Jim Harbaugh spent 9 years as Michigan football's power source. Now he's electrifying LA
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The Los Angeles Chargers’ logo is a bolt of lightning. So, too, in many ways, is Jim Harbaugh.
The man can electrify a team, energize a fanbase, jolt a city. He is his own power source, and for nine years Michigan football was connected to him. He supplied the Wolverines with juice, helping them surge to the top of the college ranks. Then, when they finally got there, he suddenly pulled the plug.
“I have a love of Michigan,” he began Thursday at his reintroduction to pro football.
“But (I also) love the NFL” he said, completing his thought.
It’s what led him to the stage Thursday inside the YouTube Theater, where he was introduced as the Chargers’ new coach. Here was Harbaugh, projecting an enthusiasm unknown to mankind 2,300 miles away from the Big House he abandoned last week. Next door to the futuristic SoFi Stadium, Harbaugh told a rapt audience he was focused on the task ahead of him as he aims to restore a sagging franchise and win multiple Super Bowls while competing in a division long ruled by the Kansas City Chiefs.
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“Only have so many sands left in the hourglass and I want another shot,” Harbaugh said. “I want another shot to be simply known as 'World Champions.' The Lombardi Trophy, that's my mission. Happy, and grateful, to have this opportunity.”
He seized it one month removed from his 60th birthday and 16 days after he reached the summit of college football. It was a new mission, a different mountain to climb. Harbaugh’s father, Jack, told the Free Press his son yearned for his next quest.
“That’s what he thrives on. That’s what he lives for. That’s what he responds to,” he said on the night of Harbaugh’s last and most satisfying victory at Michigan.
But it remains a mystery why Harbaugh wasn’t intrigued enough by the challenge that remained for him in Ann Arbor.
There, he could have worked to forge a dynasty and fill the void left by Nick Saban, the legendary Alabama coach who retired in January.
There, he could have remained big man on campus and steered his championship program into a new age.
There, he could have confronted all the obstacles in front of him: A tougher schedule, a more formidable Big Ten, the specter of two active NCAA investigations and all of Michigan’s self-imposed restraints that threatened to impede the replenishment of a roster diminished by departures for the NFL.
Yet Harbaugh got out when the getting was good, leaving his successor, Sherrone Moore, to deal with it all.
Harbaugh insisted Thursday that the Wolverines remain “in a great place.” But Michigan fans are left to wonder how good it really is if he wanted to leave so soon after he achieved his glory. In the warm afterglow of a national title, they are faced with the cold reality brought on by Harbaugh’s departure and the chilling angst over what could come next.
For so long, they naively believed Harbaugh’s sentimental attachment to his alma mater and his fond memories of his Ann Arbor upbringing would keep him there until he doffed his signature Block M ballcap one last time and rode off into the sunset. Harbaugh helped foster that hope by telling the media he would remain in his post as long as U-M’s leadership wanted him there.
But as soon as he revitalized the program and restored his career, Harbaugh no longer acted like a loyal alumnus whose sole calling was to serve his beloved program. Instead, like so many others in his chosen profession, he became an opportunist eager to cash in on his rising stock. He had bigger goals — a Lombardi Trophy to pursue.
Not even the Block M could stand in his way. His personal ambitions led him to another M — Minnesota, where he interviewed with Vikings on National Signing Day exactly two years ago. No offer came, but Harbaugh’s wandering eye was exposed. It seemed only a matter of time before he found a willing partner that allow him to indulge his Super Bowl fantasy.
The Chargers stepped to the fore last week after interviewing 14 other candidates, signing him to a five-year deal that reportedly pays him $16 million annually. It’s the going rate for the Harbaugh generator, which will try to resuscitate a team that flatlined, finishing last in the AFC West at 5-12 this past season.
“The whole mindset of attacking each day, with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind, I know it kind of sounds cliché,” said John Spanos, the team’s president of football operations. “But he lives it. He breathes it. And it’s real. It rubs off on people.”
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Harbaugh has that effect, imposing his will on whatever locker room he enters.
His obsessive personality is what made him into a textbook turnaround artist. He lifted Stanford from the bottom of the then-Pac-10 into the top five of the polls. He restored the San Francisco 49ers, guiding one of the NFL’s most prestigious franchises to three straight NFC championship games and a Super Bowl appearance following an eight-year playoff drought.
At Michigan, he twice pulled his alma mater’s sagging program out of the abyss — once at the start of his tenure and again after the Wolverines crashed in his sixth season. Whether he can work his magic again near Tinseltown is the question. But as Harbaugh once said about beating Ohio State and winning the Big Ten: “We’re going to do it or die trying.”
On Thursday, Harbaugh flashed a toothy grin and surveyed the dark auditorium, soaking in the scene he brought to life. Almost a decade after he left, Captain Comeback had made his triumphant return to the NFL. Some wondered if this day would ever come. Harbaugh had a .695 winning percentage in the pros and one of the best résumés of any coach in the game. But he bore the scars from a bitter divorce with the 49ers that pushed him out of a league where his remarkable four-season success on the sideline was overshadowed by the unrest he reportedly caused with his superiors.
“Don’t believe everything you read,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos cautioned. “I’ve talked to some of those people and I’ve never heard anything to maybe what you’ve read in the papers. It’s all been respectful. He was well-respected by those people.”
Even they couldn’t deny he was a winner. It’s why betting against him has always been a losing proposition. The man who once referred to himself as a jackhammer won’t be denied.
After Michigan went up in flames in 2020, he and the Wolverines soared from the ashes like a phoenix. They transformed into perennial contenders during a thrilling three-year run, highlighted by 40 victories in 43 games, three conference titles and a national championship that provided Harbaugh with the crowning achievement many believed was preordained when he came back to coach in December 2014.
But it was nearly derailed by the turmoil he invited. This past season, Harbaugh was suspended twice for six games after his program became ensnared in two separate NCAA investigations. One was focused on impermissible recruiting and coaching activities. The other was tied to a cheating scandal that involved off-campus scouting and sign-stealing. The controversies cast a pall over the Wolverines even while they beat every opponent in their path. It still shadows them as they turn the page to a new chapter with Moore now in charge.
But three time zones away, Harbaugh is out from under it. He is living again in California, working once more in the NFL. After all these years, he finally made it back to a place where he feels at home.
“Happy and grateful,” Harbaugh said.
The energy in his voice was palpable. The room where he spoke lit up. The Chargers had their lightning bolt. Here, in glittery Los Angeles, he was ready to shock and awe.
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jim Harbaugh left Michigan football to supercharge the LA Chargers
