Jim Harbaugh didn’t throw a single pass during his final NFL season, but he did make quite a prediction.
In 2001, Harbaugh, a backup quarterback in Carolina, told then-assistant offensive line coach Greg Roman that he would hire Roman on his staff when he became a head coach following his playing days.
A decade later, Roman, the 49ers offensive coordinator, laughed when recalling Harbaugh’s forecast.
At the time, Roman was an NFL assistant in his seventh year and Harbaugh was the subordinate player.
“I thought that was pretty audacious,” Roman said.
I spoke to Harbaugh last week for a feature story I’m writing on Roman and I asked him about his prediction – hey, Greg, I’m going to be your boss one day.
As it turns out, Harbaugh, who is nine years older than Roman, was right. In 2009, he hired Roman on his staff at Stanford. Still, Harbaugh, who also laughed at the memory, said he could have delivered his well-intended message differently.
“I remember just thinking he was very good at what he did and I wanted to let him know that I thought that,” Harbaugh said. “It was probably a silly way of saying I think you’re a really good coach. I can’t think of a better way to say this, Greg, but I think you’re a really good coach.”
• In what would appear to be a response to Harbaugh’s post-draft comments regarding unrestricted free agent quarterback Alex Smith, the NFL has sent the 49ers a memo asking them to not discuss their free agents during the lockout.
In a press conference after the draft, Harbaugh said, on a number of occasions, that he thought Smith would re-sign with the Niners. He also revealed that he’d given Smith a playbook.
“I think he’s going to come back to the team,” Harbaugh said on April 30. “He has not signed a contract.”
Team spokesman Bob Lange confirmed the NFL had reached out to the team after Harbaugh balked at the mention of Smith’s name during last week’s interview. I asked Harbaugh if he saw similarities between his career path and that of Smith’s – a topic I touched on in this blog.
“I’m not answering any questions about Alex Smith,” Harbaugh said. “The league has mandated we do not talk about him … The NFL has mandated that we don’t talk about players who are not under contract — who are free agents who haven’t signed. We’ve been sent a memo saying we can’t talk about it.”
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said he was not aware of the contact between the league and the 49ers.
• Niners linebacker Thaddeus Gibson was among those Ohio State players accused of selling or trading Buckeyes memorabilia in this Sports Illustrated article that appears to have led to Jim Tressel’s resignation at Ohio State.
According to a source in the SI story, Gibson was among those who either traded memorabilia in exchange for tattoos or cash at Fine Line Ink, a tattoo parlor in Columbus, Ohio. The source provided pictures of Gibson and teammates being tattooed or displaying their tattoos at Fine Line Ink. As SI’s online story notes, Gibson has tattoos down both arms.
In November, the 49ers claimed Gibson, a fourth-round pick in the 2010 draft, after he was waived by the Steelers.
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Still waiting for the NFL to file tampering charges against the Eagles for Andy Reid’s comments about Brian Westbrook DURING THE SEASON. The 49ers got penalized draft picks for speaking with Terrell Suggs’ AGENT when Suggs was with Baltimore.
The player in question is actually Lance Briggs. And the Niners were punished for two missed calls to Drew Rosenhaus’ cel phone. Goodell was using the Niners to try to make a point — Just one more reason why Goodell should be fired!
So that NFL slaps JH hand for talking about AS…interesting. The NFL puts constraints on new HC’s due to the lockout and all they can do is give them additional grief for trying to secure a full team. This year should be cancelled – how can the NFL say that ALL HC’s have an even playing field when the new HC’s can’t get their program installed? Do you think the new HC’s have a chance? Whoever wins the SB this year should have an asterisk next to their team name.
Of course you did not mean that the asterisk would apply if the 9ers win it.
HArbaugh get these young players going like TMays and ADavis Iputi then you’ll be on your way
I believe all of the players (with exception of Patrick Willis, Frank Gore, and Vernon Davis) will need to go through evaluation by the new coaching staff, to find out their strengths and weaknesses. Singletary’s “coaching” staff was basically an image of himself, a “moronic coach” who lacks sophistication and knowledge-always a step slower than the opponent. Harbaugh, from all the tidbits written by media, is always a few steps ahead, prepared, able to attract talented people to his staff, and above all: a winner. Winners bring out the winners in all of us, including the fans.
Arrogance/stupidity tends to make people around them mediocre, and that is the 49er way for the past 10 years.
If any of you dont think this is tampering. Your brain is dead. I hope to God they will make Smth leave the 49ers. That would be a season worth throwing away.
ninermd, don’t be so foolish.
He is foolish because he is a fool.
Who is Smth?
How do they make Alex leave the team?? The worst that they can do is take draft picks away from the team.
Dont you just love it when a stupid person says ” If you dont think like me, you must be brain-dead”?
