The highly competitive, cutthroat, dog-eat-dog world of the NFL has spared Jarryd Hayne for the time being. Hayne survived the first round of roster reductions by the San Francisco 49ers and even saw one of his rivals for the position of running back, Kendall Gaskins, being waived by the team.
Even before the season begins, or even the exhibition games that are the bane of every NFL fan, teams must reduce lists to make room for draft picks and free agents. Teams are limited to 90 players as training camps begin to get underway. Thirty-seven more players will be cut by the time the season starts, although a few of them wind up on practice squads, where they wait in the wings in the event that one of the players from the 53-man game day roster is unable to participate.
Hayne has the benefit of trying to catch on with a team that had one of the worst running attacks last season, which is saying something as the running play is becoming an endangered species in the pass-happy NFL.
He may have hurt his chances somewhat, however, when he beat the notoriously sulky quarterback Colin Kaeprenick in a clubhouse game of ping-pong.
