My dad almost died of pure boredom at Jim Harbaugh’s weekly press conference Monday in Santa Clara. This has nothing to do with Harbaugh’s quality as a coach. He is Grade A in my dad’s book. But he is relentlessly boring, and he’s boring on purpose. So my dad wrote a column on the function of boringness and rudeness in the Jim Harbaugh universe. To read a really exciting column about the nature of Harbaugh boringness click here.
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He is just bitter.
Grant,
I’m sorry but your Dad is pretty much “clueless” about this whole thing. First off…
Jimbo is a Head Coach of an NFL Team where you basically have to act like a Spy so no meaningful Intel get’s to the Enemy.
Jimbo does not get paid to be a Talk Show Host.
But let’s turn this thing around for a minute….
If your Dad fully understood the Basic Principles of an NFL HC on how to procede with “caution” during a Press Conference what would he do differently to appease the Media?
Ask him that?
Hey Grant,
Jim Harbaugh doesn’t have to be the life of the party, he just has to put a winning team on the field for the fans and organization.
Grant, your dad is a funny guy lol
Wow. Bitter is right. The only two articles I’ve read from the guy are him whining. You can still write the feel good article without whining. Sounds like he’s bitter about not being able to mail it in with easy quotes.
It’s refreshing having a Coach not giving valuable information to their opponents because the media are the biggest loud mouths. You know what’s boring Lowell, listening to you and the rest to the media asking Stupid questions over and over. So what would you prefer a 5-11 team with a colorful coach? Leave Harbaugh alone! Go over to Oakland and interview Jackson with with questions like “Why did you trade away all their Draft Picks for 2012?” then listen to his colorful excuses.
Right on!!!!
lol, if you want colorful comments, go work for TMZ.
Lowell, come to NYC. There’s plenty of color to be had from Rex.
And if you can make it here, well… you know the rest.
Lowell you know that I respect and like you and your not like the media hacks out their right now. But I am not interested in all of the endless stupid questions that reporters ask coaches, your buddy Murphey will ask his guests every week, what is your Mom’s signature dish, what a snooze, who gives a rat’s ass. BB coach of New England is a real bore, but he won 3 Super bowls , and as a fan that is what i want JH to do, I will settle for one. You are a cut above the rest, but really if we lost 80% of the reporters out their, the world will be a better place. There have been studies that reporters, and used car sales men are the bottom dwellers of respected fields.
We have lost most reporters out there. They’ve been replaced with corporate mouthpieces posing as journalists. And the world, at least North America, is certainly not a better place.
“There have been studies..” What?
@Angusin
Yeah, thanks for questioning those “studies”.
Weak by him.
Studies? Common man, reporters have to rank above politicians and lawyers.
@Maui/Angus/Brotha
I have heard the of similar types of studies. So Neal is not making this up. Without knowing the exact study (link) I can’t discuss the exact ranking of the jobs, but reporters are not very trusted.
That has to do with media not being trusted. And who reports the things in the media? Primarily reporters. Thus the low ranking.
The best reporter of them all. Jim Lehrer of PBS Newshour has discussed this many times in various interviews. Basically how the press is deteriorating because newspapers are not as powerful (have the money) to really employ all the reporters that they once did. Newspaper reporters are the heart of good media and as that has deteriorated due in large part to blogs (sorry Grant) so the really in-depth stuff that were the golden standard in reporting has sunk the last decade or more.
“reporters have to rank above politicians and lawyers.”
Well…people have known for a long time not to trust every word from either politicians or lawyers. Reporters used to be very trusted. Not so much anymore, so that has something to do with their ranking I am sure.
age of the internet…and twitter…where the minions have so called journalistic fiber…..not….the BR is evidence of this in the niner world
Grant, you must be a glutton for punishment (lol). You know you will likely open a ‘big’ can of worms.
But hey, i’ve heard Harbaugh in interviews over the course of the season and your dad is right. Harbaugh is not a media darling, but then again he was signed on as a coach (which he has more than excelled at).
Hopfully, Harbaugh can be as boring and successful as Bill Belichick.
Not sure if you’ve had a chance to see the great Jerry Rice on espn. I don’t believe this is his strong suit as well (at least not yet). I hope he is given the opportunity to develop and hone his skills because he can add some insightful info.
It couldn’t have been as painful to watch as Jerry on Dancing with the Stars…that was bad!!
Actually 49erGirl, didn’t JR finish in the top 5?
