We've made too much Seahawks vs. 49ers content over the years, so we figured it's time to bundle it all up for your enjoyment. Relive their feud to near completion! Why only "near" completion? Well, stick around to find out and learn one of our deepest, darkest secrets. Base. Secrets base. Like our name. Idk.
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00:00:00The NFL has seen so many rivalries throughout the years,
00:00:04but few have blown up in a way
00:00:05that the Seahawks and 49ers did.
00:00:08Part of that was because of individual rivalries,
00:00:10part of it was from overlapping success,
00:00:13and all of it was fueled from more secret-based content
00:00:16than any rivalry has ever given us.
00:00:19So we're here to relive all that.
00:00:21Let's start with the two guys
00:00:22that might have single-handedly kicked all this off.
00:00:25Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll brought their feud
00:00:27from college to the pros and built teams in their likeness,
00:00:31part of which being their shared hatred.
00:00:33Here's Alex with the story of their beef.
00:00:35Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll
00:00:36are each maniacally competitive football coaches
00:00:39who share similar philosophies
00:00:40about the sport at their core,
00:00:42and they have never been able to escape one another.
00:00:48Let's take it back and start during Harbaugh's playing days.
00:00:51After a decorated collegiate career at Michigan,
00:00:53he went to the Bears in the first round of the 1987 draft.
00:00:56He'd go on to have a nice career,
00:00:58earning the moniker Captain Comeback along the way,
00:00:59and one of his very first comebacks
00:01:01happened to occur in 1991 with the Jets in town,
00:01:04his first game against a defense coordinated by Pete Carroll.
00:01:07Down seven on the final play of regulation,
00:01:09Harbaugh connected with Neil Anderson
00:01:11to send the game to OT
00:01:12before sneaking in from a yard out for the win.
00:01:14Harbaugh ripped Carroll's heart out
00:01:15in the waning minutes a few years later, too,
00:01:17the former now an Indy,
00:01:18the latter running the 49ers defense.
00:01:21And in 1997, we even got a year of him in the same division
00:01:23after Bob Kraft hired Carroll as head coach in New England,
00:01:26where Carroll got a measure of revenge
00:01:27with the Pats sweeping their two games
00:01:29against Harbaugh's Colts.
00:01:30A few years later, Carroll was coaching in college at USC,
00:01:33where he quickly turned them into a national powerhouse,
00:01:35while Harbaugh was getting into coaching himself
00:01:37after wrapping up his playing career.
00:01:39His first head gig came in San Diego,
00:01:40where in 2006, he actually tried recruiting
00:01:43Carroll's son, Nate.
00:01:44He chose USC.
00:01:45By 2007, these long-lost loves were reunited in the Pac-10
00:01:49when Stanford hired Harbaugh
00:01:50to turn around a 1-11 program.
00:01:52And the jabs came not long after,
00:01:54with Harbaugh claiming that March
00:01:56that the upcoming season would be the final one
00:01:58for Carroll in Southern California.
00:02:00Carroll didn't take too kindly to that.
00:02:02Their first meeting featured Harbaugh
00:02:04leading his woeful team
00:02:05that had lost 16 of their previous 18 games
00:02:08into the Coliseum against the Mighty Trojans,
00:02:10who were ranked number two in the country
00:02:12and had won their previous 35 home games.
00:02:14USC was favored by over 40 points,
00:02:16but they were holding on for dear life
00:02:18in the final minutes with a six-point lead.
00:02:20Harbaugh's knack for late-game heroics
00:02:21didn't disappear after trading a helmet, jersey,
00:02:24and cleats for a Sharpie, khakis, and, well, cleats.
00:02:28On their last gasp drive, Stanford faced a 4th-and-20
00:02:31before a young wide receiver
00:02:32by the name of Richard Sherman
00:02:34miraculously kept their hopes alive.
00:02:35This last-minute 4th-and-goal touchdown
00:02:37punctuated one of the greatest upsets
00:02:39in the history of college football
00:02:41and put the Harbaugh-Carroll rivalry squarely on the map.
00:02:44The next year, USC was able to flex their muscles
00:02:46in Stanford, and a fourth-quarter surge
00:02:48propelled them to a blowout 22-point win
00:02:50over Harbaugh's Cardinal.
00:02:51But enough with the appetizers.
00:02:53The stage is now set for their final Pac-10 showdown
00:02:55in 2009 and the sweet aroma of beef
00:02:58that would smother the Los Angeles Coliseum at the end.
00:03:00By now, Harbaugh had turned around Stanford's fortunes,
00:03:03and, now armed with a star quarterback,
00:03:05they absolutely clobbered USC.
00:03:07Late in the game, after it was totally out of hand,
00:03:09a Stanford touchdown put him up 48-21,
00:03:11but Harbaugh really wanted that 50 and went for two.
00:03:18He didn't get it, but boy did that piss off Pete.
00:03:21After the game, as they approached each other
00:03:22at midfield to shake hands, Harbaugh delighted
00:03:25in silencing USC and their fans,
00:03:27and Carroll was still steaming from that two-point attempt.
00:03:30So he had a little something to say to Harbaugh.
00:03:31What are you feeling, man?
00:03:33Yeah, I'm feeling good.
00:03:34Go, Carroll!
00:03:35Ah, what's your deal?
00:03:37The utterance of those three little words
00:03:38was a magical moment for fans of football
00:03:41or just pettiness.
00:03:42At the end of that season, with sanctions headed USC's way
00:03:44due to NCAA violations under Carroll's watch,
00:03:47Pete just so happened to decide
00:03:49that that was the right point in time
00:03:51to jump back to the NFL,
00:03:52reaching a deal with the Seattle Seahawks.
00:03:54One year and a BCS Bull win later, in January 2011,
00:03:57Harbaugh was the hottest coaching commodity out there,
00:03:59with teams falling over themselves to try and land him.
00:04:02Dolphins owner and fellow Wolverine Steven Ross,
00:04:05one of the wealthiest in a club of stupidly wealthy people,
00:04:08was basically offering Harbaugh a blank check
00:04:10to come to Miami, and he still had a head coach in place.
00:04:13But the Dolphins didn't face Carroll's Seahawks
00:04:15twice per year.
00:04:16The 49ers did, and that really mattered to Harbaugh,
00:04:18who went out of his way to tell CEO Jed York
00:04:21that he was ready to beat Carroll again.
00:04:22So he jumped to the NFL but stayed in the bay,
00:04:25joining old Pete in the NFC West
00:04:27for a biannual renewal of acquaintances,
00:04:29and of course, more beef.
00:04:31As luck would have it, Harbaugh didn't have to wait long
00:04:33for his chance, beating Carroll in his debut as an NFL coach
00:04:36before knocking Seattle out of playoff contention
00:04:38on Christmas Eve.
00:04:39And yet, outside of a couple
00:04:41very closely scrutinized post-game handshakes,
00:04:432011 was uneventful by their standards.
00:04:45But everything changed in 2012.
00:04:48The team's first matchup of the year
00:04:49occurred on a Thursday night in week seven.
00:04:51Four days earlier, Seattle had announced to the world
00:04:54that they were for real when they knocked off the Patriots
00:04:56and rookie quarterback Russell Wilson's coming out party.
00:04:58In a common theme between these two squads,
00:05:00it was a 60-minute defensive struggle,
00:05:02and the Niners held on for the win.
00:05:04Eventually, a rumor started to percolate
00:05:06that after this game, Harbaugh had driven by
00:05:08Seattle's team bus as they were departing Candlestick Park
00:05:11and proceeded to honk and wave and troll
00:05:13Carroll and the Seahawks,
00:05:14an accusation that Harbaugh vehemently denied.
00:05:16The next day, even though he'd just won their game,
00:05:19Harbaugh waged an assault
00:05:21against the way Carroll coached his secondary,
00:05:23threatening to take it up with the league office.
00:05:25Carroll made sure to point out
00:05:26just how outrageous he found that.
00:05:29Fast forward nine weeks to December 23rd,
00:05:32which also just so happened to be Harbaugh's 49th birthday.
00:05:35The Niners hit the Pacific Northwest
00:05:37to take on the Seahawks in a cold, wet, primetime game
00:05:40with huge NFC West implications.
00:05:42Let's give this game a bit of a backdrop.
00:05:44The Seahawks had just clinched
00:05:45their first winning season in a half decade,
00:05:47were firing on all cylinders,
00:05:49and had just become the first team
00:05:51since Truman was in office
00:05:52to drop 50 points in back-to-back games.
00:05:54But what's funny is how they managed to reach that mark
00:05:57the previous week in a game up in Canada.
00:05:59The man furious with Harbaugh
00:06:00for needlessly going for two to hit 50 points
00:06:02dialed up this fake punt in the fourth quarter
00:06:05with a 30-point lead and on the doorstep of,
00:06:08wait for it, 50 points.
00:06:10If that's not the pot calling the kettle black,
00:06:12then we just need to wipe that idiom
00:06:14from the face of the planet.
00:06:16Meanwhile, the Niners limped into this one,
00:06:18coming off an emotionally draining game in Foxborough
00:06:20in which they played over 90 defensive snaps
00:06:22and saw the heartbeat of their team tear his triceps.
00:06:25So this would be his first missed game in over a decade,
00:06:28just as the young, upstart Seahawks
00:06:30were nipping at the Niners' heels for NFC West supremacy.
00:06:32And Seattle took advantage,
00:06:34setting the tone for the evening
00:06:35on just their second offensive play.
00:06:37Justin Smith out of the lineup,
00:06:39and the Seahawks go right after his replacement,
00:06:41Ricky Jean-Francois, and they stick it in from there.
