This feels just like last night all over again, but just switch the Dolphins for the 49ers as the day’s leading Jim Harbaugh contenders who apparently didn’t close the deal.
It’s getting increasingly evident that it is not so easy to close a deal with Harbaugh, by the way. (Ask Michigan, too.)
The nuggets, quickly:
* The eagerly-chased Stanford coach met with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and GM Jeff Ireland in the Bay Area today, but Ross flew to the LA area in the afternoon, apparently for previously scheduled meetings.
Multiple NFL sources said that no deal had been struck with Harbaugh, despite the reports that Ross was set to offer Harbaugh more than $7M a year.
* The talks with the Dolphins are believed to be ongoing. But Ross’ departure without a signed deal is apparently due to more than the Dolphins’ need to satisfy the Rooney Rule by interviewing a minority candidate. And firing Tony Sparano.
Several NFL sources indicate that Harbaugh is not comfortable so far with the Miami situation and that all the other bidding teams are still in play–the 49ers, Denver (which has yet to meet with him formally) and… even Stanford.
As with the 49ers last night, have the Dolphins been given the shot to land Harbaugh… and blown it? What happens now?
With Harbaugh, any firm prediction is impossible, of course. But I think it’s safe to say that Michigan, then the 49ers, then Miami all had face-off chances to get him, and now each has not gotten him.
* One source who knows Harbaugh said that he is believed to be seriously weighing a return to Stanford with Andrew Luck for the 2011 season (a potential NFL lock-out season), then both could jump to the NFL the following year.
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