I don’t know, maybe I should ask my wife she is an ardent fan of the show.
He finished second…but it was obviously his NFL fan support that voted for him every week – he was not that good!!! He was too worried about proper footwork and just needed to cut loose and have fun.
…Good…..finally an area you could be an expert at……how was his slant route on the dancing floor?
You obviously have an issue with the fact that I’m female, or you wouldn’t have made that comment.
That was totally sexist. You are a pig.
Ok Oneniner, after reading most your post I have to conclude you are class less for making a sexist comment without even knowing anothers blogers expertise in football! Growup man.
Oneniner is filth. He’s demonstrated over and over again the lowest class and flat out worst behavior in this room. Yet many of the pro Alex crowd continue to dialogue with him because their share common views in support of #11. what does that say about their group.
Think about that the next time you exchange friendly banter with this low life.
BAF…
I agree that 1niner has demonstrated hugely grotesque manners in his dialogue with 9erGirl, but disagree that most of his communiques are with the proAS crowd. From here, it looks like he goes back and forth with the Haters mostly, including yourself.
So let me ask, are you a true Hater?
I ask because sometimes I notice that you are less hate-based and more pro-team, whereas some of your buddies (Jordo, Girl, etc…) seem to ignore evidence that #11 is improving, while your analysis sometimes seems almost objective.
I am not a true Smither, but that is mainly because I hold The Two Mikes accountable for trashing him, as well as the team, every year since 2005, and believe that this year is a better indicator of AS’ true potential than any year under those frauds.
@49erGirl
One niner owes you an apology that you probably won’t get. He’s crossed the line several times in the past few days. I, for one, and I suspect most here on the blog, reject racism/sexism and hateful statements.
Hey, leave 49erGirl alone. She’s a valuable asset to this room
Methinks Cohn would gripe if someone gave him a million bucks because it was in big bills…you can please some of the people some of the time, but you’ll never please all the people all the time. Cohn falls in the latter category…get real.
I’m sure, it was more interesting to cover the post season tirade coming from the Raiders head coach. But I prefer a coach who protects the dignity of his players. When free agency rolls around, Harbaugh will make SF a more appealing place to play.
…who is lowell cohn?…..
who cares if he is boring, he is winning, that is all that I care about. By the way, I will second oneniner: who the heck is Lowell Cohn? :)
Here Lowell: “Kim Jong Harbaugh”
–
Write a spoof. Make it comical and fictional, like your buddy Max did about 9erGirl. A Lowell Cohn Original Spoof, casting Jim Harbaugh as the recently departed Kim Jong Il would be funny reading. There you have it, Lowell, “Kim Jong Harbaugh.” You could set it in Harding Park and plot it over 18 holes, adding a cast of Niners as playing partners and a cast of reporters as the (peanut) gallery.
–
Bottom line, Lowell: Harbaugh is a riot to watch in his pressers, and I mean that. As a fan who is invested only in the Niners’ success, I enjoy watching him earnestly evade every single perceivably offensive question, deflecting with dumbstruck look-aways or rude dismissals. I know you’re irked by it, but step back a moment and just observe. The fact that this guy is so entirely engulfed by an obsession to defeat opponents is very funny. He can’t help but be genuine, which is really quite charming when held up next to the blustery fraud from Oakland (or the guy who preceded KJH).
–
Kim Jong Harbaugh
…in other news Justin Blackmon is good…….
He evidently has never interviewed the HC from the Patriots.
Who is Lowell Cohn? You obviously have internet access. Google him.
Aside from all the information you’ll find online about his career as a journalist, he’s also Grant’s dad.
I think he was being sarcastic. Cool story about you and max though =)
wow STOP writing please enough with all the negative
ESPN is reporting that Roman interviewed for the Penn State job. If he leaves, the coaching carrosal at offensive coordinator continues.
Here’s the link from the Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/02/SP4E1MK27N.DTL
.noooooooooooooooooooooooo
No worries. This is Jim Harbaugh’s offense. Look for Geep Crist or even possibly Marc Trestman to take the reins if Roman bolts for Penn State. No changes, same playbook and verbiage. Bill Walsh always had a “disciple” to take over and run his offense. Same now Jim H.
What about Shaw?
Shaw isn’t going to leave a HC position at Stanford to come in and be OC. There’s lots of options when the HC is from the offensive side of the ball. All they would be doing is finding someone else to call the same plays from the same system the team currently runs. This is why hiring an offensive minded HC is the way to go.
