Harbaugh Insists Smith Was Always The Only One: Commentary

[Bemular]

Hey guys, I was asked to post the following commentary here for thoughts, responses and reactions, by someone who writes about the NFL/49ers and use to gain ideas from many of you when you were over at ESPN. Yes, writers do now and then troll boards such as these for ideas and to gain perspective and sentiment - Honestly, this should surprise no one.

I can't say I wholeheartedly agree with all the thoughts and opinions expressed but it is tough to deny the premise - Enjoy.

Commentary:

I like Jim Harbaugh, quite a bit actually. What's there not to like? He comes from proven coaching pedigree. He has been successful at each stop along his coaching carousel, and upon arrival here in SF, Jim and his staff immediately coached a team of non-believers and underachievers to within a couple mistakes of a Super Bowl birth and likely a Super Bowl victory in the opinion of this writer.

Not only has Jim proven he is an astute and crafty HC on the sidelines but he has repeatedly shown the media that he is just as astute and crafty whether he is standing behind one microphone at the podium or behind a legion of digital recorders out on the practice field.

I admire the way Harbaugh "manages" the media. He is often twisting them in knots with his answers, giving them just enough of nothing to allow them to meet a deadline or send them wandering aimlessly around the practice facility in an attempt to find a story only to later discover that Harbaugh had made them the story.

However, none of that is meant to suggest that Jim hasn't offered up his share of: "are you serious" morsels to the media. Last year he claimed Alex Smith was an elite QB deserving of being named to the pro-bowl; he wasn't kidding. As ridiculous as this was, the timing was right for such fodder. It was December and Alex Smith had just led the 49ers to their first post season in 9 years while recording the best #'s of his career.

Ultimately, this was a nice and well deserved bone thrown to a dog that had been kicked to the curb, left out in the rain, malnourished and unloved by both the fans and the media for the previous six seasons and nobody "in-the-know" saw it as anything other than that; and, as such, the comment inspired little serious consideration.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and Harbaugh tosses another nugget to the national media by claiming Michael Crabtree has the best hands of any WR he has ever seen, seriously Jim? Having been involved in sports my whole life I understand the value of having a coach instill confidence in his players but instilling delusion is something altogether different.

That brings us to yesterday's post-practice press conference where Harbaugh took the initiative to "clear the air" regarding the 49ers pursuit of Peyton Manning. However, in doing I think he once again left us wondering – just who are you trying to fool, Jim. Here is an excerpt of what he said.



"…there's the perception out there, and it's an erroneous perception, that we were flirting with Peyton Manning… It's silly. And, it's untrue. It's phony."

"Even the perception that we were pursuing him,” Harbaugh continued, "we were evaluating him."

"We've said it all along, Alex Smith has been our quarterback," Harbaugh, the NFL's Coach of the Year said. "There's no scenario other than Alex choosing to sign with another team that we wouldn't consider him not as our quarterback."



There is little question that an administrative level chit-chat prompted Harbaugh to issue these carefully considered verbs and adjectives to the media. But try as you might in any way you want to disguise the 49ers intentions, Mr. Harbaugh, the truth remains this – you pursued Peyton Manning, and you weren't pursuing him to be Alex Smith's back-up.

So what is going on here? Are these statements and false explanations just thinly veiled attempts to hide a borderline unhealthy distain for the media? Is he simply testing the boundaries of patience and intelligence of the media, the fans and perhaps even some of his players? Or worse, does he actually believe some of this BS he is saying?

As I said at the top, I like Jim Harbaugh, quite a bit, and I am one of 100's of 1000's of fans who are damn glad he is on our sideline come Sunday, but honestly, Jim, a little professional respect come Monday morning would be appreciated – Thanks Jim.

 

[Jikkle]

Well if you want to be technical there is a difference between evaluating and pursing a player.

So in Jim's mind he isn't telling a lie or just blowing smoke because the only thing we really know is they watched him work out. There was never any report of a contract offer nor did we ever bring him to the facility.

So he might actually be telling the truth in that all the did was evaluate and kick the tires on him.

I'm sure if Peyton would've came to them and said I want to win and do everything you can to contract wise to make it work so I can play for you Jim and Baalke weren't actually going to turn him down but we didn't exactly send a delegation to bow down and worship the ground he walked on either.

 

[Bemular]

Well if you want to be technical there is a difference between evaluating and pursing a player.

So in Jim's mind he isn't telling a lie or just blowing smoke because the only thing we really know is they watched him work out. There was never any report of a contract offer nor did we ever bring him to the facility.

