After coaching just one game in the NFL, it’s obvious the 49ers’ Jim Harbaugh is a graduate of Coachspeak 101.
Not only has he paid his dues, climbing the ladder from player, to assistant, to head coach at a small school, to head coach at Stanford to head coach in the NFL – and winning everywhere along the way – but he’s learned to speak much like every other coach who’s come before him.
After Sunday’s season-opening victory over Seattle, in which his team followed a conservative game plan offensively, Harbaugh called it a tough, blue-collar win.
Now, he’s playing the “Niners don’t get any respect card” as they prepare for the Dallas Cowboys this Sunday.
While speaking with reporters Monday, the 49ers’ rookie head coach said he noticed that his team was essentially ignored on the Sunday night TV highlight shows.
It was a big win for San Francisco, yet it essentially went unnoticed nationally.
“I came home and watched the Cowboys game, and (I) did kind of flip through the channels on the NFL Network, Highlight Express and the ESPN Blitz, and I never caught one highlight of the 49ers on any of those,” Harbaugh told reporters.
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He was asked if that bothered him, and he said no – but the “no respect” card already had been slapped on the table.
“Some people can say it’s not fair, it isn’t right,” he told Cam Inman of the Bay Area News Group. “But do something about it. That’s our mindset, that’s our approach.”
Currently, the 49ers (1-0) are listed as three-point underdogs to the Cowboys Sunday. Dallas lost its opener, falling to the Jets 27-24.
So, in order to change national perception, Harbaugh’s mantra is his team will have to start winning games.
No doubt, that will be his message to his team this week.
“It’ll be up to us to do something about that,” Harbaugh said. “We can take control of that and that’s something we’re willing to do.”
