Harbaugh's heart may force change of pace

Jim Harbaughs irregular heartbeat is exactly the stuff of a thousand jokes, most of them of the Twitter variety. In the modern world, there is, after all, no such thing as too soon.
MAIOCCO: Harbaugh undergoing procedure for irregular heartbeat
But it does raise an interesting notion, namely this. Given that NFL coaching is not really good for a persons health, one can ask the question, Does this mean he will become a different coach? And if so, how?Harbaugh is the classic high-intensity, no-time-for-media-prattle, hands-in-everything-up-to-the-elbows modern coach. Nothing isnt his business, nothing evades his desk. And no matter how he tries to compartmentalize his family and football lives, the second impinges aggressively upon the first.So, now that his heart has told him that occasionally downshifting from 33rd gear is indicated, it will be interesting to see what kind of adjustments he makes in his division of labor. After all, Dusty Bakers irregular heartbeat two months ago turned into a ministroke, and even though Baker has a good decade on him, stress is stress is stress.This is a question that cannot immediately be answered, nor would we be likely to get a straight answer from Harbaugh once he returned. Everythings fine, Nothing changes around here and Im as tough as a two-dollar steak would merge into a jut-jawed profile of the indomitable man.Conversely, we wouldnt see him shuffling through the corridors in fuzzy slippers and thick terrycloth hotel bathrobe, either. The truth, however it manifests itself, would lay somewhere in the middle.But this is a message from Harbaughs disobedient ventricles that halftime adjustments need to be made. Whether he chooses to do so is entirely his choice, though the faces of his wife and children might have some impact.Still, we will see how willing Jim Harbaugh is to learn from the lectures inside his breastplate. He fails to listen at his own peril.