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Jed York tries to pump up Jim Tomsula by (sort of) putting down Jim Harbaugh

Eric Edholm
Jed York tries to pump up Jim Tomsula by (sort of) putting down Jim Harbaugh

The San Francisco 49ers just can't quite seem to get over Jim Harbaugh, even if they aren't calling him by name.

In a profile in The MMQB of new 49ers head coach Jim Tomsula, who served on Harbaugh's staff, 49ers owner Jed York made a thinly veiled dig at Harbaugh in trying to pompom for the new guy.

“Culture is huge. That’s the difference between a championship-caliber team and a championship team,” York said. “You look at the Golden State Warriors. They were the dumbest team in the NBA for letting Mark Jackson go, who won the most games in the franchise’s history. How could you be so dumb? They bring in Steve Kerr, who has been around the game for a long period of time but has never coached before. Kerr changes the culture, comes in with a different perspective, and look what happens.”

This is a pretty limp way to endorse Tomsula and feels like it's geared as more of a dig on Harbaugh. The two sides parted after (at least) a yearlong period of contention, and York hasn't passed up on too many chances to lob long-range bombs at the former coach who appears very much moved on at Michigan.

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When sports teams hire a new head coach, especially when things go poorly with the old coach, it's often a dog-and-pony show to try to sell the new one to the fans and media who might be in need of convincing. The 49ers attempted this with Tomsula, and the early returns — the opening press conference — were pretty awful.

Coaches don't need to be orators, and that never was made more clear than under Harbaugh's watch, but Tomsula badly stumbled through his opening presser — and somehow was even worse in this follow-up session that day — and came off as unprepared and uncomfortable in the spotlight. It seemed to become clear at that moment that pumping up the new coach prior to the first game would have to be achieved through different methods.

Or maybe York is just cheap and bitter. We can't prove that. We only can infer from his words and actions. Tomsula's words will be fed to him from 49ers management, and the organization can continue to push its new coach's up-by-his-bootstraps roots all it wants — if he doesn't win, he's toast.

Comparing Tomsula to Kerr? Apples to kumquats. Not even comparable. Kerr played in the NBA, won two titles and was an ace TV analyst. Tomsula is a respected league grunt, but there are dozens of those and not all of them are cut out for head-coaching duties. Plus, the 49ers, who have been slaughtered by personnel losses too this offseason, are nowhere near akin to what the Golden State Warriors have, talent-wise.

If Tomsula is going to be successful as a coach, he's going to have to do yeoman's work with a shelled roster, rebuild Colin Kaepernick and reinforce what once was the team's clear strength — the trenches — but now looms as a big concern.

Judging York's words, it's not clear if he or the team truly believe that can happen under Tomsula's watch.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!