If you can’t beat ’em, sign ’em.
It took overtime for the Giants to outlast the 49ers 20-17 in the NFC Championship and Wednesday the 49ers signed a second offensive player who was on the other side of the field that rainy afternoon at Candlestick Park.
Brandon Jacobs, following in the footsteps of Mario Manningham, became the second free agent to move coast to coast and find a new football home in the Bay Area with the San Francisco 49ers.
Jacobs signed a one-year contract with the 49ers worth up to $2 million — it reaches that high only if Jacobs has a big season — which goes to show how lacking the market was for him and how unwilling the Giants were to offer anything more than slightly over the minimum for a 29-year old running back.
Jacobs, scheduled to make $4.9 million this season, was released by the Giants on March 9 and told The Post that day he wanted to return but simply could not accept what was being offered. “Five hundred thousand dollars apart and we still couldn’t get it done,’’ Jacobs said.
The Giants offered Jacobs a one-year deal and he didn’t get anything longer from the 49ers, as there wasn’t much interest elsewhere for a player who spent the first seven years of his career with the Giants and owns the franchise record with 56 rushing touchdowns. The Giants this season play the Niners in San Francisco.
Despite Jacobs’ occasional dust-ups with Tom Coughlin — usually over an inflammatory comment — Coughlin appreciated the intensity and team-first attitude Jacobs brought to the team. As recently as yesterday morning, Coughlin believed it was “a possibility’’ Jacobs could return.
“Brandon was very, very professional, very classy and really did a great job of conducting himself in terms of being gracious about his experience with the New York Giants and what it meant to him, how much he wanted that second Super Bowl for his second son,’’ Coughlin said from the owners’ meetings in Palm Beach, Fla.
There’s no obvious replacement for Jacobs, who for the past two seasons was the backup to Ahmad Bradshaw. D.J. Ware and second-year Da’Rel Scott remain, as does Andre Brown, who spent last season on the practice squad. Look for the Giants to add a running back in the NFL draft or perhaps in free agency.
Jacobs joins Manningham, who signed a two-year deal worth up to $7.5 million in moving to the 49ers, who were in dire need of receivers. Where Jacobs fits is less obvious. He’s on a team that wants to pound away on the ground, but it’s also a team that has a crowded backfield, with Frank Gore, Kendall Hunter, Anthony Dixon and Rock Cartwright on the roster. A source with knowledge of the 49ers’ thinking said Jacobs is expecting to be the No. 2 running back behind Gore.
Jacobs barely played in the NFC title game, rushing five times for 13 yards. In that one, the Giants took the lead in the fourth quarter thanks to a muffed punt by Kyle Williams on a bouncing ball that glanced off his knee. The play was initially not ruled a turnover, but Coughlin threw the challenge flag and the call was reversed.
Nine weeks later, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh is still steamed about that.
“You can’t reverse a call unless there’s indisputable, irrefutable evidence,’’ Harbaugh said at the owners’ meetings. “What’s the opposite of irrefutable? Refutable? There was doubt in my mind that ball hit Kyle Williams’ knee. Of course, you start talking about that and people think it’s sour grapes. But those are my thoughts.’’
Harbaugh also remained miffed about a Bradshaw fumble deep in Giants’ territory late in the fourth quarter that wasn’t called because officials ruled the running back’s forward progress had been halted.
“Oh, you mean The Fast Whistle?’’ Harbaugh asked. “The fastest whistle in the West? That one?’’
Additional reporting by Bart Hubbuch.
paul.schwartz@nypost.com