I wonder if this had anything to do with that short slum we had…maybe, maybe not
Slum? What are you referring to?
sorry I meant to write “slumP”.
Yeah, Jim Harbaugh may be really boring for you guys who have to write a media column everyday. Perhaps you are missing “I need to take a look at the film” Mike Singletary? You need to retire Lowell and tell your media buddies to stop asking Jim Harbaugh so many stupid questions.
I used to read a lot of Lowell’s work in the old days when he was with the SF Chronicle. I can’t say I was a fan of his. Quite often I would end reading his column cussing under my breath. But, the effort today was right on point. There is little in sports more boring than reading the transcript of a Jim Harbaugh press conference. Thirteen and three is still a fabulous result compared to the clown acts we have watched over the past decade or so. I can live with the lack of forthright feedback from the head coach. As they used to say across the bay, “Just win, baby.” That’s in contrast to the “Just wince, baby” we’ve experienced for far too long.
He hasn’t changed trust me.
I read Lowell’s column and I agree with 99% of it. Harbaugh gives “GARBAGE” non answers at these press conferences, just like Bill Belichick does. However, the Niners couldn’t have a better football coach!
This is the 1% I don’t agree with in Lowell’s column.
Lowell said “In a sense, Jim Harbaugh is the most boring man on Earth.”
I strongly disagree with that quote.
Al Gore is the most fricking boring person on this “big blue marble.”
Until fairly recently we never had the transcripts available to us or heard the writers questions, we only heard the various coaches’ remarks in newsclips – and very often we found those remarks boorish and bullying. But now that we actually see those ridiculous and repetitive questions I have sympathy for the coaches. It makes me think that maybe guys like Ditka weren’t so bad after all.
i forgot why did we hire this guy again?
I don’t mind Harbaugh being evasive or always defending his players. And I get the logic for refusing to discuss football strategy at even the most general level.
But the guy goes out of his way to be rude to the sports media which, to me, is equivalent to being rude to the fans. The sports reporters are just trying to do their jobs. They want to provide interesting information to 49er fans and, if possible, the writers want to provide a little insight now and then. Harbaugh obviously considers the sports media as scum, and he treats them accordingly.
And the reason the writers ask stupid questions is that Harbaugh won’t reveal anything relevant to the team or its players. Why ask football questions that have no chance of being answered except with a curt dismissive response or insult?
Fine. As long as the team keeps winning.
But at some point, there will be payback time. If I were a sports writer, the next time Harbaugh or his team screws up, I would be sorely tempted to make personal attacks on Harbaugh and place all blame on his shoulders. Choice words like out-coached, confused, panicked, unprepared, and predictable would stick in my articles like knives in a bull fight – with Harbaugh being the embattled bull.
Just wait. It may be next game or sometime next season. But payback will happen. And, when it does, I will smile a bit and nod in agreement.
Your commentary is off. Harbaugh is rude to journalists who ask stupid questions. The questions were not stupid the first ten times they were posed, but have become stupid because after not being answered by Harbaugh ten times, the journalists ought not to be asking the same questions. With a guy as experienced as Harbaugh, there is no shortage of subject matter to explore, but from Day 1, Coach has been crystal clear that he will not discuss scheme or injuries, and will never speak badly about his players.
I’m starting to think that coach even game plans for the Pressers lol. There’s no way that he’s THAT good off-the-cuff in front of the cameras. Look at the way he either gives you a dumb look or a “I’m not sure what you mean” response to get the reporter to rephrase their question to one that he can easily deflect like he’s playing baseball and trying to get the right pitch, or better yet, get them to walk him on base. All of the other questions he either starts to answer but then goes way off topic or even blatantly shifts the topic to he prefers. He also likes to use the “that’s YOUR word, not mine” so that the reporter can’t actually catch him giving a “media fodder” quote. I don’t know….if there a presser-coach-of-the-year he’d win that too, but then again today’s league is soooo stats driven that he hasn’t produced enough quotes to justify a ballot spot lol.
Grant interesting column. After a decade of drama and a circus show the media was use to coaches dropping their pants or calling out players! Jerry Springer show is over and now we have a coach that focuses everything on helping the team become a TEAM. GO JH and the NIners. I am glad he is boring.
Ok people, back to football. Do you think the niner brass is making the right decision not to bring in a WR? Do we have enough for the playoffs? I’m not so sure and it worries me.
