Whatever the internal strife the San Francisco 49ers are going through will have to get worked out, because Jim Harbaugh’s not going anywhere prematurely.
Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated caught up with Harbaugh to get his thoughts on the situation with Trent Baalke and reports of him pursuing other opportunities.
I asked Harbaugh about these rumors. Let’s start with the last one first. Can he envision a scenario in which he leaves the 49ers before his contract expires?
“No,” Harbaugh said. “Zero opportunity or chance of that in my mind.”
“I see all these reports about how I want to be the highest-paid coach in football,” Harbaugh said. “They presume I covet some kind of extension. I have never said to anybody that I want to be the highest-paid coach in football. I have never said that to anybody — my wife, my brother, my dad. I make plenty of money.
“The other one is that I want more power. I have never said that, nor do I want any more power than I have. I coach the team. I’ve told my owner I don’t want any more power. I want to coach the team. And I’ve never told anybody else otherwise.”
Jim Harbaugh has been to three straight conference championships, so there’s no way he’ll be fired. It’ll be interesting to see how things play this summer with all of the team discord being public knowledge at this point.