Ironic, isn’t it?
Cmon now fishlips, little buddy. Think things through a little more. By calling him stupid, don’t you think you proved your own point? I take it as, if you don’t agree with me you must be stupid. Sort of a circular argument don’t you think? Maybe you and ninermd should have a beer summit.
Houston,
As I mentioned before, you type only to hear your own keyboard and that your reading comprehension is way too low to comment.
See if you can follow me!!
He mentioned that he hopes to god because of what he perceives as tampering, that the league would not allow Alex to sign with the 9ers and if anyone that doesnt see it is BRAIN DEAD.
My respond was that his notion is way off base and they could not stop Alex from signing with the 9ers because he is a FREE AGENT, emphases on “FREE”. Perhaps you can understand that the players union would not allow the league to tell its free agent players where to sign and where not to sign?
If you remember, the lock out was lifted for few hours and Alex and everyone else were allowed back on the premises. At that point Alex and JJim could talk about anything that they wanted to including a new contract, so the Niners were not in any violation .Now for the sake of the arguement, lets say that they were, all the league can do is take draft picks away from them but they couldnt get him to sign some where else.
Lastly, I joked that people that are stupid and/or way off base, are always arguing that if you are not with them, you are either dumb or brain dead, which is very funny to me.
In the past I’ve read some of your comments and I dont agree with most of what you say but you’ll have to agree that I have never commented on any of your posts or went off on you for having a certain point of view. The only time I went off on you was the time I recommended a local newspaper to Eric and you had to bash it even though you have never seen or read that newspaper.
Now isnt there some kinda tractor-pull or a rodeo you can go to in that god forsaken place and stop commenting on things you dont understand or cant follow?
Goodell needs to say goodbye and let Condi Rice do the job.
So they can look for wmd’s under the Giants stadium?
Ninerrmd
How is Dallas doing this off-season? Get the Heil off ‘niner blogs and quit trying to create confusion….that’s YOUR bailiwick.
The NFL is so East Coast biased it’s ridiculous, The Halas, Mara, Rooney families call the shots. Besides Eddie D can you name an influential West Coast owner in the last 50 years.
I think LeBron James would make a fearsome pass rusher from the outside.
Lebron would be on the injured reserve list for the season after two plays.
In basketball they give you a penalty shot for someone tapping you on your wrist. In football they might penalize the player $10,000 after the game for taking your head off.
Rememeber, Baskeball is a contact sport, Football is a collision.
eric,
One of the glaring weakenesses the 49ers had last year was their secondary. Just wondering if you could shed some insight on the 49ers plan to address this area.
Finally, someone that’s not pointing his finger, and blaming all of the Niner flaws on Alex Smith….someone that actually sees the game while he watches. Though I support Alex, I’m not afraid to admit that he has weaknesses in his game, and in the next breath will also say that good coaching will help to alleviate those weaknesses.
The Niners secondary was, and in all likelyhood still is, a glaring weakness. The addition of Aldon Smith could hel to establish a real pass rush, which would help the DB’s, but if the talent isn’t there in the secondary, only minor improvement will be noticed. When the players and owners get this damn thing settled, hopefully the Niners make a big splash in the F/A market. Nnamdi would be an outstanding pick-up, but his $$$ value, sure to be high, could keep Jed and TB away.
I still maintain that depth is the biggest issue with the secondary. The CBs that the FO has put in place REQUIRE a solid pass rush. Clements and Spencer are good (not great) starting CBs who are extremely physical. Their going to be at their best when they can jam receivers at the line, re-route them, force them to work to get into their routes, etc. I blame the previous staff for consistently playing them in off coverage, although the lack of pass rush may have necessitated that. Because of this, I think that a player like Nnamdi is a luxury, not a necessity. If the team were ‘one player away’, go for it… that’s how they got Deion. With all of the other issues, though, I’d be thrilled with a ‘second tier’ FA like Ike Taylor, Carlos Rogers, Johnathon Joseph, Antonio Cromartie. If you can’t get them, some third tier guys (Usama Young, Josh Wilson, Eric Wright) to add depth are the biggest need – William James as the third corner? That was a problem waiting to happen.
Shootme are you kidding me? Our CB’s were good not great? They sucked. Flat out sucked. How many interceptions and batted balls did you see? How many times were they in decent coverage and got beat because they never turned to track the ball? Did you ever see one of Spencer’s post game interviews? The guy needed to go down the yellow brick road for confidence. And did you see any Clements interviews? No you didn’t cause he didn’t have the guts to show his face given all the money he is making. And when it came down to needing intelligence and a veteran presence Clements failed us the most by not knowing the situation and kneeling down after his INT in Atlanta. Bottom line our CB’s suck, lack speed, lack size, lack quickness, lack intelligence. They are a 4 on a scale of 1-10.
