When the Saints met the 49ers in the preseason, New Orleans blitzed like crazy, and after the game reports surfaced that Saints coach Sean Payton called for the blitzes because he thought 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh had snubbed him.
According to the reports, Payton thought Harbaugh should have called him to discuss how the two teams would play in the preseason so that both teams could get the right kind of work in. Such an agreement between coaches would violate league rules, but other coaches have openly acknowledged making such agreements with their opponents.
Now that Harbaugh is preparing to coach against Payton again in the postseason, the issue of the supposed preseason tiff has come up again. And Harbaugh says it’s a whole lot of nothing.
“I’m certainly not aware of any gentlemen’s agreement,” Harbaugh said. “I even asked my brother [Ravens coach John Harbaugh]: ‘Is there some sort of gentlemen’s agreement that you call a coach before a game, a preseason game?’ He wasn’t aware of any. And even if there was we wouldn’t do it anyway. We ask no quarter. We give no quarter. That’s how we approach things.”
Harbaugh also said he was glad the Saints blitzed in the preseason because it forced the 49ers’ offense to work on the protection problems that the Saints’ defense exposed.
“That’s what they do,” Harbaugh said. “As evidence of a full season to see what they do. Whether that helped us, it was effective in the game. It made us address it.”
So now that that’s established, we can focus on more important things. Like whether Harbaugh and Payton will have an appropriate post-game handshake.
source: PFT.com
author: Michael David Smith
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