Nooo-body
If you’re not wrapped up in this Niners team well then… you’re probably living on the east coast. When is this team going to get a prime time game already? Oh right, Thursday night is the Harbaugh Bowl which is sure to be a good time. Jim Harbaugh has taken basically the same 6-10 49ers of a year ago and have them playing quality team football. They have the opportunity lock up the NFC West before the month of November ends and he’s done all this without any locker room pants droppings at halftime.
This Niners team is a team. It’s a weird sentence but it’s true. They are the opposite of what Philadelphia was at the beginning of the season (sorry Eagles fans). Everything is about the team, then it’s about the team and then it’s about the team. It’s like they are all college friends — that defense is fraternity. And it’s all thanks to the new man in charge. Just look at the team’s rallying cry, it’s an old family saying Harbaugh brought with him to San Francisco. When Jim was a child his father, Jack Harbaugh, would ask the kids “Who’s got it better than us?” They would all answer in unison “Nooo-body!”
And from SI’s Peter King:
San Francisco could be playing to tie Green Bay for the league’s best record by nightfall. I haven’t been much into the Harbaugh Bowl thing, but it’s going to be fun. Saw a snippet of the NFL Network’s feature on the Harbaugh family that will run on the network’s pregame coverage Thursday, and it’s interesting how much of their football-coaching Dad the two boys have taken with them to the NFL.
Jack Harbaugh, schooled under Bo Schembechler, used to say to the boys that the three most important things in football coaching are the team, the team and the team. And so Jim Harbaugh put that on the wall of the team meeting room at the 49ers. And John Harbaugh, when introduced as head coach of the Ravens, repeated his dad’s mantra.
I’ve been so pleased with the performance of this team so far this season. Nothing that hasn’t been said already, but with the combination of a dominant run game, stifling, STIFLING defense (the numbers are insane: see takeaway ratio, rushing yards and touchdowns allowed), and meticulous, mistake-free ball on offense, the Niners are just playing some great old-fashioned football. They’re exciting to watch for the first time in a while. Looking forward to Thursday’s game at B’more.
Well done, Coach Harbaugh.
Steve Young & Aaron Rodgers
Give Steve Young an assist for how Aaron Rodgers handles the “F” word.
But I’m not sure he needs much help. You haven’t heard all that much about the relationship between Steve Young and Aaron Rodgers, and both men probably like it that way. They are not everyday texting or calling friends, and I believe Rodgers would have handled the last six years of his landmine-turned-golden life pretty well without Young’s occasional advice, because Rodgers was raised by parents with excellent perspective.
But Rodgers and Young do have one very important thing in common: They took over for all-time great quarterbacks, and the succession in both cases was not smooth. But Young learned enough in the awkward years aside Joe Montana, and then replacing him, to be a good sounding board for Rodgers, particularly in the rough times when a) it seemed like he’d never have a chance to play and b) mayhem swirled around the 2008 Brett Favre retirement/unretirement and distracted Rodgers and the Packers daily.
And when Rodgers would seek Young out, the advice would be the kind of sound stuff that hit a home run with Rodgers. Paraphrasing, this was the kind of counsel Young gave Rodgers over the years: Never, even to your mother, say something that makes you a victim. Human nature being what it is, you’ll want people to know your side of the story, and you’ll want them to know how hard it all is for you. But if you complain publicly even one time, you’ll be a crybaby. That’s how people will see you. And they’ll remember.
Instead, if you just hold it in, and you just focus on football, it may take a few years, but respect will come back to you a hundred-fold. And when you begin to have success, people will look at you with tremendous respect because you didn’t fall into the trap of complaining about your circumstances.
Is that exactly what happened or what? I mean, what tremendous advice.
But back to Young. I gained a lot of respect for him after the Super Bowl 17 seasons ago, when he threw six touchdown passes to crush the Chargers. In his suite a couple of hours after the game, one of his relatives or friends in the back of the room, with some giddiness, called out, “Joe Who?” And Young, who could have said something to stick a dagger into Montana, instead said, “No, don’t do that. Don’t worry about that. That’s the past. Let’s talk about the future.”
Sounds like something his protégé would say.
You’re all heart, Steve Young.
I think, if I had to guess right now, I’d say the best shot for Tim Tebow on draft day is San Francisco, at number 13. No proof. No solid evidence. Just this: The Niners gave a tepid endorsement to Alex Smith as their quarterback of 2010 after the season; and Mike Singletary didn’t draft him; and Singletary is going to fall in love with Tebow once he meets him after the season; and Tebow is the kind of winner that Singletary has preached he wants since he took the job from Mike Nolan in mid-2008. After Singletary meets Tebow at the Scouting Combine, this is my prediction of his reaction: He’ll turn to GM Scot McCloughan and say, “That’s my guy. We’ve got to have him.
By the way, if the Rams had picked Mark Sanchez and left the Jets quarterback-less in the draft last year, I am sure Rex Ryan would have been on the first plane to Mississippi to convince Favre to play. I’m curious about what Favre would have done. I think he would have balked at first and insisted on staying retired. But then? Who knows? From the looks of Favre yesterday, it might not have been a bad outcome.
Interesting.
