SANTA CLARA, Calif. — For a franchise in need of distraction, Australian Jarryd Hayne arrived just in time.
The rugby star-turned-N.F.L. hopeful came to Thursday’s news conference wearing a San Francisco 49ers’ cap, sweatshirt and shorts tagged with his assigned number, 38. An assembly of reporters, including some from Australia, asked him questions about the vagaries of ball shape, fair catches, open-field running and blocking schemes.
Gone was talk of arrests or retirements or coaching changes, topics dominating conversations about the 49ers in recent months. Hayne’s overnight transformation from foreign curiosity to roster contender gave negativism one of his much-admired stiff arms — a palm, in his parlance.