San Francisco 49ers end silence on Reuben Foster's arrest

While the San Francisco 49ers hadn't had anything to say publicly about the second offseason arrest of linebacker Reuben Foster, that didn't mean team officials weren't talking to the Alabama All-American about the incident on Feb. 12.

Until Wednesday, the San Francisco 49ers had been silent on the arrest of linebacker Reuben Foster. After police responded to a call at a residence in Los Gatos, California, Foster was booked on suspicion of corporal injury to spouse, criminal threats and possession of an assault weapon.

In advance of a Thursday press conference scheduled at the NFL Scouting Combine, San Francisco general manager John Lynch met with Bay Area reporters to talk about Foster on Wednesday.

Lynch said the 49ers were "actively following the protocols that are already in place, both in law enforcement and the NFL."

"We've made it a part of our core principles, our core values, that we're going to be transparent," Lynch said. "We feel like the fans deserve to know. We want them to know. With this, we've been a little quiet. And that's for a reason. There are certain places I can't and won't go because we're dealing with an ongoing legal matter. That's in everyone's best interest."

Without going into details, Lynch said the 49ers had talked to Foster about his situation.

"The context, in a broad sense, of what we discussed with Reuben, is just our expectations for him and our expectations for all of our players," Lynch said. "We have a high standard. I think we made that very clear. We remain in communication, but a lot of that's going to remain private between us because of a lot of things such as the ongoing legal matter and protocols that are in place."

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On Jan. 12, Foster was arrested in Tuscaloosa and charged with second-degree possession of marijuana. His first court date on that charge has been scheduled for Wednesday, but it has been rescheduled for March 21.

Foster was sent home from the last year's NFL Scouting Combine after getting into an argument with a hospital worker during medical testing. He also had a diluted urine sample during testing there, which counts as a failed drug test in the NFL's eyes.

After the 49ers selected Foster with the 31^st choice in the 2017 NFL Draft, Alabama coach Nick Saban talked about Foster's need for structure.

"He did extremely well in our program, which has a lot of structure," Saban said. "So I think organizations that are really willing to invest in relationships with players -- to help them navigate the future and doing the right things and making good choices and decisions -- are the kind of organizations that long-term are going to be most successful. But they're also the kind of organizations that I think Reuben will thrive in, and I think John and (coach) Kyle (Shanahan) are willing to do that."

Lynch said the 49ers understood that when they picked Foster.

"If you remember at this time last year, there was a lot of discussion about Reuben," Lynch said. "One thing we knew was we were going to have to put great structure around him. One lesson I learned, it's probably a lot easier to do that in the college environment than in the NFL. These guys have to be men. We take the approach that we're going to equip them with every resource that we can."

Before playing for Alabama, Foster was the Class 6A Lineman of the Year for the 2012 season at Auburn High School. Foster won the Butkus Award as the nation's best collegiate linebacker in 2016 at Alabama.

Foster missed six of San Francisco's first eight games during his rookie season because of the injuries. But in the second half of the season, Foster was on the field for every game, and San Francisco, which started the season 0-8, went 6-2. Despite his missed time, Foster still finished second on the team in tackles and made the Pro Football Writers of America's All-Rookie team in 2017.

The 49ers have been drawing criticism for their response to Foster's arrest. After San Francisco cornerback Tramaine Brock was arrested on a domestic-violence charge on April 6, San Francisco released him the next day. The charge against Brock was later dismissed.

Lynch said the 49ers didn't keep Foster because he was a better player than Brock, but because his situation was different.

"Listen, I know there's a lot of conjecture as to: 'Well, of course Brock wasn't the player that Reuben is,'" Lynch said. "I would counter to say that he was a starting cornerback for us. And we didn't take that lightly.

"I think anybody who watched us play -- I don't want to say it was a weakness -- but an area of concern for us was the cornerback position, and that had a large part to do with it. It wasn't something we took lightly. It was the decision that we felt was best for everyone involved and made it accordingly. And as I mentioned, each situation is different, and we'll leave it at that."

The Santa Clara (California) County District Attorney's office still has two weeks to decide what, if any charges, will be filed against Foster.

The NFL's personal-conduct policy allows the league commissioner to impose a six-game suspension without pay for domestic violence for a first-time offender. The NFL does not require a legal guilty verdict or even formal charges to impose discipline.

Lynch said the 49ers would need to approach their offseason plans in assembling their roster with that in mind.

"You have to take those things into account on every situation," Lynch said. "Everything in this league is fluid, so you have to be able to move quickly and kind of adjust philosophies. Yeah, that will be something that we have to take into account, whether it's in free agency, re-signing our own guys or whether it be in the draft. That's certainly something we're aware of and are taking into account."

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.

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