Wow. Get him Murph.
York on mutual parting: Did you not see the press release that Jim and I put out together?
Posted on December 30, 2014 at 9:44 am by Eric Branch, sfgate
Niners CEO Jed York went on KNBR this morning and was interviewed, aggressively, by host Brian Murphy.
It was a fascinating 17 minutes in which York attempted to duck and dodge a never-ending series of haymakers. I have other work responsibilities to get to, so lets get right to it (the audio is here):
I was stunned by this stat. There have been only two times in the history of the league that coaches who have 44 wins in four years have left a team for a reason other than retirement. George Seifert was fired by the 49ers. Mike Holmgren left Green Bay for Seattle. So how you can justify a move that is so at odds with the history of the NFL?
JY: It was mutual. This wasnt just the 49ers decision.
Well, Jed, thats a huge issue for me. Jim Harbaugh was asked on a number of occasions: What is going on? Why is this happening? And Jims specific words were, I work at the pleasure of the organization. So there is a huge dichotomy. Which is true?
JY: Jim said it was mutual at the end of his tenure with the 49ers.
He didnt. In fact, his last press conference, he said, I work at the pleasure of the organization.
JY: Did you not see the press release that Jim and I put out together?
I did. But it was at odds with what he said at the podium. So Im trying to figure out which was true.
JH: I mean, Ive had conversations with Jim. It was a mutual decision.
So you say it was mutual. He says he wanted to work there as long as you would have him. That just doesnt add up. Two plus two just doesnt equal four.
JY: I mean, you can ask Jim if you want. I sat down with him as we put together a press release. I dont know what else to tell you.
OK. I guess well just have to leave this one hanging. He said one thing. You said another. And well just have to figure out who we believe. (NBCs) Cris Collinsworth said something in Week 1 thats been nagging at me all year. He said the 49ers have a winning situation going on right now. We hear theres discord as early as Week 1. It is now the 49ers job to keep this together because winning is hard in the NFL. And it is your job, Jed, to manage the dysfunction. Or to manage whatever the philosophical differences were because winning is the only thing that matters and you guys were winning. Why couldnt you manage it.
JY: Winning isnt the only thing matters. Winning with class is what matters.
Were you not winning with class?
JY: I mean, are you not going to blast us for off-the-field stuff for the past three or four years?
Was that Jim Harbaughs fault?
JY: Collectively, it was all of our fault.
So why werent there more heads rolling other than Jim Harbaughs. Shouldnt Trent Baalke have been held accountable and a mutual parting of ways with him?
JY: I think Trent and I are philosophically aligned on what we want to do with this team.
So winning with class is a huge thing. You mentioned it yesterday, you mentioned it again today. So were getting, maybe, closer to the smoking gun. This is a problem you had with the Harbaugh era?
JY: No, this isnt on Jim. This is on the collective group of us. Its equally on me, Jim and Trent.
So why was Jim the one to pay the price?
JY: He wasnt the one to pay the price for that. This is something that we need to concentrate on and focus on as we move forward.
Man, Im having trouble coming to grips A listener sent me a quote from a Bill Walsh book (Bill Walsh said): The bottom line in professional sports is winning. Everything has to focus on that product: Winning football games. Other offshoots mean little compared to being successful on the playing field. Thats exactly what Bill Walsh wrote, the guy you cited in yesterdays press conference. You guys were winning at a historic clip and youve chosen to go the other way. How can you justify that?
JY: I mean youve asked me that, like, 17 times already. This was a mutual decision between Jim and I. I dont know what else to tell you. If you refuse to believe that I cant help you. I dont know what else to say. This wasnt an easy decision for me. This wasnt an easy decision for Jim.
Lets talk abut the other things we can answer. There is no question there were leaks from the building. Because I dont believe Jay Glazer, Trent Dilfer, Ian Rapoport and Deion Sanders made things up out of their own head. Somewhere in your building someone planted stories. Who was planting them?
JY: I have no idea.
Why didnt you take issue with the leaks to stop them because it was showing to be counterproductive on the field?
JY: I dont know thats the reason we were counterproductive on the field. I think you see a lot of distractions with buildings. You see a lot of distractions with teams. So I dont believe what people are reporting necessarily reflect what you do on the field.