00:06:47Yeah, after that alleged disrespect
00:06:48from the parking lot in October,
00:06:50the Seahawks were kind of foaming at the mouth for this one.
00:06:53Now there was nothing physically
00:06:54Carroll's team could do to Harbaugh,
00:06:55even if cornerback Brandon Browner really wanted to,
00:06:58but they could sure as hell smack around his team,
00:07:00and for 60 minutes, they physically manhandled the Niners.
00:07:03And hell yeah, Carroll and the Hawks
00:07:05enjoyed rubbing it in Harbaugh's face,
00:07:06especially on his birthday.
00:07:09The 2013 offseason arrived a bit later,
00:07:12but this beef takes no offseason.
00:07:14The Seahawks, who'd been having a host of players
00:07:16getting popped for PEDs,
00:07:17were ripe for a June tongue-lashing from Harbaugh,
00:07:20who stressed being above reproach
00:07:22while intimating that Seattle's success was due to cheating.
00:07:24As you could imagine, Carroll wasn't too fond
00:07:27of Harbaugh commenting about his team.
00:07:28Heading into that 2013 season, the rivalry was white hot,
00:07:31and after splitting with each other in the regular season,
00:07:34it all came to a head in a battle royale
00:07:36of an NFC Championship game up in Seattle.
00:07:39After Harbaugh's former player, Richard Sherman,
00:07:41sealed the game at the end,
00:07:42he lit into his old college coach on national TV.
00:07:45Well, I'm the best corner in the game.
00:07:47When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree,
00:07:49that's the result you're gonna get.
00:07:51The next year was a mess in San Francisco.
00:07:53Harbaugh was being pushed out the door
00:07:54by ego-driven Niner management all season,
00:07:56and upon its conclusion,
00:07:57the two sides mutually parted ways.
00:08:00Harbaugh returned to his alma mater to coach,
00:08:02but even then, the sweet smell of this beef
00:08:04never ventures too far.
00:08:07In the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft,
00:08:08Carroll actually picked a couple players
00:08:10Harbaugh had coached in Ann Arbor.
00:08:11Let's go to the tape to see if there are any beef remnants
00:08:14when that was mentioned.
00:08:15Coach Harbaugh did a great job.
00:08:16Yeah, he was,
00:08:17he was,
00:08:18he was,
00:08:19what did you do?
00:08:21Carroll and Harbaugh may never square off
00:08:23against one another again,
00:08:24and this would be a shame for so many reasons.
00:08:26The excellent football each coach brings out of his team,
00:08:29the drama, the antics, the pure tension in the air,
00:08:32but even if we've seen the final handshake
00:08:34between these two men,
00:08:36we'll always have the memories
00:08:37of their long-lasting grade A beef.
00:08:40We got into it at the tail end of that,
00:08:42but the moment where this feud
00:08:43was truly first fully on display
00:08:45and forced everyone to take note
00:08:47deserves a deep rewind.
00:08:49Here's a complete story of what led us
00:08:51to that end zone interaction between Sherman and Crabtree.
00:08:54It's January 19th, 2014.
00:08:58We're in Seattle, Washington,
00:08:59for the NFC Championship game
00:09:01between the hometown Seahawks
00:09:02and the San Francisco 49ers.
00:09:04The Niners have the ball, down six,
00:09:06and are 18 yards away from taking the lead.
00:09:10Clock ticking towards 30 seconds,
00:09:12Seattle is looking to keep them out of the end zone
00:09:14and punch their own ticket to the Super Bowl.
00:09:17To appreciate what comes next
00:09:19and remember the hate-filled journey that got us here,
00:09:22we should rewind.
00:09:29Okay, so first things first.
00:09:32See this guy?
00:09:33He hates this guy.
00:09:35And him?
00:09:36Well, he really doesn't like this guy.
00:09:38And we'll come back to these two guys,
00:09:40but they definitely don't get along.
00:09:42Why, though?
00:09:47In 2002, Seattle changed conferences,
00:09:50joining the 49ers in the NFC West.
00:09:53Both on the lookout for a fresh rival,
00:09:55these newfound division mates
00:09:57agreed to regularly disagree pretty early on,
00:10:01but it took nearly a decade
00:10:03before their pot actually boiled over.
00:10:07When the Seahawks joined the NFC,
00:10:08Pete Carroll was busy turning USC into a powerhouse.
00:10:12Multiple national championships,
00:10:14seven straight conference titles,
00:10:17and one big thorn in his side,
00:10:20a thorn named Jim Harbaugh.
00:10:22Harbaugh's Stanford program
00:10:24became the David to USC's Goliath.
00:10:27The Cardinal ended USC's perfect season in 2007,
00:10:32one of the biggest upsets in college football history.
00:10:34Two years later, Harbaugh was out for blood,
00:10:37actively running up the score in a Stanford blowout,
00:10:39which led to this very awkward post-game handshake.
00:10:48Nice comeback, Jim.
00:10:49These dudes did not get along.
00:10:51So when Carroll left for a new gig in 2010,
00:10:54and a year later,
00:10:56Harbaugh had the chance to join him in the same division,
00:10:59he jumped at the opportunity to beat Carroll once again.
00:11:03These coaches immediately ramped up this divisional rivalry.
00:11:07There's a good chance
00:11:08that they could have fueled it on their own,
00:11:11but a critical piece came from how they built their teams.
00:11:15They had pretty similar visions.
00:11:18Both guys wanted to rely on a power running game,
00:11:21and they had the backs to do it.
00:11:23They beefed up offensive lines capable of paving the way
00:11:26and keeping their young mobile QBs upright.
00:11:30They had chain movers in the passing game,
00:11:32capable of blowing up any given week.
00:11:35But for the most part, that wasn't necessary,
00:11:37thanks to the play on the other side of the ball.
00:11:40Each team ran through a defense
00:11:42that set the tone every week
00:11:44and catapulted both franchises straight into contention.
00:11:48That last part became massive for this rivalry.
00:11:51Bad teams can enjoy playing spoiler to good teams, sure,
00:11:55but when you have two talented rosters
00:11:57directly competing for the same goal
00:11:59in the same division at the same time,
00:12:02then you're cooking.
00:12:04San Francisco took extreme pleasure
00:12:06in knocking Seattle out of playoff contention in 2011.
00:12:10There were even rumors of Harbaugh gloating
00:12:12while Seahawks players watched from their team bus.
00:12:15Easy claim for Harbaugh to deny,
00:12:17but then when you give out quotes like this,
00:12:20it's hard to act like you're not dumping fuel
00:12:22on the rivalry in broad daylight.
00:12:25So we have spicy quotes, coaches who don't get along,
00:12:29and then in 2012, it happened.
00:12:32Both teams made the playoffs in the same season
00:12:35for the first time since 1988.
00:12:39That meant that even with San Francisco's
00:12:41eventual Super Bowl appearance,
00:12:43the NFC West was guaranteed to no one in 2013.
00:12:49Jumping back to tonight, here in Seattle,
00:12:52you know how the division played out,
00:12:54and if this score holds, the hometown crowd
00:12:57will watch their Seahawks take the 49ers place
00:13:00in this year's big game.
00:13:01But if there's anyone who could change that
00:13:04in these closing seconds, it's this guy.
00:13:10When San Francisco drafted Colin Kaepernick
00:13:1236th overall in 2011,
00:13:14experts saw a talented quarterback prospect
00:13:17with great physical traits who was raw as hell.
00:13:21Sure, he made up for that with his legs,
00:13:23but for success in the pros, he needed some work.
00:13:27Kaep landed in the perfect spot for that.
00:13:29Not only could he lean on Harbaugh, the QB whisperer,
00:13:32but he sat behind Alex Smith, a cerebral signal caller
00:13:36who made up for a lesser than arm with high IQ
00:13:39and some sneaky athleticism.
00:13:42For 18 months, Kaepernick learned and he waited,
00:13:46and then the injury gods intervened.
00:13:49Week 10, 2012, Kaepernick came in for a concussed Smith.
00:13:53Considering the circumstances, he played pretty well.
00:13:56Not a gaudy performance, but he did enough to battle back
00:14:00and tie things up at the end of regulation,
00:14:02then marched them in position to win it in overtime,
00:14:06only for David Akers to spoil the ending.
00:14:08A week later, in his first career start,
00:14:11things went far better.
00:14:13This came against one of the league's best defenses,
00:14:17therefore making it easier for Harbaugh
00:14:18to stick with Kaepernick despite Smith being cleared.
00:14:22While Smith's play made that decision
00:14:25look like a head-scratcher,
00:14:26any potential quarterback controversy
00:14:28was squashed in week 12.
00:14:30Kaepernick's toolset took this offense
00:14:32to a different level and offered another way
00:14:34to grind games out on the ground.
00:14:37It paid off pretty well for San Francisco,
00:14:40like in a record-breaking sort of way.
00:14:43Kaepernick nearly even claimed the Lombardi trophy
00:14:45for the Niners, but fell as short as one could
00:14:48against the Ravens, and maybe against the referees,
00:14:51but that's not our story.
00:14:53Our story is this 2013 version of San Francisco.
00:14:58Kaepernick propelled himself
00:14:59into preseason MVP conversations.
00:15:02The expectations surrounding his squad felt reminiscent
00:15:05of Niners teams from decades past.
00:15:08Opening the year with a rematch from last postseason,
00:15:11Kaepernick only fanned those flames.
00:15:13He showed his smarts by leaning on Vernon Davis.
00:15:16The explosive tight end has thrived
00:15:19with Kaepernick throwing him the ball,
00:15:20which led to Davis' first ever All-Pro season.
00:15:24The QB's favorite target, though,
00:15:26has been newcomer Anquan Boldin.
