The Handshake and the Fighting Jims

Kevin Seifert, the NFC North blogger over at ESPN.com, wrote a post shortly after yesterday's handshake incident between victorious 49ers' coach Jim Harbaugh and defeated Lions' coach Jim Schwartz, arguing that the latter was at fault and that Schwartz's passion for the game "approaches lunacy."

This I could not take, so quickly penned my own response. Here it is, reader, for your delectation:

Kevin -- You've got this one wrong. I'm a Harbaugh fan and I don't really have any feelings for Schwartz either way, but the 49ers coach was in the wrong. He himself admitted it in post-game. He not only shook Schwartz's hand too hard, he was sort of shouting in celebration when the handshake began, and then also gave him a big smack on the back, that may have led to a shove (in the video you can plainly see that when the handshake begins, Harbaugh is on the far side and Schwartz on the near, but when it ends, they've changed places. There's clearly an aggressive pat or push from Harbaugh to Schwartz's back that goes far beyond anything we might call a "handshake."). Regardless of whether Harbaugh cursed -- and I have no idea about this -- if I were Schwartz I would've done the same thing. OK, perhaps I wouldn't have made the whiny grimaces he did -- but the tenor of his reaction is not the issue. Harbaugh went too far, that's the issue, and Schwartz was right to respond defensively.

What it looks like from the video is that Harbaugh hadn't prepared himself for the post-game coaches' handshake. It's a relatively sedate affair -- sometimes brief, sometimes involving a short conversation -- but gamesmanship, celebration and rubbing in the victory have no place there. I don't think he intended to do it, but that's irrelevant -- he did it. And Schwartz reacted with anger, thinking he'd been dissed, defending his coaching ability and his team. He stood up for himself. The strange thing is that it's a win for all involved. I think it was good for the Lions, who know their coach takes no guff and has their back, good for the 49ers, who know their coach is passionate and serious about winning, and good for the league, which could use more characters, more intensity, more anger, animosity and unpredictability.

Best,
DJL