I was thinking of the craziest angle I could come up with to get rodwoman’s panties in a bunch and it was this one: the Niners will beat the Broncos because Harbaugh was jilted by Manning, who left him for a “better man.” Now before you laugh, hear why this story/narrative will have an impact on Sunday’s game. As we all know, the Niners went after Manning when he was a free agent (though now they deny it, or deny how hard they pursued him). Harbaugh claimed (and still claims) that there was no intent to let Alex Smith go but to simply improve the roster by adding Manning (what, come again?). According to him they were simply “evaluating” Manning not “pursuing” him or “flirting” with him. And yet, Harbaugh’s choice of words (“pursuing”/ “flirting”) in rebutting the story and Payton’s version of the story, where he describes how “tough” it was to tell Harbaugh that he wasn’t coming to SF, suggest that Harbaugh (like a jilted lover) was not only protecting his own ego but also his quarterback’s (Alex Smith), who had heard about his coach’s man-crush on the legendary QB.
We’ve all been there, and some of us more than once; rebuffed by a beautiful woman who was out of our league to begin with. Sometimes we even believe (or convince ourselves) that we’ve improved ourselves, our position or status in the world to such an extent that the illusive object we are pursuing won’t notice (or will overlook) the deep-seated insecurity that is the cause of our pursuit, and accept us despite our shortcomings. I suspect that something like this was going on between Harbaugh, Manning and the man (or golden boy) he lost Manning to, John Elway. What a triangle, what a threesome! We have Harbaugh, an average to above average former QB who came from humble beginnings, pursuing Manning (who is the equivalent of football royalty) and losing him to Elway (a Stanford man, Harbaugh only coached there, who is considered one of the greatest QB’s of all time). In essence, Manning was telling Harbaugh that he had a better chance of winning the Super Bowl with Elway’s team than his. A slap in the face (and ego), if there ever was one, to a man who uses such incidents/slights to fuel his burning desire for success. Of course, Harbaugh’s pursuit of Manning was a farce to begin with, as nobody could see these two micromanagers co-existing. But that doesn’t matter.
What matters is that Harbaugh didn’t want to make a bad situation worse by letting his failed pursuit of Manning affect his QB’s fragile ego (which he had spent the previous season building up). In turn, he tried, as much as he could, to deny that the pursuit of Manning ever took place. So there he was (a QB with an average career) stuck with another average to above average QB (Smith) that he knew he couldn’t win the Super Bowl with. Eventually, everything worked out for Harbaugh, and found a QB (Kap) that could get him to the Super Bowl and compete against elite, fast defenses. But that doesn’t mean Harbaugh will forget (or will want to forget) the summer of 2012, when the man he was “pursuing” and “flirting” with rejected him for a better man; a man with superior resume. This Sunday Harbaugh will use all of that to motivate his team and his scrappy, scrambling, grinder of a QB (who is really just a stronger, faster version of captain comeback himself) to knock the king or kings of QBs (Manning and Elway) off of their thrones. Kap is the Harbaugh’s surrogate on the field: an insecure but talented young man who is fueled by all the doubters and haters. Kap loves to go up against the golden boys of the NFL (the Bradys, Mannings, Rodgers etc…). He relaxes, knowing he is the underdog, and usually plays his best games.
Also note, Harbaugh’s teams are undefeated going into a bye week. They want to end the first half of the season on a strong note; hence, they will leave everything on the field. Can we say that about a Denver team that has to play again on Thursday against a division rival seeking revenge?
And if you don’t believe the Niners will leave everything on the field, here is a portion of Harbaugh’s speech delivered to his team before the season began.
"It can be a great temptation to rest on the field and let the opponent have a play without making him pay for every inch. I must hold his pain where it is. Mine does not matter. ... The punishment I inflict, his fatigue, and that he is up against something that he does not comprehend is everything. My opponent is going to have to die. But does he have to kill me too? He is killing me. But he has a right to. I have never seen a greater opponent than him. I do not care who kills who now."
Yes, it reads more like something out of Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” than a motivational speech directed at glorified Neanderthals but it also explains how the Niners can play such a violent, vicious brand of football regardless of who is playing for them or who they are playing.
The play is the Niners +7 or the Niners ML (if you are as fearless as Harbaugh’s men) for one unit.