Ever the third grader who flicks from behind the ear of the classmate in front of him, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh weighed in Tuesday at the 49ers training camp on the use of PEDs by several Seahawks players, resulting in suspensions. The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat provided the questions and answers from San Francisco’s camp at Santa Clara, CA.
Q: There have been a few reports this offseason about the Seahawks and PED problems. Is that a concern for you knowing that they’re a chief division rival?
HARBAUGH: “I’ve definitely noticed it. You don’t know what it is. Even when people say what it is, you don’t know that that’s what it is. I’ve heard this thrown out or that, but that’s usually the agent or the players themselves saying it’s, for example, Adderall. But the NFL doesn’t release what it actually is, so you have no idea. You’re taking somebody at their word that I don’t know if you can take them at their word, understanding the circumstances.”
Q: How do you address that stuff with your players?
HARBAUGH: “It has no place in an athlete’s body. Play by the rules. You want to be above reproach, especially when you’re good, because you don’t want people to come back and say, ‘They’re winning because they’re cheating.’ That’s always going to be a knee-jerk reaction in my experience, since I was a little kid. We want to be above reproach in everything and do everything by the rules. If you don’t, if you cheat to win, then you’ve already lost, according to Bo Schembechler. And Bo Schembechler is about next to the Word of God. It’s not the Word of God, but it’s close.”
Harbaugh and Seahawks coach Carroll have held each other in poor regard since their college coaching days, and it sounds as if little has changed. But asked Tuesday about “another NFL coach’s” remarks about the Seattle suspensions, didn’t take the bait.
“I don’t know about other coaches,” he said. “We take care of our business, our bodies and each other.”
In case it isn’t circled on your NFL calendar, the Seahawks and 49ers meet in week 2 Sept 15.
7 Comments
Jim
U mad bro?
Any head coach in the NFL who thinks that no one on his team is using PEDs is delusional. A prudent coach wouldn’t say anything.
Never heard Harbaugh and prudent in the same sentence.
Fair enough!
Harbaugh’s salary is also considerably higher than mine so what do I know…….. All Harbaugh has to say is “Paycheck baby!”.
Bascially Harbaugh is scared of the Seahawks if he’s always watching them and he should be considering the spanking the Seahawks game them last season. If Harbaugh thinks his team is clean he’s fooling himself. Hope he’s ready for the outright beating the Hawks will give his team on 9/15. Maybe Pete can stand out on the parking lot and salute the 49ers bus when it leaves?
All Carroll has to do is borrow from Neuheisel: Scoreboard baby.