John Lynch on Reuben Foster: ‘One of our tenets is ‘protect the team. He didn’t protect the team.’ pic.twitter.com/7hncj9gyi8
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) November 25, 2018
About an hour before the 49ers kicked off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday morning, general manager John Lynch addressed reporters regarding linebacker Reuben Foster’s release following his arrest for domestic violence Saturday night.
Lynch said the news of Foster’s arrest was “extremely disappointing” given what had transpired about six months ago. Foster was then charged with domestic violence, possession of an assault weapon, and criminal threats in a long confrontation with on-and-off-again girlfriend Elissa Ennis, who was also the accuser in the most recent incident.
Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan maintained that if he was proven guilty, he would be released. The charges were ultimately dropped. Lynch said he did not regret the decision to retain Foster previously, but he learned from the process.
“At the same (time), you can’t play scared,” Lynch told reporters. “You’ve got to trust your evaluations.”
Before letting due process play out this time, however, the 49ers cut ties with the talented second-year linebacker after he failed to abide by “some specific ground rules for Reuben.”
“In this case, it was communicated exceptionally clear and to the point as to what we expected out of him,” Lynch said. “Unfortunately, what transpired yesterday, this is not a comment on what happened there because that would be mere speculation on our part. It’s more a comment on him not living up to what we communicated, to the energy and time we invested into him.”
Lynch said he spoke with Shanahan last night after the incident occurred around 9 p.m. They were on the same page Foster should be released, despite having no communication with Foster since the incident took place. Foster was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail at 11:11 p.m. He was granted $2,000 bail Sunday morning, hours before he was expected to be released from jail.
“The really sad thing is, he had shown some, of late as particular, he had taken some really positive steps and maturing,” Lynch said. “Unfortunately in life, there are consequences for your actions. When you show bad judgment, particularly after something has been communicated very clearly what the expectations are, there are consequences.”
Lynch said the team addressed the situation in the locker room today.
Here are the salary implications for Foster’s release.
49ers will have a $2,355,660 salary cap charge (all signing bonus proration) for Reuben Foster in 2019. Foster's suspension wiped out his base salary guarantees.
— Joel Corry (@corryjoel) November 25, 2018