sydney, the iconic west coast team of America’s National Football League (NFL) was clocking up an unenviable record.
The culture into which the young, religious Hayne would soon be entering was one of hard partying and heavy drinking.
Hayne, a Mormon who joined the charismatic evangelical Hillsong Church in 2008, was
about to join a club which, in the two years leading up to the 2014 season, led the NFL in arrests.
While Hayne couldn’t hope to earn the multi-millions of the top “Niners” players, he was entering the team on a wave of popularity and expectation from fans.
Many of the 49ers lived in the same street, in a kind of team enclave in the affluent San Jose neighbourhood of Silver Creek where squad cars had been called to team parties more than once.
In September 2014, half the 49ers team attended a party at the home of defensive end Ray McDonald which broke up when police arrived at 2.40am.
McDonald was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic abuse after police said his pregnant fiancee showed “visible injuries” of sexual abuse.
The charges were dropped in April this year, after the alleged victim exercised her legal right not to press the charge.
In 2013, in the same Silver Lake street as McDonald’s house, 49ers tight end Aldon Smith had driven off the road and came to a stop against a small frontyard tree at 7am on a Thursday morning.
It was to this team that Hayne, then a 26-year-old Sydney rugby league star from a humble background growing up in public housing, was recruited in March 2015.
He had grown up in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Minto with his single mother, Jodie.
Hayne was signed as an undrafted free agent in the position of running back, on a three-year contract with a base salary of $US1,575,000.
It was the fulfilment of a long-held ambition of Hayne’s, who had attempted to quit rugby league at the age of 23 in 2011.
He did not qualify to enter the NFL American college draft system, as he hadn’t completed his HSC back in Australia.
In June 2014, NFL star and future 49ers teammate Reggie Bush viewed Hayne’s rugby league highlights tape and said: “He actually looks like an NFL running back. Looks like he could come play with us tomorrow.”
By the time he finally made it to play professional football in San Francisco, Hayne was already an NRL dual Dally M medallist — a rugby league superstar.
Just before he quit Australia, he was reportedly in negotiations with Parramatta to sign a new five-year contract worth $1.35 million a season.
Hayne had won rugby league awards for almost every year he had played going back to 2006, and he is known around Australia for his “Hayne plane” style of handspreading after a try.
But it was still a big leap to the San Francisco 49ers’ $1.3 billion headquarters in San Jose and the glamour and excitement of playing for one of the world’s most famous teams.
Levi’s Stadium in the picturesque bayside suburb of Santa Clara is home ground to 40,000 fans of a team which ranks equal second in Super Bowl wins, having taken home five silver trophies.
The stadium is by the Santa Clara Golf & Tennis Club, near San Jose, 70km southeast of downtown San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.
In 2015, Hayne arrived into the heart of the 49ers to an overwhelming welcome by fans.
With no experience even in playing college football in America, he was facing an uphill battle to make the core team, the final roster of 53 players in just five months.
But he had a mountain of support.
Team quarterback Colin Kaepernick called him “a phenomenal athlete”, adding, “It doesn’t seem like there’s much of a learning curve for him.”
On 15 August 2015, Hayne made his pre-season debut against the Houston Texans, completing a 50m run with his second touch of the ball.
He made an impressive performance in the next game against the Dallas Cowboys.
And then, on September 3, he played against the San Diego Chargers at Levi’s Stadium in the fourth and final 2015 pre-season game in what was an audition to make the final roster.
In the 70,000 crowd were his mother Jodie and teenage sisters Jessi-Lee and Taygan.
The 49ers won and two days later, after a nerve-racking wait, Hayne learned he had made the 53-man roster.
In a teleconference with journalists back in Australia, an emotional Hayne said: “This whole journey has never been about making a roster or being in a team.
“It’s been about saying that I wanted to take a risk. I wanted to let my faith be in action. “Faith without action is dead. In God we trusted … and I’ve never felt so alive.”
Hayne had rented an apartment in San Jose and the future looked bright.
He made his NFL debut running on the field in mid-September against the Minnesota Vikings at Levi’s stadium in Week 1 of the 2015 NFL season.
