Here is the opening to my Monday column comparing the styles of Jim Harbaugh and Bill Walsh:

SANTA CLARA — I compare Jim Harbaugh to Bill Walsh. The comparison is inevitable. I watch Harbaugh work in training camp and I think of Walsh. I compare them.

On Sunday, Harbaugh participated in a special teams exercise. He did not supervise the work. He participated, as if he still were a player. Holding a red foam pad, he crouched in front of a player and the player ran around Harbaugh and the red pad. So did another player and another player, etc.

You wonder if this pad holding was good use of the head coach’s time. A teenager could have held the pad just as well. Or better yet, Harbaugh could have told Eric Mangini to hold the pad considering Mangini began his NFL career as a ball boy and gofer and has valuable pad-holding experience. You might even say Mangini has a pedigree in this particular enterprise.

To read the full column click here.