00:15:28Their connection has been major on its own,
00:15:30but even more so when remembering
00:15:32that the receiver room operated at less than full strength
00:15:35the majority of the year.
00:15:37Michael Crabtree, the team's leading receiver in 2012,
00:15:41who showed great rapport with Kaepernick down the stretch
00:15:44and throughout the playoffs, needed off-season surgery
00:15:46that shelved him for the team's first 11 games.
00:15:50Now, they did fine without him,
00:15:52but once Crabtree hit the field in week 13,
00:15:54the Niners have been undefeated ever since.
00:15:58Correlation, causation, who knows?
00:16:00The point is, Kaepernick has all of his key playmakers.
00:16:04They carried that momentum into Lambeau
00:16:06where they beat Aaron Rodgers for a fourth time in a row.
00:16:09Then, a week later, traveled to Carolina
00:16:12and the defense put the clamps on Cam Newton.
00:16:15Winning every way possible,
00:16:17they've become the hottest team left standing.
00:16:22And right here, they're in position to steal this game.
00:16:27Kaepernick's got plenty of options in this moment,
00:16:29but if he decides to look Crabtree's way down here,
00:16:32well, then he'll also be looking in this guy's direction,
00:16:36which hasn't been too smart this year.
00:16:40In 2011, no one could have predicted
00:16:43that Richard Sherman would become
00:16:44the face of the Seahawks defense
00:16:46or the mouth of the whole team.
00:16:49153 players heard their names called in the NFL draft
00:16:53before the Seahawks took Sherman.
00:16:55The fact cornerback remained a somewhat new position for him
00:16:58might explain Sherman lasting that long,
00:17:01but if you ask him, you'd hear a different answer
00:17:04for why he dropped in the draft.
00:17:06Spoiler, these guys don't know that.
00:17:08Spoiler, these guys don't like each other.
00:17:11Surely there's a video about that somewhere.
00:17:13In just his second year,
00:17:14Sherman showed why the 31 other teams made a big mistake.
00:17:19That first team all pro season
00:17:21showcased more than just his talent.
00:17:25The front office had been crushing it with draft picks.
00:17:29That's how Carroll and Schneider
00:17:31remade this defense overnight,
00:17:33finding heavy hitters and ball hawks
00:17:35and assembling a secondary that became known
00:17:37as the Legion of Boom.
00:17:39That nickname quickly spread to the rest of their defense,
00:17:42a collection of players who all played football
00:17:45as if their lives depended on it.
00:17:47Some had pedigrees like Earl Thomas,
00:17:50but most were like Sherman, passed over round after round.
00:17:54Malcolm Smith, for instance,
00:17:56landed in Seattle as a seventh round pick
00:17:58and played behind unstoppable linebackers
00:18:01like K.J. Wright and Bobby Wagner.
00:18:04But when injuries thrust Smith into a starting spot,
00:18:07he immediately delivered.
00:18:09During a pivotal stretch of this 2013 season,
00:18:12Smith filled in for Wright with performances
00:18:14that proved how deep the defense's talent ran.
00:18:18As a whole, they pulled off a regular season
00:18:20the league has rarely seen.
00:18:22They demoralized offenses
00:18:24and reminded old heads of the 85 Chicago Bears,
00:18:27one of the greatest football teams ever.
00:18:30Oh, and naturally, Sherman played a major part in that.
00:18:34The defense drove this team on an incredible ride,
00:18:38delivering Seattle its best season
00:18:40since the last time they reached the Super Bowl.
00:18:42After their first round bye,
00:18:44the defense kept Drew Brees
00:18:46and the high-powered New Orleans offense
00:18:48off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter.
00:18:51When Marshawn Lynch dealt the final kill shot,
00:18:54we were gifted with a third battle
00:18:56between these division rivals.
00:18:59And tonight, Seattle's needed the defense
00:19:02to be at their best.
00:19:03On the first snap of the game,
00:19:05the Seahawks gifted the Niners a short field.
00:19:08But that D didn't break.
00:19:11Well, not at that point.
00:19:14Few have contained Kaepernick
00:19:15for a full 60 minutes this season.
00:19:18In the 49ers' first drive of the second quarter,
00:19:21he delivered again.
00:19:23As the Seahawks pressured Kaep,
00:19:24QB looked like a gazelle evading lions.
00:19:27He took a perfect angle to bust loose,
00:19:30then bounded for 58 yards before running out of gas
00:19:33and succumbing to Kam Chancellor.
00:19:36The next 10 yards proved much harder to pick up,
00:19:40but the Niners punched it in on fourth down
00:19:42to take a big 10-point lead.
00:19:45Despite Seattle's defense calling out for help,
00:19:48the offense didn't wake up until the third quarter.
00:19:52With a game plan revolving around feed Marshawn,
00:19:55it finally paid off.
00:19:58After that, it was Russell Wilson's turn to cook.
00:20:0013 yards to Doug Baldwin, 15 to Zach Miller,
00:20:04then finally a 35-yard score to Jermaine Kirst.
00:20:08That kicked off a reckless fourth quarter.
00:20:11On the ensuing drive,
00:20:12Cliff Averill looped all the way around
00:20:15and chopped Kaepernick's arm.
00:20:17Michael Bennett nearly had himself a Paisman moment,
00:20:20but at least set the Seahawks' offense in great position.
00:20:24Four snaps later, though,
00:20:25it was Wilson's turn to cough it up.
00:20:28While unscathed on the scoreboard,
00:20:30that micro-drive saw 49ers all-world linebacker
00:20:33Navarro Bowman crumble down with a brutal knee injury.
00:20:37And so after Kaepernick turned the ball back over
00:20:40two snaps later,
00:20:41Seattle's offense faced a San Francisco D
00:20:43without their leader.
00:20:45They burned some clock, drove as far as they could,
00:20:48then made this a six-point game,
00:20:50forcing the Niners to need a touchdown.
00:20:53But if they get that here,
00:20:56they're an extra point away
00:20:57from a second straight Super Bowl appearance.
00:21:00While this hasn't been his finest hour,
00:21:03Kaepernick has still stacked more magic
00:21:05on an already magical season
00:21:07and can now deliver in the clutch once again.
00:21:10With Harbaugh, this team is on a path to glory
00:21:13that hasn't been seen in San Francisco since the 90s.
00:21:16That said, Seattle knows the stakes.
00:21:19They know what they need to do
00:21:21and they've done it all season.
00:21:24They're on the cusp of their first Super Bowl appearance
00:21:26since 2006,
00:21:28and eyeing the first Lombardi trophy in franchise history.
00:21:32Oh, plus the bragging rights from tonight
00:21:35will be pretty sweet.
00:21:37No matter what though, it all starts with this play.
00:21:40Welcome to a moment in history.
00:21:43Colin Kaepernick with a chance to take the lead.
00:21:49Kaepernick, end zone, Crabtree.
00:21:51Broken up, picked off.
00:21:53This game is over.
00:21:56Knocked in the air, intercepted by Smith.
00:22:00Off the hands of Richard Sherman.
00:22:04This became the moment everyone pointed to
00:22:07for defining our team's rivalry,
00:22:09with Sherman in particular being a focal point.
00:22:11But even for him, this feud had origins much earlier on
00:22:15which ended up bleeding into his feelings
00:22:17for a few key characters in San Francisco.
00:22:19So here's back-to-back beefs
00:22:21with Sherman front and center.
00:22:24Richard Sherman's beef with Jim Harbaugh
00:22:26started at college, graduated to the NFL,
00:22:29and had a larger impact than any of us knew at the time.
00:22:33Oh, the power of pettiness and spite.
00:22:40It took a while for the Richard Sherman
00:22:41we now know to come into view,
00:22:43but in a lot of ways he was shaped by Jim Harbaugh.
00:22:47Before he was a Super Bowl-winning,
00:22:49all-pro, shut-down corner,
00:22:51Sherman was a wide receiver.
00:22:54Granted, he was a receiver on an inept Stanford offense
00:22:57that sometimes made him look like the defender he'd become,
00:23:00but a receiver nonetheless.
00:23:03It wasn't a great team, nor had it been,
00:23:05so at the end of Sherman's freshman year,
00:23:07his path crossed with Harbaugh's for the first time.
00:23:10And initially, the pair felt like a good fit,
00:23:14Sherman being a dedicated, tough kid on a mission to win,
00:23:18and Harbaugh, the proud Michigan man who never hid the fact
00:23:21that he didn't really have any plans
00:23:23other than football and death.
00:23:25He wanted to win, he wanted to put in the work needed to win,
00:23:29and he wanted players who would do the same.
00:23:31So that's great, just a couple of guys
00:23:34passionate about football, looking to win at whatever cost.
00:23:38I'm sure they'll see eye to eye.
00:23:40Through their first eight games together,
00:23:42Stanford tripled their win total from a year earlier.
00:23:45They pulled off a major upset of number two USC
00:23:48and a face that we'll see more of later on.
00:23:51Sherman was once again the team's top receiver,
00:23:54and then the hiccups began.
00:23:57Against Washington, Sherman's emotions overflowed
00:24:00on the sideline, which was picked up by cameras
00:24:02as he shouted and shoved teammates.
00:24:05As a result, Harbaugh suspended Sherman for their next game.
00:24:09Once he returned, he had just one catch for five yards
00:24:12over their final two games.
00:24:14He still finished as the team's leading receiver,
00:24:17but the last month led to him looking for a major change.
00:24:21He wanted to flip sides, but offensive coordinator
00:24:24David Shaw said he was too valuable.
00:24:27Unfortunately, a lingering patellar tendon injury
00:24:29meant neither offense nor defense got him.
