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San Francisco 49ers: Owner picking favorites could send team in spiral

By Brian Spaen

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Management and its employees must get along to thrive, and there’s no question that the San Francisco 49ers needed to part ways with Jim Harbaugh to make it work again. However, with more information coming out on how it was handled, it’s clear that Jed York and Trent Baalke had one man in mind to turn things around. It will also be their only chance at success.

Last Friday, Harbaugh sat down with Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News in the reporter’s debut podcast. It certainly began with a bang, as the former 49ers coach used the platform to finally get it off his chest that the organization essentially fired him.

"“Yes, I was told I wouldn’t be the coach any more. And then… you can call it ‘mutual,’ I mean, I wasn’t going to put the 49ers in the position to have a coach that they didn’t want any more. But that’s the truth of it. I didn’t leave the 49ers. I felt like the 49er hierarchy left me.”"

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That news shouldn’t surprise anyone. Harbaugh took the higher road every single time he wore his 49ers cap and $5 khakis. Now that he’s coaching at Michigan, a place that wanted him, he can finally tell us what we all knew – York and Baalke didn’t like him.

What’s even more of a shock came in Kawakami’s thoughts released on Monday on the entire situation. Specifically about Jim Tomsula, who is now the head coach. The owners wanted him on the next staff no matter what and that was the fallout in not being able to land former Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase. A deal was in place on the night of their seven-hour interview.

"Then, the next morning, after Baalke flew back to the Bay Area, things changed: Gase, the source says, was informed that he could only have the job if he made Tomsula his defensive coordinator.Gase turned that suggestion down flat, and that’s when the 49ers immediately tabbed Tomsula as the head coach to follow Harbaugh."

Tomsula offered the offensive coordinator position to Gase afterwards, but obviously the coach turned it down. The owners were already meddling in Gase’s plan and he was going to have no part of the puppet show.

It’s quite clear that Tomsula is a heavy favorite for York and Baalke. He, the owner and the general manager likely had a plan for this to happen as soon as York told Harbaugh that he wouldn’t be back after losing to the Seattle Seahawks for the second time in 2014.

Jan 15, 2015; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke (L) shakes hands with head coach Jim Tomsula (R) in the locker room after a press conference for the introduction of Tomsula as the head coach at Levi

Picking favorites over somebody with proven experience is why the 49ers’ fanbase and many of its current and former players are really confused at how things went down. It looks like the worst move an organization can make. Most people learn not to pick favorites when they choose their best friend to live in college and they end up hating each other before the one-year lease is up.

Harbaugh did things his way and he proved to be successful. He’s the guy that people looked up to because he didn’t care what the oversensitive public had to say. He always stood by his players, and that’s why they and the fans loved him. It’s why the owners didn’t. Sure, a Super Bowl victory wasn’t there, but he got the team to three straight NFC Championships, reached the Super Bowl once and was just a few plays away from going further in his first three seasons in the NFL as a head coach before the turmoil throughout his fourth doomed year.

That success is something many franchises have never experienced. It’s what makes the move so puzzling. There’s still a roster set for there to be a good team, but now we’ll see how much the former coaching staff had a part in that success.

This will also be the one and only chance that York and Baalke will have. Have even just one season of mediocrity or regression, and the fans and players will become even more turned off than coaching prospects were.

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