Extra Points: Harbaugh hating in San Francisco
(SportsNetwork.com) – Professional football is supposed to be a results- oriented business.
Win or move on is the one stark and often harsh metric in which NFL coaches are graded upon.
Think Henry Hill in “Goodfellas,” when explaining Paul Cicero’s management style.
“Oh, you had a fire? (expletive), pay me. Place got hit by lightning huh? (expletive), pay me.”
In the NFL, that might morph into:
“Oh, you had injuries? (expletive), did you win?. You’re a nice guy, huh? (expletive), did you win?”
San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke, however, has veered away from results-oriented or at least added a caveat by insisting that the unlikable Jim Harbaugh either get a softer edge or take what Baalke believes is a tired act out of Northern California.
A 1-2 start only fueled those projecting a Harbaugh-less future for San Francisco.
FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer created a media maelstrom last weekend by reporting that Harbaugh would coach through this season with the Niners, but even if he won the Super Bowl, would not be brought back in 2015.
Understand none of that was all that noteworthy, save for the fact about winning a Lombardi Trophy and still being jettisoned. It’s common knowledge in the NFL that virtually no one in the Niners organization likes Harbaugh and that includes most of his players and most assuredly Baalke, who actually tried to trade his coach to Cleveland in the offseason.
“It’s my job to love them, those players, those coaches, everybody in our organization,” said Harbaugh. “It’s their job to love each other. They don’t need to respond in any other way in their job. The football team has done good, and the better you do, the more you do, the more people try to trip you up.”
To be fair one of those people trying to trip Harbaugh up is in the mirror when he wakes up. Anyone who has ever dealt with Harbaugh knows how surly he is and how difficult he can be at times.
Niners CEO Jed York even admitted Harbaugh has a difficult personality and “sometimes rubs people the wrong way.”
Add in the fact that Harbaugh is in the fourth year of a $25 million, five- year contract and you can see the writing on the wall. No one in a position of power in Santa Clara would be mourning if Harbaugh was to move on, even York, who to this point has defended the coach at every turn because this team remains a legitimate contender after answering that 1-2 start with two consecutive wins.
“Jim is my coach,” York wrote on Twitter. “We are trying to win a SB (Super Bowl), not a personality or popularity contest. Any more questions?”
There shouldn’t be.
Harbaugh has a 44-16-1 record (including the postseason) with the 49ers and has taken the team to three consecutive NFC Championship Games. He has never won less than 11 games in a season for a franchise that didn’t win more than eight in the eight years before he arrived from Stanford to turn things around.
Does anyone remember what 49ers football was like with Dennis Erickson or Mike Nolan or Mike Singletary were running things?
There is a myth that women are biologically programmed to forget the pain of pregnancy so they will continue to reproduce. I’m beginning to believe the San Francisco faithful and higher-ups in the actual organization have that type of amnesia, often skipping over those lean years to reminisce about the halcyon days of Bill Walsh and George Seifert.
Success is by no means guaranteed for the 49ers and therein lies the problem with the plan of running Harbaugh out on a rail.
He’s not Erickson or Nolan or Singletary, he’s a damn good coach and a lot closer to Walsh and Seifert or any measuring scale.
The 49ers aren’t running a daycare and the 53 men in the locker room on Sunday’s would hardly be the first to dislike their boss.
Baalke tried to deflect the issue on his weekly radio show this week.
“Honestly this thing has been beat to death over and over again,” Baalke said “Jim’s answered it. I’ve answered it. Jed’s tried to answer it. All we’re trying to here is win football games.
“As for our working relationship, it is what it is. Nothing Jim’s said or nothing I’ve said has been able to change the minds of certain people in the media. I can assure you one thing: we’re both on the same page when it comes to winning.”
The obvious answer here should be compromise.
The San Francisco brass needs to understand how important this coach has been to the organization’s success and Harbaugh himself needs to stop being an insufferable lout on a 24-7 basis.
At least one side of that equation is trying.
“Everybody in the organization is doing their job,” Harbaugh said. “Everybody is working hard at the craft of helping us be the best we can possibly be as a football team, and that’s all you can ask of anybody. They’re doing their best, and nobody appreciates that like I do.”
Categorized in: NFL
Tags: 49ers, San Francisco, San Francisco 49ers