On Monday, 49ers CEO Jed York said that, if the team doesn’t win Super Bowls without Jim Harbaugh, York should be held accountable.
On Tuesday, Brian Murphy of KNBR radio did, without waiting to see whether the team wins Super Bowls without Jim Harbaugh.
Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle has a partial transcript of the pleasantly contentious 17-minute interview with the team’s flagship radio station; the full interview can be heard right here. (And you should listen to it.)
The interview started by digging into a major disconnect regarding the reason for the divorce. York consistently called the parting mutual; Murphy kept pointing to Harbaugh’s comments from Sunday’s post-game press conference regarding the fact that he works “at the pleasure of the organization.”
While Murphy ultimately didn’t buy the idea that the parting was mutual, the truth is that the joint press release issued minutes after Harbaugh’s most recent citation to working “at the pleasure of the organization” characterizes the parting as truly mutual, with quotes from Harbaugh and no suggestion from him to the contrary in the press release that the decision was anything but mutual. But York didn’t make that point clear enough to keep Murphy from continuing to bring it up, and York never got off the ropes after that initial barrage.
Asked about making winning the most important factor for the organization, York said it’s more important to win with class, a not-so-subtle suggestion that Harbaugh was in some way keeping them from winning with class. Still, York never specifically identified anything Harbaugh did or said to result in the outcome. At one point York vaguely pointed to differences in “football philosophy” between the franchise and Harbaugh as the reason for the split, but York declined to get into any specifics regarding the precise reason for the decision to part ways with Harbaugh.
Eventually, Murphy seized on York’s comment from the Monday press conference about accountability.
“You kept saying, “Hold me accountable, hold me accountable, hold me accountable,’” Murphy said. “And a lot of people asked me -- and they were right -- how can we hold you accountable? Does that mean you refund PSLs, does that mean you give away beer for free, does that mean you resign? How can we -- we can’t hold you accountable. What does that mean? Does that just mean verbal tongue lashings on the air? How can we hold you accountable in any meaningful way?
“Well, I mean, you’re trying to give me a verbal tongue lashing now,” York said. “I’m not sure what else to tell you on how to hold me accountable.”
“You said you want to be held accountable. A lot of people said, ‘I’m a season-ticket holder. I wanna know, how can I hold him accountable?’” Murphy said.
“I’d love to hear from fans,” York said. “I’d love to hear from them -- if you have suggestions for me. If you have thoughts about what we can do better. And if you think that we’re not performing to a level, you can let me know. And you can decide the best form that you can communicate that with me.”
York should be careful what he wishes for. Because if/when the team doesn’t appear in three straight conference championship games in the first three years with a new head coach, York will be hearing from 49ers fans. Pretty much everywhere he goes.
Meanwhile, it won’t be easy to attract the kind of coach who’ll get the team to three straight conference championship games. Any coach good enough to do it will know that he’s already been set up by the circumstances to fail.
That’s why the Raiders’ coaching job is currently the more attractive Bay Area football position. In Oakland, there’s nowhere to go but up. In San Francisco, there’s nowhere to go but down.
