A Santa Clara County (California) grand jury has indicted Ray McDonald on one count of rape of an intoxicated person.

The District Attorney's office also charged Ahmad Brooks with misdemeanor sexual battery, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office announced Wednesday.

McDonald was formerly with the San Francisco 49ers, while Brooks remains part of the team.

The charges stem from an incident that occurred Dec. 15, 2014, at McDonald's home. The separate assaults occurred the same evening against the same victim, according the district attorney.

"The organization is aware that a misdemeanor charge has been filed against Ahmad Brooks stemming from a December 2014 matter," 49ers general manager Trent Baalke said in a statement. "We take any charge against a member of this organization seriously and are in communication with the NFL. Ahmad is returning home to California and will not participate in Saturday's game."

Chris Borland described his retirement as a preemptive strike to preserve his mental health.

"If there were no possibility of brain damage, I'd still be playing," Borland said.

Borland shockingly announced his retirement after one successful season in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers.

"I don't dislike football," he insists. "I love football." 

Borland has come to view football as a dehumanizing spectacle, yet he wants to be respectful to former teammates and coaches still involved.

"Dehumanizing sounds so extreme, but when you're fighting for a football at the bottom of the pile, it is kind of dehumanizing," he said during a series of conversations over the spring and summer. "It's like a spectacle of violence, for entertainment, and you're the actors in it. You're complicit in that: You put on the uniform. And it's a trivial thing at its core. It's make-believe, really. That's the truth about it."

Days after Borland retired, the NFL emailed him demanding he take a drug test.

"I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist," he says. "I just wanted to be sure." Borland agreed to submit a urine sample to the NFL's representative, who drove in from Green Bay and administered the test in the Wisconsin trainer's room. Then he hired a private firm for $150 to test him independently. Both tests came back negative, according to Borland.

"I don't really trust the NFL," Borland said.

Borland describes playing football as thrilling but never fun.

"People make the analogy to war a lot, and I have two brothers in the Army," Borland said. "Getting a TBI [traumatic brain injury] and having post-traumatic stress from war, well, that's a more important cause. Football is an elective. It's a game. It's make-believe. And to think that people have brain damage from some made-up game. The meaninglessness of it, you draw the line at brain damage."

The San Francisco 49ers have traded Asante Cleveland to the New England Patriots.

The 49ers had extra depth at tight end.

On Saturday night in the exhibition opener, Cleveland caught three passes for 10 yards in the 49ers’ 23-10 loss the Houston Texans. He played 11 snaps of offense in the game.

Colin Kaepernick addressed Internet reports that he and former teammate Aldon Smith fought in practice last Thursday over a woman, a squabble that purportedly took place before Smith was released following his fifth arrest -- the third involving DUI -- since 2011.

Another report also had Smith smashing up Kaepernick's Mercedes in retaliation.

"Well, if I was a reporter, I would go about things [differently]," Kaepernick said on the podium Wednesday afternoon. "I would realize that I have a deal with Jaguar. I've had it for a few years now, so I wouldn't be driving a Mercedes. I would also realize that we didn't have practice on Thursday, so no one was at the facility.

"So along those lines, I feel like anyone that believes that and goes about reporting it is, just doesn't have the best integrity, in my mind. I mean, to try to prey on athletes' livelihoods while one is going through a tough time is embarrassing to me. For people to report that and put that out there and jumped on that bandwagon, just to get Internet clicks and get attention to their website, or reports, it really is embarrassing for people to do that."

But while Kaepernick did not say if he and Smith did indeed have an altercation prior to Smith's arrest Thursday night and subsequent release from the 49ers on Friday, the quarterback did say he considered his draft classmate from the 2011 NFL draft a friend.

One of the most appealing aspects of Eric Mangini taking over as the 49ers' defensive coordinator was the thought of having Aldon Smith for a full schedule.

That, obviously, is no longer a possibility with Smith being released on Friday after being arrested Thursday night, his fifth arrest since the 49ers made him the No. 7 overall draft pick in 2011.

"A guy like Aldon is not a guy that you just can replace," Mangini said following Sunday's practice.

Colin Kaepernick has looked sharp and accurate in drills all camp.

Kaepernick was leading receivers rather than firing fastballs at them on Friday.

Kaepernick, however, has thrown an interception for the fifth straight practice.

Aldon Smith has been released by the San Francisco 49ers following his arrest on Thursday night on high-and-run, driving under the influence and vandalism charges.

The arrest was Smith's third on suspicion of drunken driving since entering the league in 2011.

Trent Baalke met with Smith after he left jail, and after Smith refused to take responsibility for being arrested, the team decided to release him, a team source told ESPN's Jim Trotter.

Smith has been one of the NFL's most productive pass rushers since entering the NFL.

The San Francisco 49ers' defensive players have seen a different player at the start of training camp in Colin Kaepernick.

"I'm very optimistic about the season Colin will have this year," said Eric Reid.

"He's been throwing the ball very well through the offseason program," Reid said. "A couple balls, I was like, 'Man, that was a good throw.' He's definitely been putting in the work and it shows. I'm excited."

Antoine Bethea pointed out that Kaepernick -- who worked this offseason with former-MVP quarterback Kurt Warner -- is "not telegraphing where he's going," while Reid praised the quarterback for "making the touch throws on the deep throws, and the ball is hanging and dropping over the DBs."