But when you say winning with class I dont think a classy organization would allow that subterfuge or sabotage to go on. Dont you see that at odds with winning with class?
JY: I do. We talk about leaks all the time. Its just not something that we tolerate. Im not going to sit down and you can go through peoples e-mails, you can go through peoples text messages. Thats not something that Im going to sit down and do. I dont where the leaks came from. I dont speak to Jay Glazer. I dont speak to Deion Sanders. I dont speak to those people. I dont know where those leaks came from.
Was it important for you to cease them? The first red flag that went up. Was it important for you to cease them? Or was it not important and just let it play out.
JY: To me, I think its important for us to focus on the field.
And, again, we get back to on the field where you guys had a historic number of wins and you chose to somehow find philosophical differences, which is the phrase you kept using yesterday. Can you please enunciate for all you guys talk about The Faithful all the time. And you want The Faithful to buy tickets and go to your stadium. And The Faithful have asked me a million times what were the philosophical differences?
JY: Did you ask Jim what the philosophical differences were?
Jim said he worked at the pleasure of the organization. Youve already, somehow, dismissed that. So I cant get anywhere with what you think about what Jim said. So Im asking you: What were the philosophical differences?
JY: Jim and I had the conversations.
What were they?
JY: Those are personal conversations. Those are not things were going to talk about.
So was it football philosophy or personal philosophy?
JY: Football philosophy.
So does it get back to how the offense was performing? Is that what youre talking about?
JY: I told you Im not to go into specific details. This isnt about do I like somebodys personality, do I not like somebodys personality. I think I understand that there are high levels of tension when you get into sports. Thats absolutely par for the course. Thats what you deal with. What were trying to figure out is how do we continue to improve? How do we continue to get better?
So you will continue to leave it behind closed doors. You dont want to address those specifically?
JY: I realize that thats a lame answer. I realize that fans they want every single detail. I understand that you want every single detail. But I respect the conversation that I had with Jim behind closed doors. I respect the fact that there are many people involved about those discussions. And not just those people, but their families. I am not going to throw those people under the bus. I am not going to throw Jim under the bus. I respect him too much. I respect what he did for the San Francisco 49ers too much to appease the crowd today to talk about something that he I said was going to remain behind closed doors.
Two things that would dispute you not throwing Jim under the bus. The Thanksgiving night tweet was, I think, something you should have addressed with your coach before you sent it out. I think Jim probably felt blindsided by that and I think a lot of people saw that as throwing under the bus. And, also, the constant leaks to Jay Glazer, Trent Dilfer, Deion Sanders and Ian Rapoport is throwing Jim under the bus. Would you not counter that?
JY: Listen, I didnt leak anything to those people. Period.
Somebody did.
JY: Thats fine. You can suppose and guess on who that is. There are a lot of people connected to this organization that arent necessarily in this building. So you can start getting into leaks and figuring out who you think it was and what you think happened. To me, I think thats counterproductive.
Did you throw Jim under the bus with that Thanksgiving night tweet? That was viewed as serious power play in which you were definitely slapping the coach in the face who tried to win a game and didnt.
JY: How is it a power play?
Because you didnt talk to the coach before you sent it out. It was almost like Im going to throw red meat to the masses while a coach is in there licking his wounds after a bad loss.
JY: I mean, I explained the tweet yesterday when (Santa Rosa Press Democrat columnist) Lowell Cohn asked and said his readership that was their No. 1 question to him. And I explained it. We had 70,000 people change their Thanksgiving plans to come here and we played well below our level. Period.
Do you think it would be more appropriate to send it out after you talk to the coach and say Hey, Jim that was unacceptable and Im going to tell the people it was unacceptable You guys are in a professional business of high money, high stakes, big ego and a lot of respect. It came across as disrespectful. I guess, youre right, you did answer it yesterday, we should move on.
JY: Thats fine. I can understand where you think it came across as disrespectful. Thats fine. I think its my responsibility to give our fans a product that I think is fulfilling of the San Francisco 49ers. And that night was not an acceptable performance.
