Frontpage Features

By Evan Combs

Because we love to talk about sports but not really talk about sports, the biggest story coming out of this NFL weekend was not the 49ers showing playoff mettle by going on the road into a hostile environment, overcoming self-inflicted mistakes and beating a previously unbeaten Detroit Lions team. Instead we're being treated to HANDSHAKEGATE 2011.

If you haven't seen the video please do, but to recap: a jubilant Jim Harbaugh while running towards midfield for the postgame handshake, pulls his shirt up, tries to chest bump one of his linemen, then comes in for the handshake with other noted crazy person Jim Schwartz at a higher than normal velocity than the freshly minted loser Schwartz would have liked, follows that with a push/backslap, and the coup de grace according to Schwartz, an obscenity from Harbaugh. In other words, a normal Jim Harbaugh postgame.

Some people are asking whether Harbaugh should apologize for upsetting Schwartz's delicate sensibilities. The answer to this question is NO. When did everyone become so goddamn sensitive? I get it, you're butthurt your team just lost and it's grating watching this guy bound towards you like a kid that just won an Xbox Live Madden matchup, but take the loss and move on. If anything, Schwartz owes the 49ers an apology. If not for Schwartz taking offense to Harbaugh being overly polite and chasing him down presumably to inform him of an Ann Landers column he read about postgame etiquette, the story today is how the 49ers have bullied their way into the top third of the NFL, and that they're not just the best of the worst in the NFC West.

People talk all the time about the importance of a firm handshake, and also that there aren't enough personalities in the NFL coaching ranks. Jim Harbaugh has both in spades. So don't you go changing on us Jim Harbaugh. If some hands and feelings get hurt along the way, so be it.