GameDay: No New Deal For Harbaugh ... Yet
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- Who's got it better than Jim Harbaugh?
If you're talking contracts, Sean Payton, Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll and Jeff Fisher. But hey, who's counting?
Jed York and Jim Harbaugh agreed to table contract talks until the end of the 2014 season. Harbaugh is going into his fourth year of a five-year contract that pays him $5 million a year. The 49ers reportedly offered their coach an extension but he never responded. Agent play or Harbaugh play?
Jim Harbaugh doesn't need the 49ers as much as the 49ers need him. He's the face of the organization, like it or not. He resuscitated San Francisco from the laughingstock it had become to regain its status as one of the premier organizations in the NFL.
In short, he holds the cards and he knows it.
Harbaugh could pretty much throw out his number and the 49ers would have to pay it. He's on record as saying he never asked to be the highest paid coach in the league. But he will become that, eventually.
Does he have to win a Super Bowl? I don't think so.
The 49ers track record is well established whether or not Harbaugh wins the Lombardi trophy. Three straight NFC Championships and one Super Bowl are pretty damn good. Throw in Levi's Stadium and you might as well put a blank contract in front of him. And if you think the 49ers' new digs would have been built without him, I have a stadium in San Francisco I'd like to sell you.
See you on TV.