SANTA CLARA — Reuben Foster’s sparkling smile, boundless enthusiasm and affable spirit as a rookie linebacker can’t mask the trouble he and the 49ers find themselves in now.
Foster’s arrest Sunday – on charges of domestic violence, assault-weapon possession, making threats — casts his job in doubt, as well as his life, of course.
The 49ers are at a crossroads. The league, at some point, will weigh in, no doubt. It’s a familiar cloud for a franchise that was starting to bask under sunnier skies.
Only two days after knighting Jimmy Garoppolo with the NFL’s richest contract ever, the 49ers quickly discovered that a dreamboat quarterback can’t always serve as the face of the franchise.