The end of Jim Harbaugh’s tenure as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers wasn’t friendly. But now, Niners CEO Jed York says enough time has passed that he’d like to sit down with Harbaugh and clear the air.
49ers CEO Jed York wants to make peace with Jim Harbaugh
Harbaugh’s brother, John, suggested it to York at the owners’ meetings.
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
Harbaugh’s brother, John, recommended the idea to York at the owners’ meetings in Phoenix, Arizona, in March.
“I said, ‘I’d love to do that.’ I’d love to get together,” York said on The MMQB podcast with Peter King. “And I think enough time has kind of passed where you can let whatever issues were there be buried and just truly be thankful for three great years when nobody expected us, certainly in 2011, to beat the Saints the way we did, to get close and, you know, be two muffed punts away from going to a Super Bowl in ‘11.”
Harbaugh spent four seasons as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, leading the team to three NFC Championships and a Super Bowl bid during that span. York and Harbaugh “mutually parted ways” when York ran Harbaugh out of town after an 8-8 finish in 2014.
Since then, the 49ers have had no consistency in the coaching staff. Jim Tomsula was hired to take over for Harbaugh in 2015, and he lasted one season, which the team finished 5-11. In 2016, Chip Kelly replaced Tomsula. The Niners won two games, and Kelly was ousted.
Now, the 49ers hope to turn a corner under new head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch. But York still regrets the way things happened with Harbaugh.
“We obviously didn’t have success after Jim left. I don’t know that we’d be sitting here with John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan if something happened,” York said. “And I don’t know that it would have worked in the long-term if we did get something done. I regret how we performed the last two years. I regret that the relationship was frayed between me and a coach that, you know, did a lot of great things for this franchise.”
Harbaugh has taken a few shots at the 49ers’ front office for the way the situation was handled.
“I think we set the record for being [in San Francisco] the longest under the present ownership,” Harbaugh told Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News. “I take pride in that. Maybe there should be an endurance medal, a courage medal for that.”
It wouldn’t change the fact the way Harbaugh’s time with the 49ers ended, but dinner would be a good start.
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