49ers gear up to watch lots of playoff football

Associated Press

santa clara, calif.

Jim Harbaugh calls it “honkering down” — from the verb to hunker down, defined by Webster’s as the process of digging in or settling in to one location for a sustained period.

He will gather his 49ers coaching staff at team headquarters Saturday, order in pizzas and prepare for a day of watching football and then starting the game-planning process for San Francisco’s playoff opponent on Jan. 14 at sold-out Candlestick Park.

“Honkering down,” Harbaugh said with a smile Friday. “That’s what I call it.”

He recited the team’s address as where he will be: “4949 Centennial Blvd. We’ll watch it here, as a group, until we know who we’re playing and then, as soon as we know, we’ll be able to get right on the game-planning for that opponent. As soon as we know, we’ll start doing that.”

Harbaugh has acknowledged he very much expects to face Drew Brees and the favored New Orleans Saints, who host Detroit tonight at the Superdome. The NFC West champion Niners (13-3) own the NFC’s No. 2 seed and a first-round bye heading into their first postseason appearance in nine years.

Safety Donte Whitner’s little brother, Dawawn, is flying in to join him and friends to watch games this weekend. Dashon Goldson and some of the other 49ers are leaving town to get some family time, but you bet they’ll be tuning into the playoffs. Wide receiver Michael Crabtree plans to make himself his usual oatmeal or grits with plenty of sugar and butter and a glass of cranberry-apple juice, then crawl into bed with the games on TV.

“I really do that,” Crabtree said, smiling, revealing himself in a rare moment. “I eat breakfast all the time, breakfast and seafood.”

The other possible matchups — if the Lions pull off an upset — would be Atlanta or New York.