National Football League

Harbaugh: 'I didn't leave the 49ers, I felt like the 49ers' hierarchy left me'

Published Feb. 13, 2015 6:58 p.m. ET

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Sid Saraf

Jim Harbaugh is on to bigger and better things at the University of Michigan. Well, maybe he can take one last look back at the NFL.

The former San Francisco 49ers head coach appeared as a guest on "The Tim Kawakami Show" on Friday and he opened up about his split with the organization and whether or not it was truly mutual.

"Yes, I was told I wouldn't be the coach anymore — and you can call it mutual. I wasn't going to put the 49ers in a position to have a coach they didn't want anymore," Harbaugh said. "That's the truth of it. I didn't leave the 49ers, I felt like the 49ers' hierarchy left me."

That split apparently seemed to widen as the 2014 season went along, and it led to some uncomfortable moments around the team facility.

"There was definitely a point where you walk down the halls and — I wasn't reading a lot of the things, I wasn't reading anything that was on the Internet, I was really focused on doing my job," Harbaugh said. "But definitely walk down the halls and people look away or they'd look at you and you knew something's going on. That's really about the extent of my knowledge that I have on it."

Those things on the Internet that Harbaugh referred to seemed to come from within the organization in the form of leaks to the media, which is something that Harbaugh touched on during this interview.

"I can't say that I've read everything," he said. "I have a good idea, I have a pretty good understanding of some of the things that took place and I don't think we were playing out of the same playbook. But at the end, maybe there will be a book someday.

"Maybe I'll write a manuscript. Those are good questions for (Niners owner Jed York) and the 49er hierarchy, and we'll leave it at that."

(H/T to NFL.com)

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