00:24:32After hobbling through the first four games of 2008,
00:24:35he went under the knife and declared his season over.
00:24:38The fun bit, he seemed to have forgotten
00:24:40to run that by Harbaugh first.
00:24:43Talking to the media, the head coach was questioned
00:24:45about Sherman's health, and Harbaugh said
00:24:47he had thought they'd have him still,
00:24:50but didn't read the receiver's Facebook for medical updates.
00:24:53Once away from the microphones, Harbaugh tackled the matter
00:24:56by telling Sherman he had given up on his teammates
00:24:59by having the surgery.
00:25:01Out with an injury, on the outs with his head coach,
00:25:04Sherman again went to Shaw and asked for a change.
00:25:07Given the circumstances, which included Harbaugh
00:25:09allegedly banishing him from the offense,
00:25:12this time the request was approved.
00:25:15Once news got out, Harbaugh noted that he wasn't sure
00:25:18Sherman could beat out even the guys
00:25:19at the bottom of the depth chart.
00:25:21Maybe coach knew what he was doing, maybe he got lucky,
00:25:24but those words made sure Sherman was fired up.
00:25:28He dominated the offseason, shot up the depth chart,
00:25:31and admittedly was somewhat aided
00:25:34by knowing the offense inside and out.
00:25:36He would call out plays pre-snap,
00:25:38or just walk over to where the route would take the receiver
00:25:41and make an easy interception.
00:25:44Harbaugh, to no surprise, did not approve.
00:25:47But by the time the 2009 season came around
00:25:49with Sherman starting at corner,
00:25:52regardless of the path traveled,
00:25:54they got to the right place.
00:25:55And the pair looked pretty happy with the results,
00:25:58which included an Orange Bowl demolition
00:26:00of Virginia Tech to cap off 2010.
00:26:03Then, one week later, Harbaugh was gone,
00:26:06off to the 49ers with a trail of peak Harbaugh quotes
00:26:10to mark the path.
00:26:11And that April presented the biggest weekend
00:26:14in terms of beef implications.
00:26:16With Harbaugh already in the NFL, Sherman came to join him.
00:26:20San Francisco happened to need corners,
00:26:22and obviously Harbaugh had a pretty good feel
00:26:25for one in particular,
00:26:27which meant they went a different route.
00:26:29Even though San Francisco had a third-round grade
00:26:32on Sherman, which Niners CEO Jed York
00:26:34revealed much later on,
00:26:36there was no chance Sherman would have gotten a call
00:26:38from the Niners because Harbaugh had taken him
00:26:41off their draft board entirely.
00:26:43He'd hear his name during the fifth round,
00:26:45but it was a slide that made Sherman believe
00:26:47his former coach hadn't been doing him any favors
00:26:50when talking to other teams.
00:26:52There were rumors of something like this
00:26:53happening at the time,
00:26:55but the fun part of this beef is it would take years
00:26:57for all the details to come out,
00:26:59or for people like Jed York to offer the bits
00:27:02that fully painted the picture.
00:27:04Whether or not Harbaugh said anything
00:27:06that hurt Sherman's value,
00:27:07there are two clear facts.
00:27:09First, there were 24 cornerbacks taken before Sherman,
00:27:13and second, when he was selected at 154 overall,
00:27:17he landed in the best possible spot.
00:27:20Not only had he studied the corner techniques
00:27:22coached by Pete Carroll as he learned the position,
00:27:25but he also got a new coach who had beef
00:27:28with his old coach.
00:27:30Carroll's history with Harbaugh was well-documented,
00:27:33same with their personality differences.
00:27:36So while Sherman's college days
00:27:37were somewhat stifling to his personality,
00:27:40that wouldn't be the case in Seattle.
00:27:42He was in a place where he could be himself,
00:27:45and when Sherman got to be himself,
00:27:48the beef got to bloom.
00:27:49His rookie season, most of the focus
00:27:51was understandably put on Harbaugh and Carroll,
00:27:54but as the secondary embraced
00:27:56their new Legion of Boom moniker
00:27:57going into the 2012 season,
00:28:00Sherman stole back some of the spotlight.
00:28:02After their week seven showdown
00:28:04in which the 49ers eked out a defensive win,
00:28:07Harbaugh still spoke out about the physical play
00:28:09of Seattle's secondary,
00:28:11going so far as to say he'd talked to the league about it.
00:28:14Sherman's response gave a glimpse
00:28:16to his feelings on Harbaugh,
00:28:17calling him a bully,
00:28:19which the coach kind of backed up after the game.
00:28:22Harbaugh celebrated his team's win
00:28:24by driving around the parking lot
00:28:26and honking at the Seahawks' team buses,
00:28:28offering a mock salute according to Sherman
00:28:31and his fellow Stanford alum Doug Baldwin.
00:28:34Considering that showboating happened after a 13-6 win,
00:28:37it feels like a possible lapse in judgment,
00:28:40especially with the power of hindsight.
00:28:42Sherman began to work into the conversations
00:28:44about the league's top corners.
00:28:47He nicknamed himself Optimus Prime,
00:28:49then immediately shut Megatron down.
00:28:51He had a two-interception day against Arizona,
00:28:54plus his first career touchdown,
00:28:56and then Seattle welcomed Harbaugh to town
00:28:59for a pretty important Week 16 contest
00:29:02that turned into a one-sided affair.
00:29:04Sherman notched his seventh interception on the season,
00:29:07but even bigger than that,
00:29:09put a second-quarter nail in the coffin
00:29:11by returning a blocked field goal 90 yards
00:29:13to make it 21-nothing.
00:29:16It got so bad that Sherman was even trying to get Carroll
00:29:18to chase Seattle's third straight 50-point game.
00:29:22His coach declined, though,
00:29:23telling Sherman they had more class than that.
00:29:26But after the game,
00:29:27the corner needed to pour a little more salt in the wound.
00:29:31During his post-game interview on the field,
00:29:33he wished his old coach a happy birthday,
00:29:36which on one hand was sweet of him to remember,
00:29:38and on the other,
00:29:40this was Sherman using a national broadcast to honk back.
00:29:44But he had plenty to celebrate.
00:29:45Not only had they won the game,
00:29:47but Sherman also won his appeal of a four-game suspension
00:29:50the NFL had thrown his way earlier that season.
00:29:53Having him helped Seattle's chances come to playoffs,
00:29:56and we were actually so close
00:29:58to getting a third Niner Seahawks matchup
00:30:01on an even grander stage,
00:30:02but Atlanta's last second field goal meant it wouldn't be.
00:30:06Instead, on his second attempt in as many years,
00:30:09Harbaugh took his team to the Super Bowl.
00:30:12And although they lost,
00:30:13those first two years were a little lopsided football-wise.
00:30:17San Francisco had won three of the four
00:30:19head-to-head matchups.
00:30:21They'd made the NFC Championship game each year,
00:30:24came so close to a Lombardi trophy,
00:30:27and then that off-season, everything cranked the f**k up.
00:30:31Harbaugh spoke out about the suspensions
00:30:33in the Seahawks' secondary
00:30:34and encouraged them to play by the rules,
00:30:37really putting on his Michigan hat to do so.
00:30:40Sherman tried to distance himself a bit from Harbaugh
00:30:43with his response,
00:30:44a path drastically different
00:30:46from the one his teammate Brandon Browner took.
00:30:48But speaking to SI,
00:30:50it was Sherman's father who really stoked the flames
00:30:53by describing his son's relationship with Harbaugh
00:30:55as a passionate hate.
00:30:57As more and more quotes came out in the open,
00:31:00the duo was under a bit more of a microscope,
00:31:02especially when they faced off,
00:31:04which brings us to week two of 2013.
00:31:08Sherman snagged a pick,
00:31:09Harbaugh's offense only managed a field goal,
00:31:12and Seattle cruised.
00:31:13But the highlight of the night came after the game
00:31:16when Sherman sprinted after Harbaugh as he left the field,
00:31:19slapped him on the butt,
00:31:20then ran away as Harbaugh sorta kinda acknowledged the PDA.
00:31:25This then sent a thousand ships sailing into the night,
00:31:28all carrying various takes.
00:31:30Here's where I'll note that while Sherman
00:31:32does have valid grievances against Harbaugh,
00:31:34he also has a gift for crafting narratives
00:31:37that might be slightly flawed,
00:31:39not unlike a wrestling promoter.
00:31:42But since he's not a wrestling promoter,
00:31:44he then has to walk them back.
00:31:47When asked about the butt slap after the game,
00:31:49the corner said that Harbaugh essentially blew him off.
00:31:52In his mind, the attempted sportsmanship
00:31:55went unanswered.
00:31:56Harbaugh said that he had offered his congratulations
00:31:59and just wasn't totally sure
00:32:00who was patting his butt at that moment.
00:32:03If nothing else, he played nice in the media
00:32:05and didn't stir the pot.
00:32:07Sherman, when further clarifying,
00:32:09recounted the events as if he was at a deposition.
00:32:12So maybe not a big deal.
00:32:14Maybe both sides had matured
00:32:16and this had been overblown from the start.
00:32:19I mean, that same season,
00:32:20Sherman said he didn't hate anyone.
00:32:23He was simply passionate
00:32:24and when it came to the 49ers,
00:32:26he might not like them,
00:32:27but it's not like that's some wild statement
00:32:29considering they're division rivals.
00:32:32The actual wild statement would come not long after.
00:32:35His it's passion not hate quote
00:32:38was part of the lead up to the 2013 NFC Championship game.
00:32:42In what became a very close contest,
00:32:44the climactic moment came
00:32:46as Colin Kaepernick looked for Michael Crabtree
00:32:48on what could have been the game winning touchdown.
