San Francisco 49ers: Jacobs Should Really Just Get On With His Life Already

Former San Francisco 49ers running back Brandon Jacobs recently reflected on his time with the team and gave his thoughts on former HC Jim Harbaugh.

He’s been out of the league for a couple of years now, but former San Francisco 49ers running back Brandon Jacobs had some harsh words for former HC Jim Harbaugh. Though, considering his brief tenure, perhaps calling Jacobs a former 49ers running back may be a bit generous.

That didn’t stop Jacobs though, from recently teeing off on Harbaugh’s coaching ability – or apparent lack thereof.

Jacobs, if you remember, was with the 49ers for the 2012 season. The former New York running back came over from the Giants looking to revitalize a career that had taken a bit of a downward turn. Unfortunately for Jacobs, that revitalization never quite materialized.

During a preseason game with the Texans, Jacobs suffered a serious knee injury and was out of action for an extended period of time. He missed the first two months of the season with the injury and didn’t see the field again until a week eleven game against the Saints where he carried once for a single yard.

Jacobs, for the season – meaning, weeks eleven and twelve – carried a grand total of five times for a whopping seven yards.

During his absence, the 49ers running game flourished. Led by Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter, San Francisco had the league’s fourth best rushing attack. Had he not been injured and out of action for so long, he could have been a part of that attack.

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And yet, despite the long layoff, Jacobs had apparently expected to be installed as the team’s featured back upon his return. Which, given the success the 49ers had in the running game, and the chemistry they’d developed, is beyond ridiculous.

So, when Jacobs wasn’t simply handed the starting position upon his return, he pouted and threw a tantrum – on social media, of course.

Jacobs earned the well-deserved ire of his current team (San Francisco) by posting pictures of himself in his former team’s uniform (Giants) and posted the following message:

"“I am on this team rotting away so why would I wanna put any pics up of anything that say niners. This is by far the worst year I ever had, I’ll tell you like I told plenty others.”"

Following his little hissy fit, Jacobs was suspended for the last three games of the season and was then promptly showed the door. He landed back in New York and had about as much of an impact there as he did in the Bay Area – meaning virtually none.

He was out of football entirely following the 2013 season, but has apparently been harboring a King Kong-sized grudge ever since.

In a recent interview, Jacobs took the opportunity to absolutely rip former HC Jim Harbaugh. This brings to mind two questions – one, why blast Harbaugh now, after all these years? And two, why does anybody think Jacobs is even still relevant enough to interview him in the first place?

Still relevant or not though, Jacobs didn’t hold back when talking about Harbaugh.

"“They had great assistant coaches. But Jim didn’t know what he was doing. Jim had no idea. Jim’s throwing slants into cover-2 safeties, getting people hurt. That guy knew nothing, man.”"

While it’s true that Harbaugh had a solid staff around him – a staff that deserves credit – it’s more than a little ridiculous to make the assertion that he had no idea what he was doing. Love him or hate him, there is one thing about Harbaugh that you can take to the bank – he knows the game and knows what he’s doing.

Harbaugh is a coach, after all, he compiled a 44-19 record (.688 winning percentage) while with the 49ers, going to three NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl. As a college coach, Harbaugh has gone 78-33 (.708 winning percentage) and though sometimes cantankerous, is widely acknowledged as one of the game’s better coaches.

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Jacobs’ rant sounds more like a serious case of sour grapes than anything. He and Harbaugh have a long running beef, which could be easy to understand given how the last few years of his career played out – which was less than stellar, to say the least.

Jacobs saw himself as a lead back. Thought he should be getting the lion’s share of the carries. And when that didn’t pan out, he pouted and whined about it. And his career ended with a whimper, rather than a bang.

You can almost understand why he sounds like he’s still bitter, angry, and holding a nasty grudge. But to focus that bitterness and anger at Harbaugh is – well – to put it bluntly, asinine. Harbaugh was not the architect of the end of Jacobs’ career – he was.

For his part, Harbaugh responded to Jacobs’ blast with his usual flair – a very pointed Tweet.

That shot across the bow provoked Jacobs to respond in kind – in a now deleted Tweet. The gist of that deleted Tweet though, was that Jacobs made a vow to “expose” Harbaugh and “get him fired.”

What he plans to expose is anybody’s guess. But the very idea that Jacobs thinks he’s got enough clout to get Harbaugh fired from Michigan, where he’s put together a 20-6 record in his two seasons, is laughable.

Jacobs would really be best served by moving on and dropping this whole thing. Things can only turn out badly for him. Harbaugh is one of the country’s best college coaches. Jacobs was, at one time, a relatively decent running back.

But hey, if he thinks he’s got the juice to ruin Harbaugh, perhaps we should encourage him to do just that. After all, times being what they are, we can always use a good laugh.