Say what you want about locker-room strife or the transient nature of the NFL: If Jim Harbaugh was still coach of the San Francisco 49ers, the team wouldn’t be staring a 4-12 record and two years of rebuilding directly in the face. In football, like in no other sport, the winning starts at the top and though Jim Tomsula has done a fine job with the 49ers defense over the past eight seasons, he’s no Harbaugh. Harbaugh commanded respect, both due to his winning ways and on-field presence. Now, without him, players are fleeing California like The Big One was coming. Here’s a partial list of what’s happened since Harbaugh fled the west coast for the colder, cozier confines of Ann Arbor: • Colin Kaepernick was allegedly dangled in trade talks and the speed with which these rumors were denied almost guaranteed their truth. • Frank Gore, the team’s running back mainstay for a decade, left town bound for PhillyIndianapolis somewhere other than San Francisco. • Three-time Pro Bowler and offensive line star Mike Iupati plans on signing with the Arizona Cardinals, a special sting given that he’ll be staying in division. • Five-time first-team All-Pro Patrick Willis retired at 30, an age which made him one of the youngest players on the Niners’ aging defense. • Another young defender on a roster full of 33-year-olds and over, Dan Skuta, signed with Jacksonville. JACKSONVILLE. • Cornerback Chris Culliver, he of the Super Bowl anti-gay statements, arrest for hit and run and brass knuckles (seriously) and one years of starting is expected to sign elsewhere. • Michael Crabtree appears to be on his way to Buffalo. • The Niners signed Darnell Dockett, who will be 34 years old when the season starts, last made a Pro Bowl in 2010 and missed the entirety of the 2014 season with an injury. The gist: Everybody’s getting out of dodge. [More at http://ftw.usatoday.com]
Willis retired to follow the teachings of a pretty awfully homophobic and misogynistic cultish preacher. So that's pretty great.
