Not going to bore you with a long post, but day 1 of camp is in the books, and a funny thing happened on the way to the cellar. The team was happy. Smiling. Having fun. For all the talk of Harbaugh and the record, he sure seemed to suck the fun out of the building. “Who;s got it better than us?” became a cliche that I’m sure the team rolled its eyes at. At least among the vets. The heavyhandedness is gone, and according to Matt Maiocco (another glad-handing media type looking for brownie points) the team seemed to be in great spirits and ready to take on the challenge of losing their Supercalafragelisticexpialadocious leader in St. Jim Harbaugh.

I mean really, the team HAS to hit the shitter because of the void left by that gimormous personality. Right. More like Ego. He placed himself into practice as a look-at-me-hang-with-the-guys type rather than be their coach. That’s fine and all, but not when the same guy that wants to be one of the guys suddenly says shit like no cards on plane rides. No loud music in the locker room. No fun other than driving all the players to distraction. You can’t play it both ways.

I said a couple days ago on this very bog that the players being happy campers guarantees zilch in the win column, but it does engender some ownership from the players to push the youngsters to get themselves ready for the bog-time. Harbaugh created and ‘us-vs-them’ attitude ward the front office, but he also put himself above the players by treating them like a college team and this grated on the vets.

I look at it through the lens of a successful coach like Bruce Bochy. He;s not a table-flipping bullshit flinging coach like so many in baseball. For all his country drawl and backwoods rambling lies a very acute baseball mind. He shoots straight with the players, and is forthcoming with the front office. He trusts his vets to hold the fort down, but isn’t afraid to do the necessary things to ensure the team puts its best effort out there.  Behind the scenes. He doesn’t give semi-incoherent rambling pressers, or giving any rah-rah bullshit either.  Tomsula strikes me a a more straightforward guy who will be in that mold rather than the hype generator that Harbaugh was. For all his coaching success, Harbaugh has one Orange bowl victory, and one NFC Championship to show for his chutzpah and bravado. Good luck in the Big House, Jim, but I ain’t gonna miss you all that much.