San Francisco 49ers running back Jarryd Hayne announced his NFL retirement Sunday to pursue a bid to make Fiji’s Olympic rugby team, 82 days before the Rio Games open Aug. 5.
“I am retiring from the NFL because the Fiji rugby sevens team reached out to me about the opportunity to join the team for the upcoming Olympics, and I simply could not pass that chance up,” Hayne said in a press release. “The Olympics has been something I have admired since I was a little boy, and it is an opportunity I feel very similar to me joining the NFL.