00:32:51But Sherman made an incredible play on the ball,
00:32:53popped it up and into the hands of Malcolm Smith.
00:32:56And as his teammates gathered around,
00:32:59Sherman celebrated in the end zone,
00:33:01then sprinted over to Crabtree and offered a handshake.
00:33:04Sherman continued his tour with a choking motion
00:33:07aimed at the 49ers sideline,
00:33:08which all paved the way
00:33:10for a legendary post-game interview with Aaron Andrews
00:33:13where Sherman showed humility and gratitude and...
00:33:17Well, I'm the best corner in the game.
00:33:18When you try me with a sorry receiving like Crabtree,
00:33:21that's the result you're gonna get.
00:33:23Don't you ever talk about me.
00:33:25But no one listened to him, myself included.
00:33:28We all had to talk about him.
00:33:31Despite making the play
00:33:31that sent the Seahawks to the Super Bowl,
00:33:33Sherman quickly went into apology mode
00:33:36saying he never meant to distract from the team
00:33:38and what they accomplished as a unit.
00:33:40His feud with Crabtree stole the show for a bit
00:33:42as more details came out
00:33:44like how they had got into it
00:33:45during a charity softball game during the summer.
00:33:48And while he did name Crabtree specifically in his rant,
00:33:51it took away from his message.
00:33:54The outburst was aimed at his old coach.
00:33:57His dislike, any ill will for the Niners,
00:34:00it started and ended with Harbaugh.
00:34:03A lot went down between the post-game rant and that quote,
00:34:06which came out in 2020
00:34:08ahead of the 49ers Super Bowl appearance.
00:34:11By then, the corner was capping off
00:34:13his second season in the Bay
00:34:14and everyone continued to say,
00:34:15hey, isn't it wild how Sherman used to not like the Niners
00:34:18but now he's on the Niners?
00:34:20So it made some sense that talk focused on Harbaugh,
00:34:23but he offered a lot more details
00:34:25than one would have expected
00:34:27considering they hadn't faced off
00:34:29in the better part of a decade.
00:34:31The beefiest revelation was that Sherman
00:34:33had been on a mission to force Harbaugh out of the league.
00:34:37And before York and Sherman
00:34:38officially teamed up in San Francisco,
00:34:40they had essentially worked together
00:34:42to fulfill Sherman's dream.
00:34:45After he ended the Niners season
00:34:47and then after he did what Harbaugh hadn't
00:34:49by winning the Super Bowl,
00:34:51the narrative around the coach shifted a bit.
00:34:54He did what no one had ever done
00:34:56by making a conference championship game
00:34:58in each of his first three seasons as head coach.
00:35:01And yet, rumors arose that even a Super Bowl victory
00:35:05in 2014 wouldn't be enough to save his job.
00:35:09York quickly tried to shut those rumors down,
00:35:12but details were coming to the surface.
00:35:14An internal power struggle between Harbaugh
00:35:17and GM Trent Balke had made it
00:35:19so the coach's days were numbered.
00:35:21And after they missed the playoffs,
00:35:23the Niners said they had mutually agreed to part ways.
00:35:27Harbaugh would later say that wasn't completely accurate,
00:35:30but the deed was done.
00:35:31And to return to Sherman's quote
00:35:33about ousting his former coach,
00:35:35once he'd done that, he was cool.
00:35:38Harbaugh quickly returned to the college ranks
00:35:40where his unique approach could truly shine.
00:35:44But to his credit, without Harbaugh,
00:35:46the 2015 NFL season had something lacking.
00:35:50Harbaugh had gotten his teams to buy into a hatred
00:35:53for the Seahawks, one he actively helped cultivate.
00:35:57Unfortunately, he was going against someone
00:36:00who was driven by something similar,
00:36:02yet even more personal.
00:36:04Harbaugh had lit a fire under Sherman,
00:36:07one that the corner seemed to fan as much as he wanted,
00:36:10or possibly as much as he needed to for motivation.
00:36:14Over the years, it came into and out of focus,
00:36:16depending on who was in the news.
00:36:19It was found in two competitive individuals,
00:36:21both capable of extreme pettiness, driven by success.
00:36:26And then at a certain point,
00:36:28each side decided they had cooked the shit
00:36:30out of this piece of beef,
00:36:31and it was best left in the trash
00:36:33where no one would attempt to salvage a damn thing.
00:36:36Michael Crabtree and Richard Sherman had a unique beef.
00:36:40It was brisk, yet it lingered.
00:36:43It was highly publicized, but not fully understood.
00:36:47It had ties to an incredible rivalry,
00:36:50ties to one of their coaches,
00:36:52and to a charity softball game.
00:36:54You know, normal stuff.
00:37:00Most stories have an inciting incident
00:37:02that hooks the audience and sets the main character
00:37:05off on a journey.
00:37:07For Richard Sherman and Michael Crabtree,
00:37:09that incident seemed to be the 2014 NFC Championship game.
00:37:13Sherman made a huge play at Crabtree's expense.
00:37:17They shared a moment in the end zone,
00:37:19and then Sherman bombastically spewed his thoughts
00:37:22for everyone to hear about Crabtree.
00:37:25When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree,
00:37:27that's the result you're gonna get.
00:37:29And about himself.
00:37:31Well, I'm the best corner in the game.
00:37:32On a major stage, the audience witnessed the stories
00:37:36of this pair intertwine.
00:37:37It propelled countless ships to sail off into the night,
00:37:40excited by all the possibilities that could unfold
00:37:43from this seemingly newfound beef.
00:37:46But we all soon realized
00:37:48that we had actually shown up late to this story.
00:37:51The presumed inciting incident
00:37:53may have actually been the climactic moment,
00:37:56which left us scrambling to uncover
00:37:58all the personal details of these individuals
00:38:00because it's unfair if we don't know
00:38:03why this beef tastes so good.
00:38:04So let's do a little stage setting.
00:38:07The 49ers drafted Crabtree 10th overall in 2009.
00:38:11The wide receiver struggled to live up to that billing
00:38:13for the first few seasons,
00:38:14but his fortunes began to change in 2011.
00:38:18Jim Harbaugh came on as head coach and things got serious.
00:38:21Like most wins since their last
00:38:24NFC Championship game appearance serious.
00:38:27Harbaugh also brought a bit of beef with him,
00:38:30including one with his former player at Stanford,
00:38:33Richard Sherman, which would impact things for Crabtree.
00:38:36Sherman reached the NFL at the same time as Harbaugh,
00:38:39but with a little less fanfare.
00:38:41He quickly began to outplay
00:38:42his fifth round draft price though,
00:38:44and helped establish the Legion of Boom.
00:38:47Sherman was a physical corner on a stack secondary
00:38:51primed to terrorize the league for years to come.
00:38:54Now this isn't Harbaugh's story,
00:38:56but in a way the bad blood he had with Sherman
00:38:58helped lay a foundation for today's duo.
00:39:02Sherman entered the league with a chip on his shoulder,
00:39:04something that he blamed Harbaugh for
00:39:06by giving him poor performance reviews ahead of the draft.
00:39:10But considering one party is on the field
00:39:12while the other is on the sideline,
00:39:14it paved the way for some tangential beef.
00:39:17As of this moment, it's generally frowned upon
00:39:20for a player to physically go after an opposing coach,
00:39:22so the 49er players that Sherman faced
00:39:25would have to serve as the physical outlet
00:39:27for any of the cornerback's frustrations.
00:39:30It would make sense that if one of those receivers
00:39:33happened to be a former first round pick like Crabtree,
00:39:36they might receive a little extra heat,
00:39:38regardless of any additional reasons for ill will,
00:39:41which, well, we're getting there.
00:39:44But in Sherman's first couple of seasons,
00:39:46the 49ers were a couple steps ahead of Seattle.
00:39:49The Seahawks were definitely closing the gap,
00:39:51but for San Francisco,
00:39:53not only had they made the NFC Championship game
00:39:55in Harbaugh's first year,
00:39:57a season later they reached the Super Bowl.
00:39:59And Crabtree played a major part in that,
00:40:02easily having a career year.
00:40:04He nearly even brought the Lombardi Trophy
00:40:06back to San Francisco,
00:40:08but some questionably physical play
00:40:10from Baltimore went unnoticed.
00:40:12Thankfully for Crabtree,
00:40:13if there's ever been a cure for the heartache
00:40:15of losing a Super Bowl, it's softball.
00:40:18Now, we can safely assume Larry Fitzgerald
00:40:21had perfectly good intentions
00:40:22when he invited Crabtree and Sherman
00:40:24to play in his charity event.
00:40:26However, he accidentally created a space
00:40:29for their beef traduction.
00:40:31There are a handful of accounts
00:40:33for how things went down during that 2013 off-season.
00:40:36Some anonymous sources say that Sherman rolled up,
00:40:39said hello to everyone around Crabtree,
00:40:41offered a handshake, which the receiver declined,
00:40:44and then Sherman tried to fight him.
00:40:47Others told a similar chain of events
00:40:49just after Crabtree declined the handshake,
00:40:51he wanted to start a fight.
00:40:53The most in-depth report came from Willie McGinnis,
00:40:56not saying this is the most accurate,
00:40:58just that it paints a more complete picture.
00:41:01Apparently, there had been some trash talk
00:41:03previously between the pair,
00:41:05which Crabtree hadn't forgotten about.
00:41:07Because of that, he had no intention of being cordial.
00:41:11After declining the handshake, Crabtree kept talking,
00:41:14things got a little heated, and Sherman didn't back down,
00:41:18but wanted a non-charity-centric setting
00:41:20for whatever would come next.