So he might actually be telling the truth in that all the did was evaluate and kick the tires on him.

I'm sure if Peyton would've came to them and said I want to win and do everything you can to contract wise to make it work so I can play for you Jim and Baalke weren't actually going to turn him down but we didn't exactly send a delegation to bow down and worship the ground he walked on either.

I was told that part of what may have prompted Harbaughs statement to the media, and thus this commentary here, was the comment Andrew Siciliano made on the NFLN about a week ago when he said the 49ers had very seriously pursued Manning or something to that effect.

 

[Heathbar012]

That's a great column, and I completely understand where the author is coming from. It's very well-written, but I don't even think the journalist in question really believes in "scolding" Harbaugh for his treatment of the media.

I think a better, more believable angle would be a "Oh, well, it looks like Jim is just like every other coach that has learned from being too honest." I think the article would have more cohesion if it centered around the fact that all successful coaches play the media, as Harbaugh has certainly done.

As sad as it is, public perception affects a coach's career. How well a leader plays that cat and mouse game with the media can mean almost as much as wins and losses. If anything, the aspect of Harbaugh's personality that "disappoints" the author may be the very thing that gives his coaching career the longevity it deserves.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

My question is: Why? Why even bring this up? It just stirs the pot in a way that isn't at all necessary.

My first thought on hearing this was that Harbaugh was off his rocker. But then I started to think about it, and having read what he said more carefully, I'm not sure that he's lying, as such. They offered Alex a contract that would have presumably allowed him to lock up the starting spot. He didn't sign it. So they looked into another option. Now, that other option was Manning, and there's little doubt they tried quite hard to get him, but Harbaugh may be completely honest when he says that Alex was their guy from day one. Do we even go after Manning if Smith signed immediately? We'll never know, but it seems unlikely either party would have seriously considered the relationship at that point.

But again, it just seems so silly to dredge this up. If anything it draws more attention. And the way it came out makes Harbaugh look a little silly IMO. Maybe more than a little. I don't think (and hope I'm right) that Smith needs his ego stroked in this way, so I'm not really sure what the goal was here.

 

[spacedoodoopistol]

To me, Harbaugh sounded like a politician here, using very particular language to make a dubious statement that is technically correct......the key word being "pursued". They evaluated him, probably discussed internally, they maybe even talked numbers, but there's no indication the Niners were making any serious plans to get Manning. You can even tell, when Harbaugh said "we evaluated, and we pursued.......err, wait, I mean we didn't pursue", that was the exact word he wanted to use, but got tongue tied.

Anyway, what strikes me is that with these statements, I'm not sure Smith nor Harbaugh understand exactly how insane the media and fans have gotten in the last few years of Twitter and such. Every comment in any setting will be dissected, scrutinized, taken the wrong way, treated as controversial on 10 different ESPN shows trolling for drama.......like Crimson said, unless there's some subtle reason we don't understand its hard to figure why they'd be making these comments knowing there will be blowback.

 

[Bemular]

My question is: Why? Why even bring this up? It just stirs the pot in a way that isn't at all necessary.

My first thought on hearing this was that Harbaugh was off his rocker. But then I started to think about it, and having read what he said more carefully, I'm not sure that he's lying, as such. They offered Alex a contract that would have presumably allowed him to lock up the starting spot. He didn't sign it. So they looked into another option. Now, that other option was Manning, and there's little doubt they tried quite hard to get him, but Harbaugh may be completely honest when he says that Alex was their guy from day one. Do we even go after Manning if Smith signed immediately? We'll never know, but it seems unlikely either party would have seriously considered the relationship at that point.

But again, it just seems so silly to dredge this up. If anything it draws more attention. And the way it came out makes Harbaugh look a little silly IMO. Maybe more than a little. I don't think (and hope I'm right) that Smith needs his ego stroked in this way, so I'm not really sure what the goal was here.

There was uncertainty among many in the writing community regarding the seriousness of the first offer. Some believe the first offer was intentionally low so as to buy time to "evaluate" Manning and it was only after this evaluation took place and Manning signed with the Broncos that the 49ers put a real offer on the table for Smith.

As for dredging this back up, keep in mind it was Harbaugh who, in unsolicited fashion, dredged this back up; he made this a story again not the writers/journalists.

I do know this commentary was sent to several beats and to the YaHoo sports dept. as well. The author fully anticipated Harbaugh's denial of any serious interest in Peyton would gain momentum - and it will. So, who knows maybe we'll see parts of this commentary mentioned down the road as the bored writers struggle to fill bandwidth.

