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GameDay: Is This 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh's End Game?

(CBS SF) -- "Personally, I think that's a bunch of crap." Remember those words?  Spoken by Jim Harbaugh in September in response to Deion Sanders' report that the 49ers' locker room wanted their head coach out.

Harbaugh issued no such response Monday when asked countless times about Jed York's now infamous tweet, his relationship with the CEO, and his future with the 49ers.   He insisted he was focused on one thing, the Raiders, who the 49ers will face Sunday.

I was hoping to hear the same "bunch of crap" response from Harbaugh at his weekly press conference.  Just three simple words to put this season-long story to rest. Pull out the fire hose and douse the flames of rumored discontent between himself and his boss.

But he did not. Neither did Jed York.  Since the apology for the 49ers performance Thursday night, York has gone tweet-silent. Is it possible that Harbaugh and York have not spoken since the loss to Seattle? If that's the case, it IS bad.

Harbaugh said virtually nothing in Monday's press conference.  It's been four days since the bitter defeat and I expected to see a resilient Harbaugh. I expected to see the Comeback Kid, full of vigor and fight, and a few zingers for the quizzical reporters.

But Harbaugh looked beaten, tired. Like he had enough of the BS unrelated to a game film or the 57 JAM (a certain play in their playbook.) Jim Harbaugh finds solace in football, not in press conferences.  But he had a chance to dispute the torn relationship and he chose not to.

Should Jim Harbaugh really be traded? The same coach that is probably more responsible than anyone for Levi's Stadium. The coach who turned a loser into a winner. The man who is, like it or not, the face of the franchise.

If neither York or Harbaugh is unwilling to quell the trade reports and rumors of an unrepairable relationship, how we can draw an alternative conclusion?

What a damn shame.

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