It would not be an NFL Sunday without more Jim Harbaugh commentary. Today, we've got two things to entertain us. The first was an Adam Schefter report earlier this morning. The second was comments from Randy Moss about his brief time with the 49ers.
Schefter's report involved the Peyton Manning pursuit following the 2011 season. Schefter reported team sources think Coach Harbaugh began to lose some of his players, "when he was not honest with Smith about San Francisco's pursuit of former Colts quarterback Peyton Mannng. Smith specifically asked Harbaugh about it and did not get an answer that matched the facts of the situation, in which Harbaugh flew to North Carolina to meet and work out Manning." A team source told Schefter that was the first "big sign" players could not trust Coach Harbaugh.
The whole Manning thing was kind of a mess with Coach Harbaugh playing some word games about the 49ers pursuit. If he misled Alex Smith about how this was playing out, I really would not blame players for deciding they could not really trust him. However, in a business where winning is the most important thing by a long shot, I'd imagine this should not have come as a complete surprise for someone as competitive as Jim Harbaugh. But, if this played out like the team sources reported, then maybe this wised up some players about the realities of the NFL.
The second involved comments from Randy Moss. The 49ers brought in Moss for the 2012 season, and he said earlier today that Coach Harbaugh treated them like they were still college kids at Stanford. This again is not a shock given what we've heard about the music and cards stuff.
I can see how this would annoy players, but given that they went to the Super Bowl that year, and the NFC title game the year after, clearly these guys are professionals. It might not create the best environment, but all this information only goes to show that winning can temporarily cure just about anything. If there was ever any doubt, all of these reports confirm that concept. Some of these might be exaggerated, but at this point, we've heard enough to realize that obviously it's not all peachy in 49er-land. But, if they keep winning, and getting to the playoffs, it really won't matter.