( Felt so good to get that off my chest lol )
Again, I disagree. Everything that you’re saying is basically reiterating my point that they were put in bad positions. They’re not the fastest or the quickest… this was a given. A ‘known’ when they were signed – and they seem to fit the mold of Baalke and McCloughan – big and strong. That calls for a system where they’re playing at the line and have a decent pass rush. Would you be confident when you’re not being put in a position to play to your strengths? Did they not turn to track the ball because they knew they didn’t have safety help? Just like everyone is saying about the offense, the system has to fit the strengths of the players… it didn’t. At all.
I also can’t really blame Clements for that play in ATL… 99/100 times he (or any other CB) would score on that play. He had a convoy in front of him, he was at the sideline, and a score would have iced the game. That was just a tremendous play by White. Stupidity was Bly having the same thing happen the year earlier because he was celebrating. The Clements play was just a hindsight ‘stupid’ play… I doubt you or anyone else was yelling for him to get down at the time.
BTW – I said they ARE good not great, not that they WERE good not great. They’re good, not great, players who were put in bad situations.
So you are saying that scoring the TD putting you up by one score and giving the ball back with 1:45 is the right thing to do 99-100? Then I wouldn’t want you on my team either. The right thing to do was to know to kneel in the event of a turnover and wear the clock down. They had the ball near mid field. One first down and the game was over. If not a punt after 3 downs would have pinned Atlanta deep with no timeouts and the length of the field to go with 30 seconds on the clock. A professional should have known this. The coaching staff should have alerted them as well.
As far as Nate, he was quick, he was fast, he was physical with an FFFFFFF. He aint no more….
Yep… ATL had all three timeouts left and SF was up by 1. Get in the end zone and they now need a TD and a 2 point conversion in 1:30 or less. All 3 timeouts and the Niners DEFINITELY would have run it three straight times. The play with Clements took about 10 seconds off the clock and gave the Falcons the ball at the 7. Pretty similar to where they would have ended up, assuming the punt didn’t reach the end zone or they got a good return out of it. Thus, in all likelihood, the game would have ended the same way unless he got that ball in the end zone at that point.
It was a great play by white… given the situation, it was HIGHLY unlikely that it would have occurred… on the sideline with plenty of Niners around the ball, who would have guessed that such a fluke play would have happened? Not me and apparently not the coaching staff… Manusky backed him.
Shootme you are making yourself look bad bro. Here read it from a beat writer. Oh and lets not forget that Nate was just about in field goal range. Had the 49ers scored the field goal Atlanta would have had to score a TD by going the length of the field with no timeouts.
Also lets not forget that Alex in the first half threw a terrible pass to Gore that led to an INT. The niners were in field goal range at the time. Had they made that score, the game would have just about been over. Enough with the beer goggle assessments.
http://www.nfltouchdown.com/49ers-fall-to-0-4-alex-smith-is-mr-inconsistent-nate-clements-is-mr-goat/
They were not in FG range when he made the interception. Not even close:
(1:31) (Shotgun) M.Ryan pass short middle intended for T.Gonzalez INTERCEPTED by N.Clements at ATL 49.
N.Clements to ATL 10 for 39 yards (R.White). FUMBLES (R.White), RECOVERED by ATL-H.Dahl at ATL 7.
He would have had to make a deliberate decision WHERE to step out of bounds to make your theory correct. Had he gone down right there, they wouldn’t have made it to the 40 unless they had gotten a first down and Nedney ain’t kicking a 57 yarder.
“Also lets not forget that Alex in the first half threw a terrible pass to Gore that led to an INT. ”
What does that have to do with the Clements fumble? Smith threw 2 INTs in the game and you can likely say that either would have changed the outcome of the game. I’m talking STRICTLY about the Clements play at the end of the game.
El oh el at that being a ‘beat reporter’. He’s not. And his assessment is a COMPLETE hindsight one. He should have known White would be there because of a game the year before where Bly was showboating? Really? That’s a stretch. At the time the play happened, it didn’t look like a bad play by damn near anyone… just a great play by White.
“Intelligent players glance back behind them even if they are at full speed in the open field, just to make sure nobody is gaining ground.”
STUPID statement. Seriously, to expect that of a defensive player in that situation? Not to mention, White came from the sideline side, where he wouldn’t have looked anyway. Again, grabbing at straws by someone who has never played the game. He was surrounded by Niners’ players. He wasn’t showboating. He wasn’t holding the ball away from his body like many do. He was holding the ball tight to his body and on the sideline side… greatly minimizing risk.
Bottom line, however… his coaches even said it was a great play by White and they didn’t fault Clements at all. Easy for armchair coaches/players to knock the play in hindsight.