But on October 31, the 49ers waived his inclusion in the main roster, and he signed with their practice squad.
By late November 2015, after being smashed by the Seattle Seahawkes, the 49ers were credited with having had one of the worst off-seasons of any team in recent memory.
They were attempting to make history as the first Super Bowl host team to play the championship game on its own home field, but failed to make the cut.
And as one NFL commentator wrote, the 49ers’ enemies “isn’t the Seahawks, it’s alcohol”.
Since 2012, 13 ‘Niners’ had been arrested and ended up in Santa Clary County court.
The charges included drink driving, illegal possession of a weapon, felony hit and run, disorderly conduct, suspicion of domestic violence and suspected misdemeanour battery, sexual battery, driving under the influence and vandalism.
Hayne wasn’t due to play in the game against the Cincinnati Bengals on December 20, 2015, but the team was hopeful of a win.
Despite the 49ers’ shocking pre-season, the Bengals were known not to play well on the West Coast.
Two weeks before the game, the NFL announced it would move the 5.30pm kick-off of the “Sunday night football” game forward to 1.25pm.
The 49ers lost to the Bengals with the Cincinatti team winning 24-14.
Members of the 49ers went out for a drink on the Sunday night.
A young woman who had grown up and gone to school in Santa Clara had recently met some of Hayne’s acquaintances, one of whom she had befriended.
In late 2015, according to court documents obtained by news.com.au, the woman was working at a local restaurant.
On the Sunday afternoon, the woman, identified only as “Ms V”, attended the 49ers game at Levi’s Stadium.
After the game, she and friends went to a restaurant for a meal and drinks, and then went to a bar.
Santa Clara County Court documents say that one of Hayne’s friends was texting and messaging the woman to find out which bar she was drinking at with her friends.
Hayne and his mates then joined the group and, as the documents say, her friends “had never seen [the young woman] so intoxicated”.
What happened next is what will be contested in the civil suit.
Ms V says in her court documents that in the early hours of Monday, December 21, 2015 “despite having minimal interaction that night [Hayne] took the now heavily intoxicated [woman] back to his home in San Jose via Uber”.
It was in his apartment the alleged incident took place with the woman who says she had never had sexual intercourse previously.
The documents say she felt pain, and the following morning woke up among bloodied sheets.
She then took “an undergarment” because she allegedly felt people would not believe the incident had taken place, and for police to test.
Through his legal representatives, Hayne unequivocally and vehemently denies the allegations.
Five days later, Hayne was again promoted to the 49ers’ 53-man roster after guard Alex Boone suffered a knee injury.
Hayne announced his retirement from the NFL on May 15, 2016, and joined the Fiji sevens team in hopes of playing in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
In May 2016, the young woman reported the alleged assault to San Jose police.
The District Attorney’s office informed the young woman that “there was not enough evidence to prove the crime of rape beyond a reasonable doubt”.
On Wednesday, the woman filed a civil claim in the Santa Clary County court claiming sexual battery, battery, negligence, gender violence and intentional infliction of emotional distress against Hayne.
Hayne had returned home to Australia and resumed his rugby league career, playing for the Gold Coast Titans in a $1.2m deal.
In early 2016, he met a woman, Amellia Bonnici, via Instagram.
In September last year, Ms Bonnici announced she was expecting Hayne’s child in late 2016.
Friends said the devout Christian had moved the Italian-born beauty into his Gold Coast apartment and promised to support her.
Ms Bonnici gave birth to a girl, Bel, and moved back to Forster to live with her family.
But according to Hayne’s biggest supporter, his mother Jodie, fatherhood has now become a priority.
“For Jarryd, the most important thing in his life right now is being a dad,” Jodie told Fairfax News. “He is not a hero — he is doing what he has always wanted to be, a good father. You know why that is?
“Because he didn’t have that growing up. It was me and him.
“He didn’t have a dad there and he doesn’t want that to be the case for his daughter.
“It’s not just sport any more. Being a dad has blown him away.”
Originally published as Jarryd Hayne’s life of football, fatherhood and the troubled 49ers
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