Jim Harbaugh on his move to the NFL: 'I'm just trying to be happy'

Jim Harbaugh had long shown a desire to go back to the NFL, and he finally made the jump this offseason. After leading his alma mater, Michigan, to its first national championship since 1997, Harbaugh accepted an offer to become the coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

It was a decision that raised plenty of eyebrows after Harbaugh served multiple suspensions in 2023. That included a three-game suspension to end the regular season in the midst of sign-stealing allegations against the Wolverines.

Many accused Harbaugh of dipping out to avoid potential punishment. However, a new book co-authored by  John Talty and Armen Keteyian titled “The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos,” provides another reason: happiness.

“I’m just trying to be happy,” Harbaugh told former Michigan AD Jim Hackett according to an excerpt from the book, which is set to be published Aug. 27.

Michigan reportedly offered to make Harbaugh the highest-paid coach in college football with an annual salary of more than $11 million. However, after flirting with the NFL each of the past two offseasons, he couldn’t pass up the chance to return to the pros.

Below is an excerpt from the book that describes how current Wolverines AD Warde Manuel handled the news, as well as how Harbaugh destressed following the season full of allegations:

Manuel told Austin Meek of The Athletic he was “at peace” with the effort to retain Harbaugh, despite a torrent of criticism circulating on U of M blogs and websites.

“I hear about what was happening on social media, some of the language and things that people directed my way,” Manuel said. “That doesn’t take away from the effort we put into it. They have no idea what communication and conversations we had.”

Was Manuel surprised at the news? “I don’t want to use the word surprised,” he told us. “This was the third year Jim had spoken to NFL teams. I can see where people would be interested. As I told Jim, ‘I’m sad for us, happy for you if that’s what you want to do.”‘

Growing up Jim Harbaugh’s favorite television show was “The Rockford Files,” a seventies detective drama whose star, James Garner, played a private investigator who lived in a mobile home in a parking lot on a beach in Malibu. After signing with the Chargers, Harbaugh asked his brother-in-law and two friends to drive his 31-foot Quantum Thor Motor Coach across the country to a RV camping spot he had rented right across from the Pacific in scenic Huntington Beach for $2,700 a month, an effort to decompress after a stress-filled season that had forced a Michigan Man out of the arms of a university he loved.

“I’m just trying to be happy,” Harbaugh told former Michigan AD Jim Hackett, ironically, the man who had hired him.

Harbaugh previously spent four seasons in the NFL with the the San Francisco 49ers, leading them to a Super Bowl appearance in 2013. He was later fired after an 8-8 finish in 2014 but overall directed the team to a 44-19 record.

Jim Harbaugh had interviewed for several NFL positions over the past couple of years but never landed a job. Now it appears the season he had in Ann Arbor this past year was what he needed to prove to teams that he was ready to come back.

Although it might be easy to dismiss his departure from the Wolverines as a way to avoid potential punishment from the NCAA, this has been a long time coming for Harbaugh. The coach has clearly been itching to get back into the highest level and now that he has, he couldn’t be happier.