00:41:23So basically, everyone agreed
00:41:24that a handshake had been refused, and they nearly fought.
00:41:28But seeing as how they'd face off
00:41:30twice in the regular season,
00:41:31while likely vying for the top spot in the division,
00:41:34there would be plenty of time to reheat the beef.
00:41:37The fun part, though, came a few days later,
00:41:39when Crabtree tore his Achilles.
00:41:42Okay, maybe fun is the wrong word, but here's my point.
00:41:46Crabtree missed significant time,
00:41:48and therefore, they had to bottle up that animosity.
00:41:52And once Crabtree returned in December of 2013,
00:41:55a shift had taken place between the teams.
00:41:58Seattle sat in the driver's seat for the division,
00:42:01so with the 49ers needing to make up ground,
00:42:04when the teams faced off in week 14,
00:42:06individual matchups weren't the focus for our beefers.
00:42:10The most notable thing from this showdown
00:42:12was that the 49ers won.
00:42:14It was one of six straight wins
00:42:16to go into the playoffs pretty hot.
00:42:18From there, they snuck by the Packers,
00:42:20cruised past the Panthers,
00:42:21and for the third time in as many years,
00:42:24found themselves playing for a trip to the Super Bowl.
00:42:27Their opponents this time?
00:42:29Huh, imagine that.
00:42:31Everyone saw the potential for fireworks,
00:42:33but no one truly knew how big the fireworks could be,
00:42:37especially since they continued
00:42:39to not speak directly about the other.
00:42:42But then, the moment.
00:42:45A close, raucous game came down to the final seconds.
00:42:49San Francisco needed six to tie, seven to win.
00:42:53With 30 seconds left from the 18,
00:42:55Colin Kaepernick went for it all on first down
00:42:57and looked Crabtree's way,
00:42:59which also meant he looked Sherman's way.
00:43:02The corner batted the ball up into the air,
00:43:04Malcolm Smith grabbed it,
00:43:06and the Seahawks snuffed out the threat.
00:43:09Then, the beef came into view.
00:43:11Sherman chased down a dejected Crabtree
00:43:14and offered his hand.
00:43:15Crabtree offered his hand in return,
00:43:17but to Sherman's face.
00:43:20If you're feeling sorry for Sherman
00:43:21that his handshakes keep getting rejected,
00:43:23well, don't worry about him.
00:43:26After a few Russell Wilson kneel downs,
00:43:28the cameras found Sherman.
00:43:30First, Fox DePortes simply said,
00:43:32"'Hey, you guys did it,'
00:43:34to which Sherman responded with a level of intensity
00:43:36that makes me question his understanding
00:43:38of what microphones do.
00:43:40Hey, you don't try the best corner in the league
00:43:42in the crunch,
00:43:43especially with a mediocre receiver like Crabtree.
00:43:45He's weak.
00:43:46He then went and gave a more publicized interview
00:43:49with Aaron Andrews.
00:43:50Sherman restated his feelings about himself.
00:43:53Well, I'm the best corner in the game.
00:43:55His feelings about a certain opponent.
00:43:57With a sorry receiver like Crabtree.
00:43:59But he added an extra layer to things.
00:44:02He said,
00:44:03"'Don't you ever talk about me.'"
00:44:05When Andrews asked him to expand on that,
00:44:07asked who was talking about him.
00:44:09After a pause, he said Crabtree.
00:44:12This moment, both the play and the interview blew up.
00:44:16It felt so fresh and exciting.
00:44:18People wanted to know more
00:44:20and it gave idiots something to shout about
00:44:23to make sure they could still be heard.
00:44:25Folks immediately found Crabtree
00:44:27who gave the mildest props to Sherman.
00:44:30He pointed out that Sherman hadn't done much else
00:44:32in the game,
00:44:33which is kind of a weird knock given the circumstances.
00:44:37Like, sure, he made the play of the game,
00:44:39but if he's so good,
00:44:40why didn't he just win it for them earlier?
00:44:43It was in the days that followed
00:44:44that we learned about the softball game,
00:44:47the snubbed handshake,
00:44:49the original bad blood.
00:44:51And when the Seahawks did what the Niners failed to do,
00:44:54winning the Super Bowl two weeks later,
00:44:56it made sure the topic wouldn't go anywhere just yet.
00:45:00Sherman referenced Crabtree in his autographs.
00:45:02He made a t-shirt to commemorate the play.
00:45:06He even went on Discovery Channel's TV show,
00:45:08American Muscle,
00:45:09and immediately Crabtree became the focus.
00:45:13It's a little something to it.
00:45:15It's much more of just I don't like to do.
00:45:18You know what I'm saying?
00:45:20He very calmly added that the dislike went deep enough
00:45:23that Sherman wanted to see Crabtree
00:45:24for the rest of his career and choke him out.
00:45:28Crabtree didn't want to get into that, though.
00:45:30He and Sherman were different.
00:45:31Crabtree let his play do the talking,
00:45:34which, again, circumstances, weird flex.
00:45:37But anyway, according to Sherman,
00:45:39Crabtree let his mouth do some talking as well.
00:45:43Whether this went back to the charity event
00:45:45or something on the field,
00:45:46Sherman didn't expand on it,
00:45:48just left a touch of mystery to their relationship.
00:45:52But mystery or not, at that point,
00:45:53their beef had blown up for everyone following.
00:45:56It reached such heights
00:45:58that even Taiwanese animators put together an explainer
00:46:01and felt like the only way to correctly show this beef
00:46:04was with extremism and absurdity.
00:46:07I've been looking for confirmation, though,
00:46:09that the bathroom scene was at least rooted
00:46:11in some level of reality
00:46:12because it's amazing.
00:46:14The trouble with this beef, though,
00:46:17was the gap between these players
00:46:19and these teams continued to grow.
00:46:22The Seahawks agreed with Sherman that he was the best
00:46:25and made him the highest-paid cornerback in the league.
00:46:28The Niners swapped success
00:46:30for gossip-generating performances.
00:46:33As San Francisco sunk to .500
00:46:35and Seattle reached back-to-back Super Bowls,
00:46:38both of Sherman's partners in beef were suddenly gone.
00:46:43Crabtree moved on and spent three years with Oakland,
00:46:45another in Baltimore,
00:46:46and never crossed paths with Sherman at either stop.
00:46:50He did find a new cornerback to get into it with, though,
00:46:53so at least he had company.
00:46:55Ahead of the 2019 season,
00:46:57it looked like this beef would have one last hurrah.
00:47:00In a move that would've been shocking
00:47:02just a few years earlier,
00:47:03Sherman switched sides of the rivalry in 2018.
00:47:07Then, leading up to the following season,
00:47:10Crabtree returned to the division.
00:47:12He dodged questions
00:47:13about the prospect of facing Sherman again,
00:47:15but in the end,
00:47:17the showdown remained as just a question of what if.
00:47:20Sherman's move to San Francisco
00:47:22did give the beef some new flavors, though.
00:47:24He naturally got countless questions about the rivalry
00:47:27and spoke openly about his relationship with Harbaugh.
00:47:31He admitted that his boisterous rant,
00:47:33even though he called out Crabtree,
00:47:35hadn't really been targeted at Crabtree.
00:47:39The call-out was mainly intended for Harbaugh.
00:47:42Crabtree just kinda got caught in the crossfire.
00:47:45Now, that obviously isn't to say
00:47:47there was nothing going on between the player.
00:47:49Even in 2020, Sherman, in a fairly confusing way,
00:47:54said that his relationship with Crabtree
00:47:56was all over the place.
00:47:58Boiled down, good thoughts or bad thoughts,
00:48:01Sherman wasn't thinking about his former foe.
00:48:04Exactly how much beef these two had, or have,
00:48:09is hard to quantify.
00:48:11It's deeper than just two guys
00:48:12who got tired of facing each other.
00:48:14It certainly didn't help
00:48:16that Sherman fueled his play with spite,
00:48:18and Crabtree's head coach gave Sherman plenty of fuel to use.
00:48:23But had Crabtree's time in San Francisco continued
00:48:26once Harbaugh moved on,
00:48:28it would've been interesting to see
00:48:29where this relationship could've gone,
00:48:31what could've happened if the receiver
00:48:33didn't also serve as a beef proxy for his head coach?
00:48:37Hell, maybe that handshake could've even been completed.
00:48:41Or maybe they would've just found something else
00:48:43to do with their hands.
00:48:45But as quickly as we learned of it, the beef faded away.
00:48:49Whatever words passed between these guys
00:48:52were never meant for us to hear.
00:48:54We just got to sit back,
00:48:56enjoy whatever they decided to serve us,
00:48:59and no matter how good it tasted,
00:49:01the recipe would stay secret.
00:49:04So how does beef end?
00:49:06How do teams return to just a more standard rivalry?
00:49:10Well, it took one team falling apart
00:49:12and no longer resembling the version of itself
00:49:15from the beef.
00:49:16That happened to the 49ers first,
00:49:18and we've got the full story of their collapse.
00:49:21If you made it this far,
00:49:22then I'll let you in on a little secret.
00:49:24This story isn't over
00:49:25because we still need to do a collapse for the Seahawks,
00:49:28which we're gonna start production on soon.
00:49:30If you're a Patreon subscriber,
00:49:32you'll get a first look at that episode
00:49:34plus a few other collapses later this year.
00:49:36For now, though, enjoy Alex telling you the story
00:49:39of his favorite team falling apart.
00:49:42In January 2011, the San Francisco 49ers
00:49:45were at rock bottom.
00:49:47Across the prior eight seasons,
00:49:48they'd lost 82 games and missed the playoffs each year,
00:49:52had a quarterback taken first overall
00:49:54whose career looked to be beaten and battered into oblivion.
