With tensions rising, 2014 could be make-or-break for Jim Harbaugh

Harbaugh has led the 49ers to a remarkable run of early success, becoming the first NFL head coach to ever take a team to the conference title game in his
With tensions rising, 2014 could be make-or-break for Jim Harbaugh
With tensions rising, 2014 could be make-or-break for Jim Harbaugh /

Jim Harbaugh is entering the second-to-last year of his five-year deal with the 49ers.
Jim Harbaugh is entering the second-to-last year of his five-year deal with the 49ers / John Biever for Sports Illustrated

Harbaugh has led the 49ers to a remarkable run of early success, becoming the first NFL head coach to ever take a team to the conference title game in his first three years on the job. But now that the Browns trade story has broken and revealed some fissures between him and the team, it already feels like it's getting late in his San Francisco tenure. Maybe that perception is wrong and the pieces can all still fit back together, but the Humpty Dumpty tale does come to mind. Even winning and winning big hasn't been able to obscure the cracks that are starting to show in San Francisco.


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Don Banks
DON BANKS

Senior NFL writer Don Banks joined SI in 2000 after 10 years on the beat covering the Vikings and Buccaneers. His Snap Judgments cap off every Sunday of every NFL season.