Sports

49ers’ Gore said loss to Giants last year hurt ‘knowing we were the better team’

NEW ORLEANS — Last year, running back Frank Gore had a chance to go to the Pro Bowl after the 49ers lost in overtime to the Giants in the NFC Championship, but Gore said he was so distraught about the loss, he couldn’t bring himself to attend. “I was so hurt, knowing we were the better team,’’ Gore said yesterday, referring to the Giants.

It sure sounded as if Gore took a shot at his former head coach, Mike Singletary, when discussing the turnaround in San Francisco the past two seasons. “I knew we had players, we just didn’t have the right people to lead us,’’ Gore said. “Now we do.’’

Jim Harbaugh listed his father, Jack — a longtime college coach — Bo Schembechler (his coach at Michigan) and former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes as “the three coaches I try most to emulate.’’ … Two brothers, two styles. Jim Harbaugh, for the second straight day, wore a black sweatshirt and khakis to his press conference. Older brother John arrived yesterday for his first media conference in a suit and tie.

* LB Aldon Smith was named the Niners team MVP in a vote of players and coaches.

“You have a lot of guys on this team who are all-stars, who have made Pro Bowls consecutively,’’ Smith said. “You have Patrick Willis, Vernon Davis, Frank Gore, I can go on. I come in my second year and I get the MVP, it means a lot.”

Smith led the team with 19.5 sacks but got all of them in the first 13 games, as he was ahead of Michael Strahan’s pace when he set the NFL record with 22.5 sacks in 2001.

“I actually talked to him before the Atlanta game on the field,’’ Smith said of Strahan. “We joked around about it. He was kind of giving me a hard time about not getting it.’’

* Unlike most Super Bowls, where the teams stay in hotels far away from the center of the action, the 49ers are staying at the Marriott on Canal Street in the French Quarter, a few blocks from Bourbon Street. Starting last night, the Niners had a curfew but it’s no big deal, says Harbaugh.

“We trust our team,’’ he said.