RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, you 49er fans and you NFL fans, have you been a little perplexed at why Jim Harbaugh was summarily fired at the 49ers? Here’s a guy who took over a losing franchise year after year after year after year after year. He ends up turning that franchise around, drafts a quarterback that could end up being a superstar quarterback in the league. They make the playoffs three years in a row, go for the Super Bowl for the first time in many, many, many, many years. They had one bad season, 8-8 this year, and Harbaugh is gone.
They chalked it up, “We couldn’t get along with the guy. My god, he’s a control freak and nobody in the office liked the guy.” The owner of the team is the son of Denise DeBartolo York, Jed York. He’s 33, 34 years, maybe 38 now, he’s got all the degrees. And they hired a head coach from within. I think he was the defensive coordinator. His name is Jim Tomsula. I don’t know how you pronounce it so I’m doing it both ways. We may have the answer why Harbaugh is gone. Here’s the new head coach during his introductory press conference.
TOMSULA: With the San Francisco 49ers and we talk about the organization that these men have built and ladies have built, what a village. I’m that guy that’s into the village. I believe it takes a village. I believe no one man does anything by himself.
RUSH: Okay. So I think now we know why Harbaugh’s gone, very simply. I don’t have time to explain it. I gotta take a break. If you want me to explain it, I will.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Jim Tomsula is not even the defensive coordinator. He’s the defensive line coach of the 49ers. Now, I’d always heard that Harbaugh was a Republican, but that doesn’t mean anything anymore. I don’t know if Harbaugh’s a conservative or not. I’ve never met Harbaugh. I don’t know any of the Harbaughs. Never met ’em. I only know them like anybody else does, see ’em on TV. But this sound bite makes it pretty clear to me what happened to Harbaugh. It makes it pretty clear to me, if the stories we got coming out of the 49ers that they just couldn’t get along with the guy.
You know, he was portrayed, and he was a soldier in this, he never responded to it. He was the consummate professional. He was being trashed everywhere as a bad actor, a volatile, volcanic personality, very, very hard to get along with, had to be his way or no way. The players all loved the guy, from everything we heard. And then we get this press conference from the new coach, and we get talk about all of the great men and ladies who have built the 49ers.
And then this new coach talks about how the whole thing, the 49ers as a team, is a village, and says, “I believe it takes a village. I believe no one man does anything by himself.” That’s a slap at Harbaugh. I think this is a political rip. I think it was just a bunch of libs and the 49ers and conservative head coach and they couldn’t get along. Like so much in this country.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Scottsdale, Arizona. This is Mike. I’m glad you called, sir. Welcome. Great to have you with us on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: It’s great to speak to you, Rush. I’m pleased and happy. My wife said I would never get on.
RUSH: Well, here you are.
CALLER: Here I am. Going on after the Vagina Monologues might not be my best introduction.
RUSH: You can do it.
CALLER: (laughing) Okay. All right. Well, just a quick comment about the fellow that talked about —
RUSH: By the way, have you ever heard a vagina monologue? Be careful how you answer this.
CALLER: Yeah, I think you’re exactly right. I’ll pay better attention to that. But my favorite comic, W. C. Fields, had a great line about beanbags. He claimed he saw the championships played in Paris, and many people were killed.
RUSH: Well, we shouldn’t joke about it now because it’s actually happened there in Liver Grove.
CALLER: I well understand. I’m actually calling to talk about Jim Harbaugh and why he went back to Michigan, but I have to say prior to that, in a very quick sentence, my wife and I love it that you never use the word “John Kerry” without saying “served in Vietnam.”
RUSH: Well, he did. He very seldom fails to mention it, either.
CALLER: And to think how brutalized did he murder the French language.
RUSH: That’s just embarrassing. But he thinks it’s worldly. We’re surrounded by this idiocy. It’s —
CALLER: Well, it takes disgusting —
RUSH: Anyway, what about Harbaugh, what about Harbaugh and Michigan?
CALLER: You know, Schembechler always said a Michigan man should coach a Michigan team, and I think Harbaugh bought into that program years ago. Now, my question is, what would make you think he would, as you used to say, not run for president because you couldn’t take a lower in pay, what would make him do this?
RUSH: He got the same pay at Michigan that he was getting at 49ers, maybe a half million more a year.
CALLER: Ohhh.
RUSH: He got five million, or five and a half, which is what he got at the 49ers, but it’s clear the 49ers wanted him out of there, and I think we now know why. It’s always been a mystery to me. The guy could not have performed better. They could not have had a better on field record, three straight years of championship games, one year in the Super Bowl, which they lost to the Ravens, after 10, 15 years in the wilderness.
We kept hearing all these stories that he doesn’t get along with Trent Baalke, general manager, just hard. He doesn’t get along with people in the front office. He’s just a dominating control freak. He’s too this and that. And coaches, they’re not docile lambs. I mean, that’s par for the course. They are control freaks. That’s how they maintain discipline and order among 53 people. They have to. See, I thought there has to be something more going on here. And with the sound bite from the new coach, Jim Tomsula, I think we know. Did you hear that sound bite earlier?
CALLER: Oh, yes, yes, I did, Rush, and I think you’re exactly right about the sound bite.
RUSH: It has to be, it has to be that you had a contrast of political, massively big political conflict there. Here. You didn’t hear. This is the new head coach. He’s the former defensive line coach. That’s a jump, from the DL straight to head coach, not defensive coordinator, from defensive line, Jim Tomsula, last night in Levi stadium in Santa Clara.
TOMSULA: With the San Francisco 49ers and we talk about the organization that these men have built and ladies have built, what a village. I’m that guy that’s into the village. I believe it takes a village. I believe no one man does anything by himself.
RUSH: That’s obvious. That has to be a reference to Harbaugh there, somehow. No one man. He’s currying favor with the owners. He’s currying favor with management with this bite. “I believe it takes a village.” Yeah. So the 49ers were getting a lot of credit, and Harbaugh was getting too much. They didn’t like that. But with this sound bite, “I believe it takes a village.” A football team? For crying out loud, Hillary Clinton writes a book “It Takes a Village” to raise a child, and now we got a coach talking about a football team. I think this exposes what must have been a pretty big political rift in this organization. I mean, they can do what they want. It’s fine and dandy by me. I’m just curious to find out what it was, because on the field — I mean, it was good stuff happening, other than this year when they went 8-8. Anyway, I appreciate the call, Mike.