AP

49ers coach Jim Harbaugh recently tiptoed through the minefield of the lockout of officials by not directly calling out the replacements but making it clear he had enough concerns to have a headache after the team’s most recent preseason game.

Now that Harbaugh has backed off, some league insiders believe that Harbaugh knew exactly what he was doing.

And what they think he was doing was sucking up to the locked-out officials, who eventually will return.

I explained it all in this miniature slice of PFT Live. And while other teams might not like it, the better approach than complaining about it is to do the same damn thing.