The 49ers were reportedly "flirting" with the idea of having Manning become a part of their team before the Denver Broncos acquired him this past offseason.
San Francisco then re-signed quarterback Alex Smith who took them to a 13-3 season in 2011 and the NFC Championship game.
Comcast SportsNet Bay Area has the video of Harbaugh speaking to the media, calling the Manning offseason rumors with the 49ers an "erroneous perception that we were flirting with Peyton Manning." He went on to call the rumors "silly and untrue."
It is pretty out of the ordinary for the 49ers coach to speak about a topic like this. The close-nit head coach of the 2012 NFC West champions holds his comments very close to the vest when he speaks of issues inside 49ers headquarters. It was especially odd that he spoke on a matter that has been over with for some time. It has obviously been on his mind, and he felt he needed to address it and set the record straight.
However, it is hard to believe what he was saying. Harbaugh went on to say that if the 49ers had acquired Manning, they would have carried two quarterbacks -- Alex Smith and Manning -- into 2012.
Smith had already been talking to the Miami Dolphins as per his free agent rights, which extremely contradicts what Harbaugh had said about keeping Smith on the roster with Manning.
Although Harbaugh said that those were the intentions of the team, there is a lot of doubt that Smith would prefer to hang around San Francisco to become a back-up to Manning.
Credit Harbaugh for coming out and addressing the topic once and for all, although he may have just re-lit the fire under this topic once again.
For now, Manning is in Denver, Smith is in San Francisco and Harbaugh still holds the reigns to a Super Bowl contender.
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