On Sunday, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh and Lions coach Jim Schwartz nearly got into a fight after their game in Detroit.
By Tuesday, Harbaugh was done talking about it.
“I don’t really have any comment on it,” Harbaugh said on KNBR when asked about whether a post-game handshake is needed, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “One coach is extremely elated and the other is disappointed. I really don’t want to have a comment on it. . . . Is it necessary? I don’t have a comment on it.”
To their credit, the hosts tried again, asking whether Harbaugh spoke to his father, a former college football coach, about the issue.
“I talk to him all the time,” Harbaugh said. “And I know you want to talk about it, want to keep dwelling on it, you want to rehash it, you want to ask new questions in different ways and want to keep the topic going, but I really prefer not to. . . . What Sunday was all about was our team coming together in a heated environment. . . . I prefer to talk about that, to talk about the men who competed in the ballgame.”
I love Harbaugh’s fire and your intensity, and I knew he’d be successful at the NFL level. But he can’t set the agenda if he’s going to do media interviews. Questions about the incident are fair game, especially only two days after it.
The hosts hoped to talk about an incident that was sparked by Harbaugh acting a bit immaturely. His refusal to answer a pair of creative questions that weren’t intended to rehash the blow-by-blow of the event was equally immature.