I’d hate for that to be the reason we don’t advance. Swain, Hastings…… Not solid 3′s and 4′s. What happens if someone goes down or if they need a breather during an important drive? Oh I know, hand the ball off up the gut again and again.
This is the time to bring in someone, two weeks before our first game and three weeks before a potential conference game…… I don’t like the stubbornness
Did you watch the Fiesta Bowl? If anything, losing Delanie and not bringing in a replacement is more worrisome than losing Braylon and replacing him with Swain or Hastings.
You mention the run game, so it should be said that the Niners/Cardinal offense runs best when guys like Gore/Taylor are gashing with regularity. If the last 4-5 games provide insight that Gore is injured or worn-out, then Kendall, Boobie, & Miller will have tremendous opportunities to step up & contribute.
All that said Ty Montgomery looked like a future-star last night. I would be shocked if the Niners don’t try to acquire more/better talent at WR/RB/TE (all 3) through the draft/FA…
Who out there can replace Delaine? Always have to consider that. Yeah it would be nice to bring in someone to replace him, but I dont see or know of many hybrid tight ends, or even athletic te’s, just sitting around this time of year.
Nice article. Good look at the impressions from the media point of view.
I’ve been waiting for this article from Lowell. I knew we’d get it the minute JH was hired; only a matter of time. What I didn’t predict was how much success Jim and the 49ers would have, so I expected a more negative piece.
This article wasn’t bad at all, neither was it inaccurate.
Even at Stanford Jim was no peach at a Presser, and I remember him blowing off a sideline tv reporter after a Bowl Game. He seems to feel that the Press is irrelevant at best and distracting at worst to his team efforts.
The fact is that in NFL money ball, the media plays a symbiotic role and players and coaches give some access. Heck, gang, we here are always looking for new angles, insights and info. Lowell, Grant, MM & others are trying to get it. JH kinda doesn’t play fair.
In my mind the Bay Area media has been pretty patient with his non-style so far. OK, so I’m saying LC is right, and JH is fine and not going to change. If the team keeps winning I’ll have enough to talk about.
Boring like Belichik…wins count not pithy comments. Plus you don’t want to end up like Mora & Green making a dumb quote that will follow you into eternity.
+1
Lowell’s got a point, but I think the questions you ask him are just as terrible and half the problem. He had to extend the interview just to talk about the great year his team had because no one asked him about it. You guys need to get a better feel for what he will answer and not answer.
And he’s not boring to me at all. You never know when he’s going to drop a Charlie Sheen-esque quote about something (like Plutonium grade raw talent).
Matt,
you have a point about stupid questions. Harbaugh has no patience for them. On the flip side, he tends to be pretty moody and a little too tight to the vest in terms of sharing information. Not everything is a military grade secret.
We as fans love it when Grant writes a pieces that gives us some insight regarding the team. It makes us feel like we are part of the 49er family. These pieces are difficult to do especially if Harbaugh is going to continue this style of press conference. The reporters have a very difficult job to do. He needs to ease up and not be such an a$$. But then again maybe being as a$$ is what makes him good. Dunno.
I will say this, reporters need to look at the questions that Harbaugh has NOT answered during the season and either figure out a different way to ask the question or move on to a different question altogether.
I completely agree with your last point. If Harbaugh is a tougher nut to crack, then they need to crack harder.
Also, I didn’t mean Grant (or Lowell) asks terrible questions, just that terrible questions do get asked.
I don’t have a problem with how close he keeps it to the vest. I think one of the reasons he shares so little is not because he thinks it might damage the team, but rather he isn’t sure whether it will damage the team or not. I think a lot of coaches just blurt something out when they’re not sure. I’m glad JH errs on the side of caution.
Hmm. Let’s see. Rex Ryan makes all sorts of colorful, quote worthy comments but he’s an insufferable b**b that will be watching the playoffs from his living room. Hue Jackson said wayyyyy too much, throwing his team under the bus and making a total a** out of himself in the process. Harbaugh is tight lipped, reveals nothing, is always respectful of players, his and the oppositions, never says anything that could come back and bite him or his team in the butt, and has guided a 6-10 team to 13-3 in his first NFL season. And Lowell Cohn is bored. Yawn.
+1
I saw the interview, and in particular JH’s response to Lowell.
I swear JH perked up and had a little gleam in his eye when he answered Lowell’s question.
