The 49ers lose star DT Javon Hargrave to an injury following their latest blown lead

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The frustration from the latest big blown lead by coach Kyle Shanahan's San Francisco 49ers only grew a day later with the news that star defensive tackle Javon Hargrave will likely miss the rest of the season because of a partially torn triceps.

The Niners defense that got exposed late in the 27-24 loss Sunday by allowing four straight scoring drives to end the game will now be missing one of its best players.

Shanahan said Hargrave will need surgery and will be out several months. He left open the possibility that could return if the 49ers advanced deep into the playoffs, but the team is planning on going ahead without Hargrave the rest of the way.

“It’s a big one,” Shanahan said Monday. “I thought he had his best game yesterday. I thought he was a huge factor, really affected the quarterback in that game. It’s a big loss. He’s one of our better players. He was definitely going in the right direction and was going to have a big year.”

It's the latest key injury to hit an important player on the 49ers (1-2) with stars Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle having already missed time after San Francisco's biggest stars were mostly healthy all of last season.

“This year has been totally different to start out,” Shanahan said. “So that’s been real tough. I’d like to try to stay positive with it that all of them eventually are going to come back, but that probably changed with Hargrave today. So that that was a tough pill to swallow there. We definitely haven’t had the luck that we had last year.”

The defense has also struggled early this season as Shanahan's decision to fire coordinator Steve Wilks and promote Nick Sorensen to the job has yet to pay dividends after three games.

San Francisco is allowing 6.11 yards per play for the fourth worst mark in franchise history through three games, getting beaten for big plays the past two weeks.

The key one on Sunday came when star cornerback Charvarius Ward got beaten for a 50-yard pass from Matthew Stafford to Tutu Atwell that set up the game-tying touchdown.

The defense wouldn't have been in that spot had Jake Moody made a 55-yard field goal on the previous possession. The defense also wouldn't have needed to make another stop had Ronnie Bell not dropped a pass that would have put the Niners in position for a game-winning field goal on the ensuing drive.

That led to a punt, which was returned 38 yards by Xavier Smith. De'Vondre Campbell then committed a 25-yard pass interference penalty, setting up the game-winning field goal.

This was Shanahan's fifth blown double-digit fourth-quarter lead in the regular season or playoffs since taking over in 2017 — second most of any coach in that span.

Passes to Jauan Jennings. Jennings filled in for Samuel and delivered one of the most prolific games in franchise history. He caught 11 passes for 175 yards and three TDs, joining Hall of Famer Jerry Rice as the only 49ers players to reach those marks in a game with Rice doing it twice. This was the 19th time any player reached those marks in the same game.

The Niners have struggled on special teams early this season and that had a big impact on the loss Sunday. They allowed a fake punt to extend a touchdown drive in the second quarter, missed the long field goal that could have sealed the game and then allowed the big punt return to set up Los Angeles' game-winning field goal.

QB Brock Purdy. There were questions headed into the game about how Purdy would fare without three of his top playmakers: Samuel, McCaffrey and Kittle. He was outstanding. Purdy went 22 for 30 for 292 yards, three TDs and no interceptions even though the Niners dropped at least four passes. He also ran for 41 yards and extended plays with his mobility.

RT Colton McKivitz struggled in pass protection against the Rams, allowing five pressures and one sack, according to Pro Football Focus. McKivitz is tied for the most pressures allowed by any tackle this season with 13.

McCaffrey traveled to Germany to get another opinion on the Achilles tendinitis that has sidelined him this season. ... Purdy has a sore back and is day to day. ... Kittle (hamstring) should return to practice this week after missing last week's game.

3.14 — The 49ers are averaging the fewest yards after catch per reception at 3.14 in a stark contrast to their performance in recent years. San Francisco led the NFL in that stat in each of the past six seasons, averaging 6.57 yards after catch per reception in that span.

San Francisco hosts New England on Sunday.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) is tackled by Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Braden Fiske, bottom middle, and defensive tackle Kobie Turner, bottom right, during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Los Angeles Rams' Xavier Smith, left, returns a punt past San Francisco 49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky (3) and Renardo Green (0) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ronnie Bell (10) cannot catch a pass over Los Angeles Rams cornerback Cobie Durant during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, foreground left, walks off the next next to Los Angeles Rams defensive end Desjuan Johnson after an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, right, sacks Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Javon Hargrave (98) celebrates after sacking Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.

