Is Harbaugh hard-hearted?

I want to take you back to a scene from practice yesterday.

Second-year tight end Nate Byham landed wrong on his left knee and he was writhing in pain on the ground. Two trainers ran over to him immediately, and Vernon Davis ran over too.

Jim Harbaugh did not run over. He blew his whistle and ordered the team to run to the other end of the field to complete the drill. This was the one concession he made for Byham. Harbaugh may have seemed hard-hearted but he wasn’t.

He acted the way a head coach should act.

The train moves on, the team has work to do. Let the training staff handle the fallen player. Harbaugh coaches the players that are there. It’s his duty. It’s a heartless sport and they have to live up to it right away.

It was touching to watch Vernon Davis kneel next to Byham until the cart took him away. Clearly it meant Davis has special privileges on the team, and in that moment he used them well.

 

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