CK do you actually believe what you are saying?
Honestly the line of thinking that you are trying to push doesn't make any sense.
First off I agree that this is all speculation. The only ones who know exactly what happened are Harbaugh, Ross, Ireland and Peterson and for various reasons none of them will ever want the truth to leak out.
Regardless of what REALLY happened Ross had to say he said no to Harbaugh. It was the only way to maintain a facade of credibility with Sparano/NFL/Media/etc. If Ross said that Harbaugh rejected him then he looks like a loser and Sparano probably quits. Ross would also look very bad to any potential coaching suitors in the future. Ross was stuck.
Second you don't make a cross country flight with your entire braintrust to speak to a guy like Harbaugh only to turn around and say "thanks but no thanks go back to Standford". Seriously that is a commited step. The much more likely scenario is that the Dolphins braintrust was flying to Palo Alto in a last ditch effort to convince Harbaugh to sign up with Miami. As I recall record sums were being thrown around.
Harbaugh being a Michigan man listened to the offer. Said no thank you, knowing SF was already on the table perhaps to drive up their price. He then allowed Ross the opportunity to cover his tracks with this story since he already had a job with the 49ers waiting.
