Desmond Howard reacts to Jim Harbaugh accepting Big Ten suspension, latest on Michigan

Desmond Howard believes Jim Harbaugh and Michigan accepted the Big Ten’s three game suspension to help keep his players’ focus on the main goal.

In making his point on ESPN’s Get Up on Friday, the former Wolverines star first elaborated on what a Michigan player is going through at the moment, explaining their clouded vision as the team deals with their sign-stealing scandal.

“As a former player, my perspective is, I think that because of all of this swirling around the program. Swirling around the players. Last week, can you imagine what it was like for those players? You get on the plane, you don’t know if you’re going to have your head coach in the biggest game of the season. On the road in Happy Valley, against Penn State — the No. 10 team in the country? And then land, find out that their commissioner has suspended their head coach. Then wait, there may be a chance that he’s going to coach. They’re going to try to get a judge to review it,” Howard said. “So they didn’t know until Saturday, if they were going to have Jim Harbaugh on the sideline coaching them, in the biggest game.”

Instead of allowing the distraction to override a chance at a national title, Howard believes Harbaugh decided to take the bullet, quelling a long legal battle that would’ve overshadowed their play on the field.

“Listen, Jim Harbaugh (loves) the kids. So you have to make a decision at some point that’s going to give them a clear perspective moving forward, of absolutely what they’re going to have to deal with,” Howard stated. “So I do believe that Jim Harbaugh, once said after a press conference that he doesn’t mind taking the blame, the criticism, the arrows, as long as it protects his adolescent kids and his players, and I just think that’s where we are right now. You’re looking at two sides. They were about to get into this cage match. A fight to the death cage match between the Big Ten’s attorneys, and Michigan’s attorneys.

“I think they said, ‘Listen, let’s not do this. We don’t need this. Neither side’s going to benefit from it.’ So ultimately, I believe that they became to a amicable resolution, and Jim Harbaugh won’t be able to coach Saturday against Maryland, and in the big one, obviously The Game against Ohio State in a week.”

Perhaps Jim Harbaugh is a martyr. Desmond Howard believes so. If it helps Michigan win a national title, it all would’ve been worth it for the Wolverines head man.