Greg McElroy shares funny interaction with Jim Harbaugh regarding life in football

ESPN analyst Greg McElroy recently shared a funny story, showing just how much Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh loves football.

McElroy had a prior relationship with Harbaugh when he saw him at Big Ten Media Days several years back when McElroy was working as a college football analyst.

“I remember seeing him at the Big Ten Media Days in probably 2015 or ‘16. I had actually worked Michigan’s camp the summer before. So 13 months earlier I was in Ann Arbor working Michigan’s aerial assault camp as one of the quarterback coaches,” Greg McElroy shared on the Always College Football podcast. “And Jim Harbaugh approached me at Big Ten Media Days and said, ‘Oh, so Greg, you’re done playing, huh?’”

McElroy had retired to move into the broadcasting world, which caught Harbaugh off guard.

“I said … ‘I’ve enjoyed college football. It’s great to be back and working in the world that I’m working in. It’s not quite as hands on as coaching. I have a little more flexibility and things like that,'” McElroy explained. “He basically looked at me, and as dry and as direct as you can possibly be, said, ‘Oh, so you don’t love football?’”  

McElroy didn’t agree with Harbaugh’s take, instead believing that you can be a broadcaster and still love football.

However, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh made his stance clear.

“I said, ‘Coach, I love football, what are you talking about?’” McElroy recalled. “And he said, ‘Well, you love football when you can play football, and when you’re done playing and you can no longer play then you coach. And if you don’t coach then you die.’”

Harbaugh clearly loves the sport and thinks about it constantly. He played football at Michigan, before beginning his NFL playing career.

Even while in the NFL, he was an assistant at Western Kentucky. Once he retired from the NFL, Harbaugh got into coaching full time, and he’s been doing so ever since.

He’s worked as an assistant in the NFL and was the head coach at Stanford and with the San Francisco 49ers, before coming back to Michigan. He now has the Wolverines one win away from a national championship.

“That’s Jim Harbaugh. He loves to compete. He loves the preparation, and he loves the excitement and the energy you get when you’re on the sideline and patrolling,” McElroy said.

“He’s been on the sideline for some massive moments. He of course had tons of success at Stanford. Has had really good success, recent success at Michigan. … Now he has gotten over the hump and the team has accelerated to a point, and they resemble in style the teams he had success with at Stanford, in many ways.”