West Virginia has banned transgender girls like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls and women's sports, and is among the more than two dozen states with similar laws. Though the West Virginia law has been blocked by lower courts, the outcome could be different at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced in the past year.

The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in two cases over whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The second case comes from Idaho, where college student Lindsay Hecox challenged that state's law.

Decisions are expected by early summer.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration has targeted transgender Americans from the first day of his second term, including ousting transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.

Pepper-Jackson has become the face of the nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls in athletics that has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.

“I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Pepper-Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press that was conducted over Zoom. “It’s something I’m here to do because ... this is important to me. I know it’s important to other people. So, like, I’m here for it.”

She sat alongside her mother, Heather Jackson, on a sofa in their home just outside Bridgeport, a rural West Virginia community about 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, to talk about a legal fight that began when she was a middle schooler who finished near the back of the pack in cross-country races.

Pepper-Jackson has grown into a competitive discus and shot put thrower. In addition to the bronze medal in the discus, she finished eighth among shot putters.

She attributes her success to hard work, practicing at school and in her backyard, and lifting weights. Pepper-Jackson has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade, though the Supreme Court's decision in June upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors has forced her to go out of state for care.

Her very improvement as an athlete has been cited as a reason she should not be allowed to compete against girls.

“There are immutable physical and biological characteristic differences between men and women that make men bigger, stronger, and faster than women. And if we allow biological males to play sports against biological females, those differences will erode the ability and the places for women in these sports which we have fought so hard for over the last 50 years,” West Virginia's attorney general, JB McCuskey, said in an AP interview. McCuskey said he is not aware of any other transgender athlete in the state who has competed or is trying to compete in girls or women’s sports.

Despite the small numbers of transgender athletes, the issue has taken on outsize importance. The NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women's sports after Trump signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Those allied with the administration on the issue paint it in broader terms than just sports, pointing to state laws, Trump administration policies and court rulings against transgender people.

"I think there are cultural, political, legal headwinds all supporting this notion that it’s just a lie that a man can be a woman," said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom that has led the legal campaign against transgender people. “And if we want a society that respects women and girls, then we need to come to terms with that truth. And the sooner that we do that, the better it will be for women everywhere, whether that be in high school sports teams, high school locker rooms and showers, abused women’s shelters, women’s prisons.”

But Heather Jackson offered different terms to describe the effort to keep her daughter off West Virginia's playing fields.

“Hatred. It’s nothing but hatred,” she said. "This community is the community du jour. We have a long history of isolating marginalized parts of the community.”

Pepper-Jackson has seen some of the uglier side of the debate on display, including when a competitor wore a T-shirt at the championship meet that said, “Men Don't Belong in Women's Sports.”

“I wish these people would educate themselves. Just so they would know that I’m just there to have a good time. That’s it. But it just, it hurts sometimes, like, it gets to me sometimes, but I try to brush it off,” she said.

One schoolmate, identified as A.C. in court papers, said Pepper-Jackson has herself used graphic language in sexually bullying her teammates.

Asked whether she said any of what is alleged, Pepper-Jackson said, “I did not. And the school ruled that there was no evidence to prove that it was true.”

The legal fight will turn on whether the Constitution's equal protection clause or the Title IX anti-discrimination law protects transgender people.

The court ruled in 2020 that workplace discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination, but refused to extend the logic of that decision to the case over health care for transgender minors.

The court has been deluged by dueling legal briefs from Republican- and Democratic-led states, members of Congress, athletes, doctors, scientists and scholars.

The outcome also could influence separate legal efforts seeking to bar transgender athletes in states that have continued to allow them to compete.

If Pepper-Jackson is forced to stop competing, she said she will still be able to lift weights and continue playing trumpet in the school concert and jazz bands.

“It will hurt a lot, and I know it will, but that’s what I’ll have to do,” she said.

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Becky Pepper-Jackson poses for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Supreme Court stands is Washington, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)