No question. But I think, circling back, the past four years have been a very acceptable product that you guys have now chosen, willingly, to dismiss.
JY: We have not chosen willingly to dismiss.
Yeah you have.
JY: We havent. We sat down together. We had philosophical differences. Jim has signed a contract today to be the head coach at the University of Michigan a place thats been in his heart for a long time. He had a very difficult decision four years ago deciding between the 49ers and the University of Michigan.
Jim said he worked at the pleasure of the organization and people close to him have said he wanted to stay with the 49ers. And that is just the hanging issue that I think fans until you guys make a hire that goes and wins a Super Bowl is going to hang over this team for a long time.
JY: We have not won a Super Bowl yet, have we?
No you havent. And so that means five successful seasons and 63 busts in the history of the franchise. Thats another thing I wanted to ask you about. Do you regret that comment yesterday that a Super Bowl is the only acceptable alternative. That seemed wildly unrealistic and certainly creating a very difficult situation for your next coach to step into.
JY: If a coach doesnt understand that our standard is winning the Super Bowl, hes not the right coach for the 49ers.
Everybody wants to win the Super Bowl but it doesnt happen every year. Are you not creating a wildly unrealistic, silly standard there?
JY: OK, our standard will be OK, lets just have a 7- or 8-win season next year. Yeah, that will be good. Lets win 9 games next year because we only won eight this year.
Whoever your next coach is knows that a guy who went to three straight NFC championships, never had a losing season, was not good enough. Youre next coach has to understand that, right?
JY: Listen, if we can replace Bill Walsh, who won three Super Bowls. And we can replace other people that havent won Super Bowls, I feel like we will continue to find people that understand the importance of being the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. And understand the standard that was set by Bill.
You kept saying (yesterday) Hold me accountable, hold me accountable, hold me accountable. 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 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?
JY: Well, I mean, youre trying to give me a verbal tongue lashing now. Im 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 Im a season-ticket holder. How can I hold him accountable?
JY: Id love to hear from fans. Id 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 were not performing to a level, you can let me know. And you can decide the best form that you can communicate that with me.
A lot of people, including me, have said you guys are missing a John McVay, a Carmen Policy. I understand Paraag Marathe is a very bright guy. I know him. And you got the stadium built. I understand Trent Baalke is a great football man. In my opinion, there needs to be a wiser and elder voice in there not unlike what the Warriors did in bringing in Jerry West. John McVay was that man. Carmen Policy was that man. Would you consider adding another voice that has a lot of league experience, so that situations that just happened a very successful and winning coach was not able to managed in a proper way the situation was not able to be managed in a proper way. Would you add an elder statesmen that can manages these situations in the future?
JY: Well do anything to help this team get better and to win.
So does that mean youll do that?
JY: Well do anything to help this team to get better and to win.
I would recommend it I felt it was your job you were the elder statesmen there, you were the guy, to manage the dysfunction between Trent and Jim.
JY: Again, did Jim say there was dysfunction between he and Trent?
I only know that from all the leaks that came from the building.
JY: But did Jim say that?
No, Jim said he worked at the pleasure of the organization.
JY: Right, but at the end, his final press conference, what did Jim say about his relationship with Trent?
I dont remember the exact specific quote. But I could tell you that he wanted to stay. From my understanding he wanted to stay.
JY: Then I would assume if he wanted to stay, then he had a pretty decent relationship with Trent, is that correct?
Apparently the situation was managed to the point where he is no longer the coach. It was not managed properly so I think thats what were left with. We started the season this way and we end the season this way You guys have a chance: To me, the analogy is the ball is on your own 1. You guys are going to have to drive 99 yards now. You can score a touchdown. You can hire a guy who will fix this team. But you guys have put yourself in a difficult situation because you had winning coach and youve now dismissed him. It is not encouraging to me that its the second time in the York ownership that you guys have dismissed a popular and winning coach for no apparent good reason. You know what Im saying?
JY: I hear you. And you know what, nothing that I say is going to appease you. The only thing thats going to appease you is doing exactly what you just said: Bringing the right person in here and getting the team back to a Super-Bowl-winning caliber. Period.
MORE TO COME
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