So, I am miffed as to how JH is boring. Especially for Lowell.
Grant, can you ask your dad why he said that when JH seemed to react a little more interested when Lowell asked his question as opposed to other members of the press? I think the main reporters Mindi Bach(sp?) Lowell and Matt generally ask some of the better questions.
The national reporters who laughed off this team and didn’t bother with them are the ones who stink at asking decent questions because they DON’T know anything.
wow, excellent piece by the senior Mr Cohn; i think he captures the situation fairly and accurately. relentlessly positive is indeed relentlessly boring, except that it has been punctuated nicely 13 out of 16 weeks with wins :-).
this reminds me of one of my favorite old comparisons – movie heroes over time. in another era, you had movie heroes like Gary Cooper in High Noon – the strong, silent type who was defined by his actions under pressure (character) and not his words. but this kind of hero of course morphed after the 60s/70s into the hero was “in touch with his feelings” or his inner self – the Dustin Hoffman type, who might have a strong character, but was now able/expected to give voice to his inner thoughts/feelings. frankly, now that most of us dont farm or work construction anymore (i mean the labor, the real ditch digging, etc), for better or worse we’re all expected to be…talky.
i’m going to guess Harbaugh was raised on the old Gary Cooper model. what might be interesting to know is how talky he gets behind the scenes. he manages 53 players and lots of coaches in a sport which demands great coordination over time and space, and he gets maximum performance out of most/all of his folks. surely there’s a lot of talking/sharing going on. in interviews, guys like Alex Smith don’t seem to want to share much of what gets said. I guess they’re being raised on Gary Cooper too.
Writers like controversy. It makes their job easy. Coaches hate controversy, at least the winning coaches do. It makes their job hard. There is no percentage in it for them to give the press anything that might be remotely controversial or revealing. So I am not sure what the real complaint is here.
What surprises me is that at this stage of Lowell’s career he is still showing up at Harbaugh’s press conferences. Life is to short to be boring situations. Sounds like Hue, with no clue, is much more entertaining. I am just thankful he is not the 49ers head coach, as exciting as his press conferences maybe.
Harbaugh-the hero of guys in gas guzzling Chevy suburbans and who live in Danville. He’s got that attitude all over him. He thinks he’s all self made-never will know what breaks he got along the way. Oh,he’s earned his position-no doubt. But,that doors opened for him when they could easily have been slammed shut with his first mistake.
I’ve seen it a thousand times.
And-your dad should take some pity on the guy,He’s going to be Joe Capp without the sense of humor at 70…
And Hue? Todays BANG put some quotes of his next to his photo..and It was like he came across as the HAL computer in 2001. “I know what I did wrong” (Dave-lol) ” If you give me more power I can correct my mistakes” (after killing most of the crew in a power bid!)..the quotes are real Hue.
I don’t want to know what that information is! I know there is something just like talking to his brother about the Steelers. I don’t have a clue what they shared but I’m pretty sure it was a successful conversation. Lets be real, if he tells the media, he may as well just fax the game plans to the other team. How often in the NFL can 2 smart coaches (The Harbaughs ) put there heads together and gang up on another team. They both want nothing more than to meet at the SB.
Hi
I don’t blame Lowell for his viewpoint, but there isn’t a HC in the league that answers the type of questions these guys want answered. They aren’t going to talk about anything that pertains to how the team will attack an opponent. They aren’t going to give you an honest answer about how they view an opponent – well maybe Rex would but how’s that worked out lately?
Truthfully, these PC’s are a waste of time because there is really nothing new to report most of the time other than how a player is responding to treatment if he’s injured. However, they remain because we has fans are so starved for any news about our team, we will read it, watch it etc. That’s just the way it is folks.
@rocket
I actually like watching the press conferences. I’ll admit the transcripts are generally boring, but JH has some funny expressions that you just don’t get by reading the transcript.
So, rocket, if you have the TV package, try to watch the PC instead. Or look for it on the internet.
I watch them every week DS. I’m one of the football starved fans that will watch or read anything about my team that i mentioned in my previous post. I got the sickness and it feels good.
I don’t mean to criticize your father, but really didn’t understand the point of his article. We as 49er fans have listened to Harbaugh conduct press conferences & interviews for an entire season now, so what/where is the story? Can you imagine someone in New England writing this about Bill Belichick, of course not. Unfortunately I don’t know what 49er fans gained or learned from reading this article.