00:49:57But then they won the Jim Harbaugh sweepstakes.
00:50:01CEO Jed York and GM Trent Balky
00:50:04miraculously landed the hottest coaching commodity around,
00:50:08and with Harbaugh captaining the Niners' shit,
00:50:10their days as an NFL bottom feeder looked to be over, quick.
00:50:15He brought quarterback Alex Smith's career
00:50:17back from the dead with a passing attack
00:50:19that leaned heavily on wideout Michael Crabtree
00:50:21and tight end Vernon Davis.
00:50:23The power run game Harbaugh installed
00:50:25for tailback Frank Gore
00:50:26flourished behind an offensive line of maulers
00:50:29anchored by all-pro left tackle Joe Staley.
00:50:32But this was a team whose defense led the way
00:50:35and set the tone, and that all started
00:50:37with a front seven that oozed superstar talent.
00:50:40Interior D lineman Justin Smith
00:50:42was the heartbeat of the team and its MVP.
00:50:45The attention he demanded from opposing offenses
00:50:47freed up not only Aldon Smith,
00:50:49their sensational rookie pass rusher,
00:50:51but also Planet Earth's top two inside linebackers,
00:50:54Patrick Willis and electric first-year starter Navarro Bowman.
00:50:58With Harbaugh pushing all the right buttons,
00:51:00they cruised through the regular season,
00:51:02racking up 13 wins and clinching the NFC West title
00:51:05plus a first-round buy.
00:51:07And though they won a thrilling back-and-forth game
00:51:10for the ages on this last-second missile
00:51:12from Smith to Davis,
00:51:14they also lost Ted Ginn to a knee injury in the game,
00:51:17and boy, did they feel their return specialist's absence
00:51:20the next week.
00:51:21Facing the Giants in the NFC Championship game,
00:51:24the Niners had already rallied to overcome one turnover
00:51:27by replacement return man Kyle Williams
00:51:29and force overtime.
00:51:31In the extra frame,
00:51:32the Niners forced a punt that Williams fielded
00:51:34and again turned over,
00:51:36enabling a chip-shot field goal
00:51:38to end their season in agonizing fashion.
00:51:42When the next season rolled around,
00:51:43Harbaugh led them to a 6-2 start
00:51:45and had Alex Smith playing exceptional ball,
00:51:48though a Week 10 concussion opened the door
00:51:50for backup Colin Kaepernick to shine,
00:51:53compelling Harbaugh to ride the hot hand
00:51:55and stick with the youngster.
00:51:56After again winning their division,
00:51:58Kaepernick thoroughly dominated the Packers
00:52:01in his first career playoff game,
00:52:03dissecting him through the air
00:52:04and running all over him on the ground,
00:52:07highlighted by this 56-yard touchdown
00:52:09that gave him the lead for good
00:52:11on a night where he rushed for the most yards
00:52:13by a quarterback in any game in NFL history.
00:52:17Then he went to Atlanta to win the NFC Championship game,
00:52:20earning a trip to New Orleans in Super Bowl XLVII.
00:52:23After falling behind 28-6 against a Ravens team
00:52:26coached by Harbaugh's brother,
00:52:28the Niners rallied to cut the deficit to five
00:52:31for their final possession,
00:52:32where they drove down to the doorstep of the goal line
00:52:35and NFL immortality.
00:52:37But on fourth and goal,
00:52:39Baltimore got quite handsy with Crabtree
00:52:42and no flag meant another year of brutal heartbreak.
00:52:46Nevertheless, under the guidance of Harbaugh,
00:52:48who, according to Hall of Famer John Madden,
00:52:51had done the best coaching job
00:52:52in the history of the NFL in year one,
00:52:54the team was in magnificent shape.
00:52:57They had an abundance of talent,
00:52:59all overseen by the khaki-wearing Miracle Worker,
00:53:02and nothing could get in their way.
00:53:04Well, nothing but the pride and ego of Niner management.
00:53:12In the 2012 NFL draft that preceded that Super Bowl run,
00:53:16Trent Balke executed one of the most
00:53:18ghastly draft classes imaginable,
00:53:20with the seven guys he picked
00:53:22combining to play just 42 games for the team,
00:53:25punctuated by first-round wideout A.J. Jenkins,
00:53:28who I will now show you every all-time pass
00:53:31the Niners ever threw to him.
00:53:34That's it.
00:53:35And that hideous draft class is what sparked
00:53:38the first real fissure in the Harbaugh-Balke dynamic.
00:53:43But they were still set up beautifully
00:53:44and just had to take care of some off-season housekeeping
00:53:47to keep the train rolling.
00:53:49With Kaepernick now firmly entrenched
00:53:51as the team's starting quarterback,
00:53:53they flipped Smith to Kansas City
00:53:54for a couple second-round picks,
00:53:56while on the same day trading
00:53:58for grown man wide receiver Anquan Boldin.
00:54:01During the summer, Harbaugh and Jed York
00:54:03held talks to extend his contract,
00:54:06but York refused to cut the check necessary to get it done,
00:54:09clinging to the logic that he didn't wanna pay Harbaugh
00:54:12like a Super Bowl-winning coach
00:54:14because he hadn't won a Super Bowl.
00:54:16And while that's technically accurate,
00:54:17it's also pretty flawed logic.
00:54:20I mean, had the officials properly flagged Jimmy Smith
00:54:23at the end of Super Bowl XLVII,
00:54:24with the Niners then winning,
00:54:26would that somehow have made Harbaugh
00:54:28an inherently better football coach?
00:54:30So he'd need to keep proving himself, no problem.
00:54:34They again remained arguably the NFL's top team in 2013,
00:54:39but with Seattle edging them out for the division,
00:54:41San Francisco got to take a lovely January trip
00:54:44to Wisconsin featuring a windchill reaching
00:54:46double digits below zero for Wild Card Weekend.
00:54:49But the California-based team pulled it out,
00:54:52and with a win the next week in Charlotte,
00:54:54Harbaugh became the only coach in NFL history
00:54:57to make the conference championship game
00:54:59in each of his first three seasons.
00:55:01During the following week's de facto Super Bowl
00:55:04in the Pacific Northwest,
00:55:05the Niners managed to take a second-half lead
00:55:08on this absurd backyard-style touchdown pass
00:55:11from Kaepernick to Anquan Bolden.
00:55:13Their next possession ended with a punt,
00:55:15but they should've kept the ball
00:55:16when the refs failed to enforce
00:55:18what clearly should've been a 15-yard penalty
00:55:20and automatic first down.
00:55:22We see Lee get hit with that plant leg,
00:55:25and Mike Pereiro, was that the proper call?
00:55:28No, really, and I think Jim Harbaugh
00:55:29was making the point with Gene Steratore.
00:55:32If you hit the plant leg like they did here
00:55:34with the ankle turning over, that's roughy.
00:55:37In Seattle's ensuing drive that shouldn't have happened
00:55:40in the first place, they came up short
00:55:42on a third down with 14.50 left to play.
00:55:45In a league with a 40-second play clock,
00:55:47the discombobulated Seahawks were somehow able
00:55:50to call a timeout 58 seconds later.
00:55:53This wasn't some run-of-the-mill bad call.
00:55:55It was an inexplicable administrative gaffe
00:55:58that removed a delay-of-game penalty from the equation.
00:56:01So on a drive that never should've existed,
00:56:04on a fourth-and-seven that arguably
00:56:06should've been fourth-and-12,
00:56:07Seattle parlayed their serendipitous fortune
00:56:10into scoring what was ultimately
00:56:12the game-winning touchdown.
00:56:14This battle royale also provided
00:56:17the first huge domino to fall
00:56:19in leading to San Francisco's demise
00:56:21when, midway through the fourth quarter,
00:56:23Navarro Bowman suffered this grisly knee injury
00:56:26while ripping the ball away from the Seahawks
00:56:28and clearly maintaining possession
00:56:29before getting dogpiled with that shredded knee,
00:56:32only to see the refs give the ball back to Seattle.
00:56:35It took about a month for the next gut punch,
00:56:38when reports started emerging of the 49ers
00:56:40having nearly completed a trade of Harbaugh to the Browns
00:56:44before getting nixed at the 11th hour.
00:56:46Now Harbaugh can certainly be high-maintenance
00:56:49and his maniacal drive to win can be prone
00:56:52to rubbing his superiors the wrong way,
00:56:54but that's how he thrived,
00:56:55and despite all the winning it produced,
00:56:58York and Bahlke apparently just preferred
00:57:00to have a yes-man who'd never push back as coach.
00:57:03The very next week, a report surfaced
00:57:06that Harbaugh was losing the locker room.
00:57:08It was the beginning of a year-long,
00:57:10drama-filled, whisper campaign throughout 2014
00:57:14with seemingly weekly leaks to the media
00:57:17by Jed York and or his minions
00:57:19engineered to try and make Harbaugh look bad.
00:57:22And with their all-world linebackers
00:57:24sidelined for the entire year
00:57:25after that horrific knee injury in Seattle,
00:57:28the misery was just beginning.
00:57:30Their very first game in brand-new Levi's Stadium
00:57:34saw them choke away a 13-point fourth-quarter lead
00:57:36against the awful Bears when they let Jay Cutler
00:57:39toss three touchdowns in a seven-minute span.
00:57:42A month later on the shitty Edward Jones Dome turf,
00:57:45the other half of their inside linebacking royalty
00:57:48succumbed to a toe injury
00:57:50and underwent season-ending surgery.