 

[Bemular]

To me, Harbaugh sounded like a politician here, using very particular language to make a dubious statement that is technically correct......the key word being "pursued". They evaluated him, probably discussed internally, they maybe even talked numbers, but there's no indication the Niners were making any serious plans to get Manning. You can even tell, when Harbaugh said "we evaluated, and we pursued.......err, wait, I mean we didn't pursue", that was the exact word he wanted to use, but got tongue tied.

Anyway, what strikes me is that with these statements, I'm not sure Smith nor Harbaugh understand exactly how insane the media and fans have gotten in the last few years of Twitter and such. Every comment in any setting will be dissected, scrutinized, taken the wrong way, treated as controversial on 10 different ESPN shows trolling for drama.......like Crimson said, unless there's some subtle reason we don't understand its hard to figure why they'd be making these comments knowing there will be blowback.

Excellent post Space. I couldn't agree more with this perspective.

 

[threelittleturds]

The 49ers sure are giving the national media plenty of excuses to blow shit out of proportion when there is nothing else worth reporting this time of year. First Smith with his comments about Newton and now Harbaugh saying they were never actually all in on Manning, only feeling things out.

I can't help but wonder if the national media is going crazy over this latest thing because they already dislike Harbaugh for keeping things so close to the chest. Along with having the reputation of not being very media friendly. I saw the clip on ESPN and those guys were pissed off and screaming about how Harbaugh is treating them like idiots.

 

[Bemular]

That's a great column, and I completely understand where the author is coming from. It's very well-written, but I don't even think the journalist in question really believes in "scolding" Harbaugh for his treatment of the media.

I think a better, more believable angle would be a "Oh, well, it looks like Jim is just like every other coach that has learned from being too honest." I think the article would have more cohesion if it centered around the fact that all successful coaches play the media, as Harbaugh has certainly done.

As sad as it is, public perception affects a coach's career. How well a leader plays that cat and mouse game with the media can mean almost as much as wins and losses. If anything, the aspect of Harbaugh's personality that "disappoints" the author may be the very thing that gives his coaching career the longevity it deserves.

Heathbar012, I will pass along your comments - all of them - This is a great response and ideas. I personally could not agree more about how a bad relationship with the media/public can hurt a coaching career.

 

[MHSL82]

My question is: Why? Why even bring this up? It just stirs the pot in a way that isn't at all necessary.

My first thought on hearing this was that Harbaugh was off his rocker. But then I started to think about it, and having read what he said more carefully, I'm not sure that he's lying, as such. They offered Alex a contract that would have presumably allowed him to lock up the starting spot. He didn't sign it. So they looked into another option. Now, that other option was Manning, and there's little doubt they tried quite hard to get him, but Harbaugh may be completely honest when he says that Alex was their guy from day one. Do we even go after Manning if Smith signed immediately? We'll never know, but it seems unlikely either party would have seriously considered the relationship at that point.

But again, it just seems so silly to dredge this up. If anything it draws more attention. And the way it came out makes Harbaugh look a little silly IMO. Maybe more than a little. I don't think (and hope I'm right) that Smith needs his ego stroked in this way, so I'm not really sure what the goal was here.

I, too, doubt Alex needs assurances through public interviews this far after the fact. I know he wouldn't ask Harbaugh to say anything to the media because of the Beason thing. Big deal. Alex *may* have needed the "Alex is our starter, he's earned it" comments, not because he doesn't think he deserves it or wouldn't compete, but rather to just get questions about Kaep and competition out of the question. Harbaugh could still make a QB switch if he wanted to, Alex still needs to work his butt off, but saying this changes the focus of the offseason to a more conducive "lead us, Alex" challenge. Not a "here we go again, Alex". I actually believe Alex when he says Harbaugh was upfront with him and that he went to Miami (if Manning were coming) but basically told Miami that he was waiting on Manning and his heart was in SF. Honesty can hurt your chances but I see Alex as an honest guy. Any type of reassuring Alex would need would be privately and through actions, not words.

 

[MHSL82]

There was uncertainty among many in the writing community regarding the seriousness of the first offer. Some believe the first offer was intentionally low so as to buy time to "evaluate" Manning and it was only after this evaluation took place and Manning signed with the Broncos that the 49ers put a real offer on the table for Smith.
As for dredging this back up, keep in mind it was Harbaugh who, in unsolicited fashion, dredged this back up; he made this a story again not the writers/journalists.

I do know this commentary was sent to several beats and to the YaHoo sports dept. as well. The author fully anticipated Harbaugh's denial of any serious interest in Peyton would gain momentum - and it will. So, who knows maybe we'll see parts of this commentary mentioned down the road as the bored writers struggle to fill bandwidth.

