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TK Show: Jim Harbaugh on getting “an endurance medal” for lasting 4 years with Jed York’s 49ers, battling Paul Finebaum and the SEC, and Kaepernick’s protest

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Yes, this the third annual “TK Show” appearance for Jim Harbaugh, who basically (literally?) made this show from the start and is welcome to come on at any time.

Today, Harbaugh was at home in Ann Arbor–as he has been for most of this winter, even through recruiting–after his wife Sarah gave birth to his son John, who was born about seven weeks premature.

You can definitely hear a more vulnerable side of Harbaugh when he talks about the experience.

We also of course talked about his frantic first two seasons at Michigan, his recent tweaking of SEC media maven Paul “Pete” Finebaum, and the pain (and promise) of being so close to the playoffs last season.

Oh, we talked about the 49ers, too, of course, and the highlight was Harbaugh noting that he lasted four seasons under the current ownership–the longest any of their 7 coaches (previous to just-hired Kyle Shanahan) have survived.

“Maybe there should be an endurance medal, a courage medal for that,” Harbaugh joked.

Harbaugh volunteered that he very much appreciated that Shanahan listed Harbaugh among great former 49ers coaches at Shanahan’s introductory presser–as Shanahan sat next to owner Jed York.

We also talked about Harbaugh’s evolving reaction to Colin Kaepernick’s national-anthem protest, how and when he decided that he’d stick with Alex Smith when Harbaugh took over the 49ers in 2011, and what he thought about new 49ers GM John Lynch.

Finally, Harbaugh talked about sending a note to Lowell Cohn after Lowell announced his retirement, and I think fans might want to listen to Harbaugh and I discuss those entertaining, occasionally volatile, but always memorable Harbaugh pressers during his 49ers tenure.

Harbaugh gets it. You think he can be stubborn, and he can, you think he doesn’t like providing a lot of information to the media, and he doesn’t.

But he gets the process, he’s honest, he’s fascinating, he’s smart, and he happens to be an incredible football coach, too.

Tim Kawakami