SANTA CLARA – Jim Harbaugh was itching to talk this afternoon.
He wasn’t scheduled to speak. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman was, and Harbaugh was supposed to wait until Monday, but Harbaugh couldn’t wait.
He sat in the back of the media tent and voraciously ate his lunch (greens, a roll, what looked like roast beef and a tall glass of milk) off of his lap while Roman answered questions. After Harbaugh finished his food, Roman wasn’t finished, so Harbaugh put his elbows on his knees and leaned forward with his mouth open staring at his offensive coordinator, ready to explode out of his chair the instant Roman finished up.
Roman went on. Harbaugh sat back in his chair and crossed his legs crossed and his arms folded against his chest. Then he leaned forward against his knees again. He sighed. He couldn’t sit still.
After about 13 minutes, Roman wrapped up his press conference, at which point Harbaugh bounded to the podium, and this is what he said:
HARBAUGH: I want to update you on the status of A.J. Jenkins. A.J. Jenkins was an outstanding football player when he got here. His progress has been very, very good and exceeded expectations. For those – the scribes, pundits, so-called experts who have gone as far as to say that he’s going to be a bust should just stop because they’re making themselves look foolish. I’m going to go on record and say A.J. Jenkins is going to be an outstanding football player. What he’s done in the offseason has led us to believe that he will be nothing but an outstanding football player in the National Football League.
Q: That said, do you expect him to be a major contributor as a rookie?
HARBAUGH: I expect him to have a great practice today. He’s had two outstanding practices since we’ve been here at camp, and it’s been consistent, steady improvement every time he’s been out on the field or been in a meeting. And it was already outstanding to begin with. You will recall on the first day of rookie minicamp I said, “This is the best group of young receivers that I’ve ever been a part of in football, as a player or a coach.” It was good to start with and it’s getting better and better each day. I’m going to keep track of some of these names of the so-called experts who are making these comments and there’s going to be an “I told you so.” I foresee that happening.
Q: You said on the first day he was out of shape.
HARBAUGH: I didn’t say him specifically, I said the group. The group of rookies, and I said that they would eventually get there, and they are there. A.J. Jenkins specifically, his conditioning is tip-top.
Q: Was he concerned about what people are saying about him?
HARBAUGH: No, he has had a tremendous attitude. He’s not even concerned with it at all. That’s one of the many things that’s been outstanding about him. I’m not telling you what to do. If you want to keep saying what you’re saying, it’s motivation, it’s fuel for all of us.
Q: When can we judge A.J. Jenkins? Three or four years from now?
HARBAUGH: I said what I said. It’s in a nice, tidy box. I said what I wanted to say, and you can do with that information what you will. The other thing is I know you have some concerns about your view of the practice field. Just some information for you before you make a knee-jerk reaction without enough information. What we have out there on the grass is just enough for our football players to practice. We have 90 guys. There’s a 70-yard field and a 90-yard field. They have to be able to catch the ball and run out of bounds or run out of the end zone. We don’t have the space to have football players, staff, trainers, managers competing with anybody else for grass space. We just don’t have the space. That really goes for all guests. We’ve lost about 60,000 square feet of grass due to the two streets that have been installed. It’s not an effort to keep the media away from the practice field or to give you a bad view of what’s going on out there on the practice field. You’re allowed to be here, we welcome you here and you have a job to do, we have a job to do, but also you have to be protected, our players have to be protected and that’s the reason. And also, one other thing, I know you complained that you can’t see across the field when we have drills going on on the far field. Those field rotate daily where the main quadrant is. Day 1 was there, Day 2 was there, Day 3 will be on the close field. You’ll have a bird’s eye view of most all the action. Basically you’re going to get a bird’s eye view of 50 percent of all of our practice reps.
Q: Dealing with criticism comes with the territory of being a professional athlete. Why do you come up here and defend A.J.?
HARBAUGH: I’m just stating the facts as I see them and believe them to be. You like that? On the record, this is how I see it.
Q: What’s Michael Crabtree’s injury status?
HARBAUGH: There’s something that he’s working through physically.
Q: Does it warrant an MRI?
HARBAUGH: He’s working through something.
Q: Do you expect him on the field today?
HARBAUGH: Not today.
Q: You’ve added Mario Manningham and A.J. Jenkins. This team now has some smaller receivers than it’s had in the past. Have you gotten to see them against press coverage yet?
HARBAUGH: Well, first I wouldn’t agree that they’re smaller receivers. If you did the research and saw what the average wide receiver in the National Football League weighed, you’d see that those two guys are very similar to that average. So what was the question?
Q: Have you seen them against press coverage yet?