I believe this was the "structure" that Alex kept referring to as why it took so long. The Niners were obviously trying to get Alex for starter's money only if he started but have him signed for backup money if he didn't. Alex wanted assurances (as all do) and he wanted to either be here for starter's money or chance to find it elsewhere. That's what the current contract does. Rather than signing him for 3M a year, with starting bonuses up to 8M, he's getting roughly 8 this year, 3M possible escalators, and chance to get cut for basically 1M. (Still put up or shut up, basically)

 

[Flyingiguana]

we'd be stupid not to at least look at manning. smith had a contract offer and he didn't sign it.

 

[Bemular]

I believe this was the "structure" that Alex kept referring to as why it took so long. The Niners were obviously trying to get Alex for starter's money only if he started but have him signed for backup money if he didn't. Alex wanted assurances (as all do) and he wanted to either be here for starter's money or chance to find it elsewhere. That's what the current contract does. Rather than signing him for 3M a year, with starting bonuses up to 8M, he's getting roughly 8 this year, 3M possible escalators, and chance to get cut for basically 1M. (Still put up or shut up, basically)

Ahh, yes, I do recall the "structure" chatter filtering its way around the media. You're probably right on the money. It is one thing to "say" you want your QB back - it's something entirely different to make him a low-ball-take-it-or-leave-it offer. If that is in fact what they did. It is hard to say but I'm pretty sure they did up the offer after the eval and/or Manning signed with the Broncos.

 

[Arete Tzu]

I think all this love form harbaugh has gone to Smith's head, it looks like he has the confidence to be a rapper now

 

[clyde_carbon]

Lol, he looks exactly like Alex.

 

[DoobieKeebler]

Lol, he looks exactly like Alex.

If Alex Smith and Kyle Orton's beard had a baby...

 

[BINGO]

To me, Harbaugh sounded like a politician here, using very particular language to make a dubious statement that is technically correct......the key word being "pursued". They evaluated him, probably discussed internally, they maybe even talked numbers, but there's no indication the Niners were making any serious plans to get Manning. You can even tell, when Harbaugh said "we evaluated, and we pursued.......err, wait, I mean we didn't pursue", that was the exact word he wanted to use, but got tongue tied.

Anyway, what strikes me is that with these statements, I'm not sure Smith nor Harbaugh understand exactly how insane the media and fans have gotten in the last few years of Twitter and such. Every comment in any setting will be dissected, scrutinized, taken the wrong way, treated as controversial on 10 different ESPN shows trolling for drama.......like Crimson said, unless there's some subtle reason we don't understand its hard to figure why they'd be making these comments knowing there will be blowback.

I was just about to write that.

Also, I agree with him that Crabtree has one of the best hands in the NFL today. I don't think Harbaus said that he (Crab) has the best hands of all time (history of the NFL). Simply the best hands he has been exposed to since being affiliated with the NFL (as a player/scout/coach). Is it really a far fetched situation to believe that when he was exposed to Rice, Brown, and Harrison those particular receivers were either out of their primes and weren't as great with their hands in comparison to how Crabtree is catching balls now? I don't know I'm just saying.

 

[spacedoodoopistol]

I should add, I did hear through the grapevine that Smith was pretty pissed off about the whole Manning process. While I thought he'd take it more in stride, the fact is that if Harbaugh is telling him this or that after the season ends, then a few weeks later is kicking the tires on Manning - and according to some media, going much further - there is certainly room for disappointment.

So that could explain some of Harbaugh's public commentary.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

There was uncertainty among many in the writing community regarding the seriousness of the first offer. Some believe the first offer was intentionally low so as to buy time to "evaluate" Manning and it was only after this evaluation took place and Manning signed with the Broncos that the 49ers put a real offer on the table for Smith.

As for dredging this back up, keep in mind it was Harbaugh who, in unsolicited fashion, dredged this back up; he made this a story again not the writers/journalists.

I do know this commentary was sent to several beats and to the YaHoo sports dept. as well. The author fully anticipated Harbaugh's denial of any serious interest in Peyton would gain momentum - and it will. So, who knows maybe we'll see parts of this commentary mentioned down the road as the bored writers struggle to fill bandwidth.

I know. That was the point I was making. Why would Harbaugh offer this up? He seems to have reasons for most of what he does, and that may be the case here, but other than publicly standing up for Smith in a fairly transparent way - a way I would think Smith would see through - I don't really see the benefit.