In one of those shouldn't-be-a-story-but-is stories today, Niners head coach Jim Harbaugh has said, more or less, that the team would be totally cool with it if one of the players were to come out of the locker, as it were.

When questioned about how he would feel coaching an openly gay Niner, Coach Harbaugh said, "I ask all players to play through their own personality and be who they are. What you ask of a player is to be a great teammate and be a good player. My expectations would be the same... Personally, there’s no discrimination in my heart.”

Several other team members echoed their coach's welcoming embrace in the article that appears in the iPad-only Niners digital magazine thing and was quoted liberally on SFGate's 49ers blog. Although they're not talking about anyone in particular — just the possibility of there one day, maybe, possibly, hopefully being an out gay tight end or whatever — some players still "expressed wariness about dressing and showering with an openly gay player."

For the most part though, the team spirit and man-on-man camaraderie prevails over a player's sexuality. “At the end of the day," linebacker and local Larry Grant explained, "we are all family in this locker room, and we accept each player for whoever they are."

The whole article can be downloaded here if you're one of those people who still pays for a Chronicle subscription.