SAN FRANCISCO — As with grief and romance, a good quarterback controversy has at least five stages. They often emerge over many weeks and months — sometimes years, as in the case of Joe Montana and Steve Young here two decades ago.

Hope. Infatuation. Acceptance. Realization. Uncertainty.

The 49ers did something remarkably efficient and fan-friendly this past week. They squeezed the five stages into five days.

Coach Jim Harbaugh took a steady Super Bowl contender with a 7-2-1 record and considered, publicly and repeatedly, the implausible: whether the team would be better off with a quarterback who had one career start rather than the quarterback who had a 19-5-1 regular-season record as Harbaugh’s starter.

He dared to call it “the opposite of a controversy,” which is like saying inflammable is the opposite of flammable.