Jim Harbaugh: “I Didn’t Leave The 49ers; I Felt Like The 49er Hierarchy Left Me.”

Former 49ers HC Jim Harbaugh tells Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News that he and team didn’t mutually agree to part ways.

Instead, Harbaugh mentions that 49ers told him he wasn’t going to be back with the team next year.

“I was told I wouldn’t be the coach any more,” Harbaugh said.  “And then . . . you can call it ‘mutual,’ I mean, I wasn’t going to put the 49ers in the position to have a coach that they didn’t want any more.  But that’s the truth of it.  I didn’t leave the 49ers.  I felt like the 49er hierarchy left me.”

Harbaugh also confirmed reports that the 49ers told him he wouldn’t be back after the team’s Week 15 loss to the Seahawks.  However, Harbaugh said he still wanted to finish out the season with the team.

“I wanted to finish what I started — what we started,” Harbaugh said.  “And I have great fond memories of it.”

On the subject of Jim Tomsula campaigning for his job during the season, Harbaugh said: “That’s a good question for him, better than to me.”

According to Harbaugh, he could get the sense that something was going on with the coaching staff toward the end of his time in San Francisco.

“There was definitely a point where you walk down the halls and — I wasn’t reading a lot of the things, I wasn’t reading anything that was on the internet, I was focused on doing my job,” Harbaugh said. “But you’d definitely walk down the halls and people’d look away or they’d look at you and you knew something was going on. That’s really about the extent of the knowledge that I have of it.”

“I can’t say that I’ve read everything,” he said. “I have a good idea, I have a pretty good understanding of some of the things that took place and I don’t think we were playing out of the same playbook, but at the end, maybe there will be a book someday. Maybe I’ll write a manuscript. Those are good questions for him and the 49er hierarchy and we’ll leave it at that.”

Harbaugh didn’t rule out the idea of writing about his experience with the 49ers some day.

“I don’t think we were playing out of the same playbook,” Harbaugh said.  “But maybe there’ll be a book some day.  Maybe I’ll write a manuscript.”