HARBAUGH: There’s been press, but there’s been no real football where they’re really putting their hands on them and bumping them, jolting them at the line of scrimmage. It’s been press shadow.
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Ok Grant, best guess… which reporter riled up Harbaugh?
I’m betting on Kawakami. :-D
Harbaugh has the #1 rule of leadership down pat: praise in public, criticize in private. It seems he realizes he goofed with his earlier comments about Jenkins and wanted to correct himself.
JH thrives off of those who doubt him and his team. Bet he has a blacklist in his office.
:- )
Grant
Can you ask JH about MC’s injury status again? I don’t think he understood the question. lol
My guess is Grant Cohen here riled Harbaugh up!!! Grant has been negative Nancy from the minute we drafted Jenkins in the first round and he has continued to do so. His Bias is obvious and I don’t like it. I loved the questions, “you said Jenkins was out of shape…” when he never actually said Jenkins, he said the group was out of shape but they will get there, the media twisted it like they always do and made it sound like Harbaugh was calling Jenkins out when in fact he was saying all the rookies were out of shape.
JH responding to Big/Lil Cohn dbs
Come on, Coach. Who cares what the media thinks… You and your team will prove it on the field – AJ included. That will speak for itself…
Jim Harbaugh “plays” with the media like a pulling strings on a puppet… The media ate Mike Singletary for lunch. Harbaugh owns the scribes, mostly tells them little to nothing, he is a marvelous motivator of players, they will run through a wall for him, some media members try the Jim Rome approach, and they know little about what they report.
It sure beat hearing from the REV that I am going to look at the film and take it from their, or here is a good one ” “We’ve set out to win the division. We’re going to win the division, I promise you. Remember me when we do.” We will. Whenever that comes”
As a member of the “so-called experts,” I would like to comment. Coach Harbaugh was rather defensive when we “clueless ones” questioned the first round pick of Jenkins. Many Niner die-hards felt that drafting him that high was a reach, considering that he lacked size & strength, even though blessed with awesome speed. H e was a mid-second round talent at best. Hopefully, Jenkins proves us wrong and emerges into a top-flight receiver. Unfortunately for him, he’s behind Moss, Crabtree, Manningham & Williams in the pecking order, and playing time may be minimal this season. Aloha from Honolulu Paul.
And draft experts also say that if the guy you want is scheduled to be picked 10-13 picks later, you don’t risk trading back. Take the kid.
What happens if you trade back and your guy is gone? You just lost him because some stupid draft board told you he’s not as good as you think. And if he becomes great, you’ll find sollace in the fact you didn’t draft him because he was a mid 2nd and you picked late first so you didn’t reach for him.
Seems the pre-cautionary removal of the last 20 miutes of practice has grown to the 2 days and 20 minutes.
Some here who find solace getting in my grill should take note, and stay out of it. Guess what? You were wrong. Not unheard of for TC injuries to linger to regular season issues. Certainly for MC it is not.
I’ve rolled my ankle plenty of times. Usually solves itself in less than a day. Not unless it was a real bad roll. Then it can last a long time. And I don’t run routes for a living. Prepare Niner fans for MC to get off to a slow start due to injury in pre-season. Hopefully it doesn’t happen. But don’t bet two bits it won’t.
” I’ve rolled my ankle plenty of times.”
Who knew reaching for a Cheeseburger was a contact sport.
If you rolled your ankle jack Hammer it was probably because you tripped over your lisp and stuttering.
(lol) Hammer. It could happen. Try a cheeseburger from Val’s in Hayward!
Just from a medical point of view, a “rolled ankle” is never a singular day repair. All cartilage and tendons are avascular. As such, nutrients must diffuse to it through the synovial fluid (or from the perichondrium in some joints) which is slow and inefficient. The slow passage of necessary materials causes a slow healing rate.
I think Crabtree will be out 2- 3 weeks.
Thanks Medic. It’s a pleasant relief to get a qualified opinion.
Yeah MedicOne, thanks for that. The one-day thing didn’t match my experience. As a 24 year old surfer in reasonably good shape I rolled an ankle and was in a cast for 7 weeks. It was tender on a surfboard for another 3-4 months. Depnds on severity.
@medic
I said rolled ankle only because I get confused between strain and sprain. Now I can add rolled to the list. For future references, is “tweak” ok to use?
Trent didn’t actually say “rolled ankle”. I said that. Trent didn’t say much of anything. Just not a foot injury.
@brotha
If MC has a “rolled ankle” then that would pretty much screw him from playing this season if it is 4 months rehab. He would come back in late November at best.
@DS
All about severity. My Radiologist said “Oh, you wish you broke it.” Mine was a b—-.
