Team-wide demonstration planned Sunday SANTA CLARA >>

Quarterback Brian Hoyer tried relishing family time on a rare Sunday off for the 49ers. As national-anthem protests raged across the NFL, however,

Hoyer knew he and his teammates would soon have a decision to make.

To no one’s surprise, the 49ers are planning a team-wide demonstration before the kickoff of Sunday’s visit to the Arizona Cardinals.

Why should this 49ers protest be any different than those Co-

lin Kaepernick started 13 months ago, or this season’s version in which a dozen black teammates have huddled around a kneeling Eric Reid? Because the 49ers will follow other teams’ lead and present a unified front in their first game since President Trump’s critical comments about the NFL and those who protest.

“Having two kids, at this time the way the world is going, it’s scary,” Hoyer said Wednesday. “Because it’s becoming more and more divided.”

Coach Kyle Shanahan claimed the protest talk has not adversely impacted the 49ers (0-3) in their preparations for the Cardinals (1-2).

Count Shanahan among those “definitely bothered” by Trump’s comments. So, Monday, when the 49ers reconvened after the weekend off, Shanahan spent 5 minutes talking to his team about anthem protests. The first-year coach then devoted 20 minutes on the subject with general manager John Lynch and the team’s 10-player leadership council, which includes Hoyer.

Said Hoyer: “If we can show some kind of unity as a team — I may not do the same thing they do as far as taking a knee, but I can support them to do that and that’s their right — if we can show more unity instead of being divided, that’s what the world needs now more than ever.”

Hoyer wished he could talk more about football at his weekly Wednesday news conference but acknowledged that any discussion about American society is “needed.”

Although others in the NFL are protesting in response to the president’s recent barbs, Reid emphasized that is not the case with him. Echoing Kaepernick’s original outcry, Reid wants to focus on the issues of police brutality and social injustice.

Reid, who remains out with a knee injury, came prepared Wednesday to delve into those issues. He offered statistics comparing black-on-black homicides (94 percent) to whiteon-white homicides (86 percent). He spoke about the inequities of drug charges, bail, mortgages and more.

“This is a long journey about social justice and we need people to care about it,” Reid said.

Reid strongly noted that Kaepernick remains the leader of this social-equality movement, adding that it is “asinine” no team has signed the free-agent quarterback, who Reid is encouraging to speak out publicly.

Kaepernick’s successor, Hoyer, didn’t wade into the racial-inequality discussion so much as he praised football’s ability to integrate people from diverse backgrounds, races and religions.

“Because I don’t want to kneel for the national anthem, it doesn’t mean that I can’t support my teammate and brother that feels like he wants to,” Hoyer said. “Whatever we do, we’re going to do as a team.”

That is what the Cardinals did Monday night in linking arms, including safety Antoine Bethea, who was part of the 49ers’ protests last year and raised a fist in solidarity while Kaepernick, Reid and Eli Harold took a knee.

Bethea, on a Wednesday conference call with Bay Area media, said he sensed last year’s protests could mushroom as it has.

“To this day, you can see things are still happening, and people are still not really understanding why Kap did what he did,” Bethea said. “Even at that time, I knew it was going to be something major, something special and it was something people still talk about. Obviously, more people have joined in. Where do we go from here?”

Confused at first, Reid tried to find positives in Trump’s outcry that any protester who kneels is a “son of a bitch” and should be fired.

“He’s given us an opportunity and eyeballs to talk on issues that Colin and I started protesting about,” Reid continued. “It’s helped people get past the fact we’re protesting during the anthem, and it’s given us the ear to why we’re doing it.”

• Running back Carlos Hyde’s hip remains sore from Thursday’s night firstquarter hit and he will be limited in practice throughout this week. Hyde ranks third in the NFL with 253 rushing yards, and his first two touchdowns of the season came in Thursday’s 4139 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

• Rookie linebacker Reuben Foster is only 2½ weeks removed from a high ankle sprain, and the 49ers remain cautious with him. Foster will remain out of practice this week, although he stretched with the team Wednesday.

Ray-Ray Armstrong has started in Foster’s place next to NaVorro Bowman, and that duo shares the team lead in tackles with 20 apiece.

• Fullback Kyle Juszczyk, safety Jaquiski Tartt and linebacker Brock Coyle are progressing in the postconcussion protocol, and all wore noncontact jerseys at Wednesday’s practice.

• Beside Reid and Hoyer, other members of Shanahan’s leadership council are wide receivers Pierre Garcon and Marquise Goodwin, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, tight end Logan Paulsen, left tackle Joe Staley, linebacker NaVorro Bowman, defensive end Elvis Dumervil and long snapper Kyle Nelson.

• Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said of Kaepernick on a conference call: “In the right system, he’s still a heck of a player.” The Cardinals passed on adding him this offseason and instead signed former 49ers Blaine Gabbert as their No. 3 quarterback behind Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton.

The Montreal Alouettes obtained Kaepernick’s CFL negotiation rights a month ago, and they’ve reached out to his agent but had no negotiations or tryouts.