As rumors and reports fly that Jim Harbaugh is on his way out with the San Francisco 49ers, CEO Jed York on Monday went on the league-owned NFL Network, which has reported most of the locker room discord between players and coach, to back his coach.
And in his weekly Monday media conference, Harbaugh said he did not think much of his reputation as a hard-to-get-along-with taskmaster.
"But Jed stopped by today, we had a real good talk and keep moving forward, moving on to the [St. Louis] Rams and continue, everybody in the organization is doing their job," Harbaugh said.
"Everybody is working hard at the craft of helping us be the best we can possibly be as a football team and that's all you can ask of anybody. They're doing their best and nobody appreciates that like I do and I know that's what Jed appreciates.
"We work at the pleasure of the York Family and the San Francisco 49ers organization and that's our job, do the best we possibly can. And I see everybody doing that."
Harbaugh was asked if it was a typical meeting with York, or if it was needed to quell the outside noise.
"Typical," Harbaugh said. "Sometimes [we meet] in my office or his office or cafeteria, but everybody's doing their darndest right now, and that's all you can ask."
A day earlier, after the 49ers beat the Chiefs 22-17, quarterback Colin Kaepernick said he would "go to war with him any day of the week."
But Harbaugh also asked reporters to not drag the players into this story.
As far as what York said, he told NFL Network that a Fox Sports report Sunday that this was Harbaugh's last season in Santa Clara was "categorically not true" even if Harbaugh's personality can be grating.
"Jim competes at anything and everything he does," York said. "That sometimes rubs people the wrong way, but he has an amazing way to be able to pull people together, and find a way to go win tough football games, put himself in a position to have his team have the most success."