Whatever the team says (whenever they choose to say it) will be when we know the prognosis on MC.
Michael Crabtree, 49ers Starting Receiver 2012-13!
I’ll be here all season (lol)!
DS:
“Some here who find solace getting in my grill should take note, and stay out of it. Guess what? You were wrong. Not unheard of for TC injuries to linger to regular season issues. Certainly for MC it is not.”
And some of us see that you asking Grant on MC’ injury (as if you are really concerned) is completely insincere. C’mon DS, you’re not fooling anyone. Just wallow in your MC hate, that fits you much better.
Crabtree seems to have those TC injuries linger into reg. season down to a science, 4 years straight is either bad luck or oscar award winning?
AES
Again. My fault. Dots are not close enough for you to connect.
The post was all sarcasm. The point being that JH refused to answer any questions about MC’s injury. Despite several attempts by reporters .
So, I asked Grant to ask the question that JH clearly won’t answer.
Hate? Really? . posted about AS suffering a career ending injury in the first game of the pre-season. First snap. Where were you on that?
And, you know how you know you are winning an argument? When the other person lies. Find a single post AES where I hope harm on MC to end his season/career. I never wrote such a thing. You are making stuff up now because you know I am right now. Can’t admit it. So, you make up some BS about me wanting MC to get hurt.
Find the posts AES. You can’t. Because you lie.
Haha this is why Harbaugh is the man. His goal is to bring home #6 and knows the media have absolutely nothing to do with that process. Honestly his press conferences are better than most professional comic standups. The best part is when someone asks him an idiotic question, which is 99% of the time. The look of angst and frustration in his face is priceless. He is squirming inside, trying not to scream out and exclaim how most of the media pundits simply know very little to nothing about football. If he wasn’t paid to stand up there and waste his time, JH would be back at work, thinking up ways to improve the team. I fricken love it. JH resume in college and now the NFL speak for itself. Boooo fricken hooo, the media is all butt-hurt because JH won’t lay it all out on a platter for them. What, so a journalist is allowed to criticize JH and the 49ers but when a coach dishes it back at them, they can’t take it and run scared. Unlike a lot of coaches who try to please the media in various ways, Harbaugh knows the way to win over the 49er faithful is winning. Keep at em coach.
i remember how Jerry Rice dropped a lot of passes in his rookie year. he seemed to have promise but didnt blow seasoned Niner fans away. i’m hoping Jenkins is that kind of bust. ie not-very-impressive-in-Year-1-but-going-to-the-Hall-of-Fame.
Jerry Rice is a pretty lofty target for the young Jenkins but I could definitely see a Roddy White type of career path.
Roddy’s measurables were almost identical to Jenkins at the Combine. Roddy started off slowly and then exploded in his third year. I could see the same happening with Jenkins.
I’m loving Harbs, not just cuz he’s winning (tho’ it sure helps!), but for his occaisional entertainment value. Please don’t mistake that remark for me patronizing him, not at all.
He can’t help himself. He knows what he thinks and feels and sometimes he just lets it fly. In this day and age of lying politicians and their spin doctors, a guy who’ll say f.u. to your face aint such a bad thing.
“I’m going to keep track of some of these names…..”
Hahahaha I supported the Jenkins pick, you-all look out for yourselves and don’t stand close to me when Jim’s around! LOL
Brotha,
I’m with you on Harbaugh, especially when he has something to get off his chest.
Six months from now: “We didn’t draft Jenkins, we were just evaluating him.”
lol Good one Msc, slick Jim is pretty funny guy in a strange way.
Great piece Grant, especially the description of Harbaugh waiting for Roman to finish. I’m surprised he just didn’t walk up and tale the microphone.
Gotta love how he defends his players.
From Barrows,
” Very lively and hard-hitting 49ers practice just wrapped up … Crabtree walked out to the session without a limp, black tape on right calf.”
WR Brian Tyms was sent off the field for throwing a punch at Trenton Robinson.
DS:
“Find a single post AES where I hope harm on MC to end his season/career. I never wrote such a thing. You are making stuff up now because you know I am right now. Can’t admit it. So, you make up some BS about me wanting MC to get hurt.”
DS, soooo now i’m accusing you of saying that you wanted MC to get hurt?
Ok, i’ll humor you. Show me when I made that statement, because I sure don’t recall ever saying that.
Your move bud.
Find the posts AES. You can’t. Because you lie.
@AES
Paragraph 2 of your 6:31 post.
And find anything that says I cheer when MC is hurt. I don’t cheer for players to get hurt. That is 1 thing MS and myself have in common.