00:57:52Harbaugh somehow kept him afloat for a while
00:57:55and they won seven of their first 11 games,
00:57:58but then things spiraled wildly out of control,
00:58:00starting with a Thanksgiving night embarrassment
00:58:03against the Seahawks in a game so demoralizing
00:58:05that York felt compelled to take to social media
00:58:08to apologize for the product put forth on the field.
00:58:12In the wake of that tweet,
00:58:13the Niners fell to the 1-11 Raiders the next week,
00:58:17dealing a near-fatal blow to their playoff hopes,
00:58:19which were shortly thereafter officially extinguished
00:58:22with a Week 15 loss in Seattle.
00:58:25Following that loss, management informed Harbaugh
00:58:28that he would not be returning in 2015,
00:58:30and before the season was out,
00:58:32he accepted an offer to return to Ann Arbor
00:58:34and coach his alma mater.
00:58:36Upon the conclusion of a distraction-infested
00:58:39eight-and-eight season, York crafted a statement
00:58:42saying the two sides were mutually parting ways,
00:58:45which was a lie.
00:58:46York fired him.
00:58:48Harbaugh himself would eventually confirm
00:58:50that indeed he was told he wouldn't be the coach anymore
00:58:53and that the 49er hierarchy had left him.
00:58:56And York issued that pink slip
00:58:57with no coherent plan in place to replace him
00:59:00as he and Balki royally bungled the coaching search.
00:59:04They were on the verge of hiring
00:59:05Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase
00:59:07with an arrangement of him as head coach
00:59:09and star incumbent D coordinator Vic Fangio
00:59:12remaining in place,
00:59:13but that deal blew up at the last minute
00:59:15when management gave Gase an ultimatum
00:59:17that D-line coach and longtime York favorite Jim Tomsula
00:59:21had to be his defensive coordinator.
00:59:23It didn't work.
00:59:25So they just made Tomsula the head coach.
00:59:28Less than two months into his tenure,
00:59:31utter disaster struck the organization
00:59:33to kick off a period where key 49ers
00:59:35were dropping off the roster like flies.
00:59:38March 10th, 2015.
00:59:41Six-time All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis
00:59:43announces his retirement from the NFL at age 30,
00:59:46citing chronic foot problems.
00:59:48On the very same day,
00:59:50they watched the best back in franchise history
00:59:53and one of the very best of all time
00:59:55depart when Frank Gore signed with the Colts
00:59:57and free agency.
00:59:58And for the cherry on top,
01:00:00savage run-blocking left guard Mikey Potti
01:00:03signed with the division rival Cardinals.
01:00:06While Willis' stunning retirement
01:00:07was a monumental blow from out of nowhere,
01:00:10the one silver lining was the presence
01:00:12of promising youngster Chris Borland
01:00:14who was coming off a tremendous rookie season
01:00:16in which he led the league in tackles
01:00:18over the second half of the season
01:00:20despite missing the final two games.
01:00:22So at inside linebacker,
01:00:24they were all set to welcome back Bowman
01:00:26from his devastating knee injury
01:00:27and plug Borland into Willis' spot
01:00:29until six days later when the 24-year-old Borland
01:00:33also shockingly said goodbye to football
01:00:36amid long-term concerns of the repetitive head trauma
01:00:38inherent to his position.
01:00:40Not a month later,
01:00:41they lost Crabtree when he ventured
01:00:44across the bay to Oakland.
01:00:45And in May, Justin Smith officially hung up the cleats
01:00:49after 14 grueling years in the trenches.
01:00:52How crucial was Smith to the Niners' excellence
01:00:54of yesteryear?
01:00:56Well, in 2012, the Niners played 19 regular
01:00:59and postseason games.
01:01:01In the first 13, San Francisco's D was absolutely smothering
01:01:05then he tore his triceps off the bone
01:01:08in Foxborough in week 15.
01:01:10He somehow returned to play in the playoffs
01:01:12with a giant brace,
01:01:14but across their final six games
01:01:16with Smith either sidelined or playing with one arm,
01:01:18the defense totally and completely fell apart.
01:01:22Just a couple weeks later,
01:01:23their O-line took another hit
01:01:25when right tackle Anthony Davis announced
01:01:27that he too was walking away from football at age 25.
01:01:31And to cap the off-season from hell,
01:01:33Aldon Smith was arrested for the fifth time
01:01:35in his four years as a Niner
01:01:37when he was charged with DUI, hit-and-run,
01:01:40and vandalism in August 2015.
01:01:42As spectacular as his pass-rushing potential was,
01:01:46that was the final straw
01:01:47and he was released just hours later.
01:01:50Then it came time to play football.
01:01:52With a coaching staff
01:01:53that was in completely over their heads
01:01:55and Kaepernick playing through ailments
01:01:57that would require not one, not two, but three surgeries,
01:02:01they lost six of their first eight games
01:02:03before more drastic change struck.
01:02:06Vernon Davis, the only tight end in NFL history
01:02:09with multiple seasons scoring at least 13 touchdowns,
01:02:12had now gone 19 straight games without finding the end zone
01:02:15and was flipped to Denver the day after the Niners
01:02:18got steamrolled in St. Louis in Week 8.
01:02:20Two days later,
01:02:21Tomsula officially announced he was benching Kaepernick.
01:02:25The keys to the offense were then handed to Blaine Gabbert,
01:02:28a nice guy who tries his hardest
01:02:30but happens to be a remarkably incompetent NFL quarterback
01:02:33who no one should want in the same time zone
01:02:36as their team's city unless it's as an opponent.
01:02:39Shockingly, he did not pull a rabbit out of the hat
01:02:41over the second half of the season
01:02:43and down the stretch even led the team
01:02:45to a pitiful loss against Johnny honest-to-goodness Manziel.
01:02:49Just a couple years removed from annual contention,
01:02:52the team finished up a rotten 5-11 season
01:02:55and were among the dregs of the league
01:02:57both offensively and defensively, going nowhere fast.
01:03:01York decided to take a half measure,
01:03:03firing Tomsula after his lone rancid season
01:03:07but keeping Balki in charge of the football operation.
01:03:10And with the current disastrous state of the franchise,
01:03:13their options for a new coach were limited.
01:03:15Balki eventually settled on Chip Kelly,
01:03:18the deposed former Eagles coach.
01:03:21Kelly inherited a team with a quarterback situation
01:03:24in complete flux.
01:03:26Not only was Kaepernick recovering from operations
01:03:28to his shoulder, thumb, and knee,
01:03:31but he was very nearly traded to Denver
01:03:33only to remain a Niner when he refused the pay cut
01:03:36the Broncos wanted him to take.
01:03:38With Kaep unable to do much football work in the offseason,
01:03:41Kelly opened the 2016 season by again trotting Gabbard out
01:03:44as the Niner's starting quarterback,
01:03:46with the only reasonable explanation
01:03:48for his ongoing presence on an NFL 53-man roster
01:03:52being that he must know where all of the bodies are buried.
01:03:55A week-one win over NFL punching bag Jeff Fisher
01:03:59provided a false sense of competence
01:04:01before everything immediately came apart at the seams.
01:04:04They'd lose their next four games,
01:04:06a stretch in which Bowman suffered another awful injury,
01:04:09this time a ruptured Achilles
01:04:10that robbed the defense of their leader,
01:04:12and punctuated by a loss to the Drew Stanton-led Cardinals
01:04:16before Chip mercifully yanked Blaine Gabbard
01:04:18from the lineup and inserted Kaepernick.
01:04:20But spearheaded by the league's worst defense,
01:04:23the losses just wouldn't stop avalanching.
01:04:26That vaunted run-D from the Harbaugh era,
01:04:28which didn't allow a single rushing TD
01:04:30for the first 14 games of his tenure,
01:04:33while in that time not allowing a single back
01:04:35to crack even 65 rushing yards on him,
01:04:38was now replaced by a softer-than-tissue-paper unit
01:04:41that hemorrhaged yardage.
01:04:43Opposing backs feasted on the Bowman-less Niners
01:04:46as they became the only team
01:04:48to ever allow a 100-yard rusher in seven straight games.
01:04:52With the NFL having also fully caught up
01:04:54to Kelly's unorthodox offensive principles,
01:04:57it was all part of a franchise-record
01:04:5913-game losing streak for the 49ers.
01:05:02Despite that, one of the very few players
01:05:05who did actually play relatively well was Kaepernick,
01:05:08literally an above-average passer in 2016.
01:05:11But throughout the season, he took a knee every week
01:05:14during the pregame national anthem
01:05:16to protest racial inequality and police brutality,
01:05:19and for that would become essentially blackballed
01:05:21by the league's owners.
01:05:23On January 1st, 2017, after ending their repulsive season
01:05:28with loss number 14, York fired his coach
01:05:31for the third year in a row,
01:05:33this time finally sending bulky packing alongside him.
01:05:36The San Francisco 49ers under coach Jim Harbaugh
01:05:39had developed a blue-collar identity
01:05:42that fought like hell week in and week out,
01:05:45did a whole lot of winning,
01:05:46and should have continued to do a whole lot of winning.
01:05:49However, they suffered through
01:05:50some excruciatingly tough breaks,
01:05:52lost some aging foundational pieces,
01:05:55and endured the departures
01:05:56of some extremely talented players
01:05:58much earlier than anyone could have foreseen
01:06:01for a variety of reasons.
01:06:03But more than anything else,
01:06:04management just couldn't resist trying to fix something
01:06:07that was the furthest thing from broken.
01:06:10Winning wasn't good enough.
01:06:11They just had to win their way
01:06:13and get the credit for it, too.
01:06:15And because of that, they ruined everything
01:06:18and sent the organization rapidly spiraling
01:06:21back to rock bottom.
01:06:29Hey, thanks for watching,
01:06:30and special thanks to all of our top secret agents.
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