Jim Harbaugh tells his side of the story from crazy week, return to Michigan
Jim Harbaugh and Michigan football had itself quite the week. The Wolverines head coach went through a full courtship with the Minnesota Vikings before the parties split without a deal on Wednesday. Shortly thereafter, Harbaugh revealed he would return to Ann Arbor.
Hopefully, he says, as a Michigan man for life.
“In a nutshell, I love Michigan,” he told Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press. “I love every player. I love every family.”
Harbaugh admitted what we long knew in that there was an itch to get back and hoist the Lombardi Trophy, something he never accomplished with the San Francisco 49ers.
He also owned up to the idea that if an offer materialized, he was ready to move forward and take it.
“There was a tugging at me that I was once that close to a Super Bowl and I didn’t get it,” Harbaugh said. “Some NFL jobs came open. I was contacted by the (Minnesota) Vikings.
“For better or for worse, it was something I wanted to explore. I went in thinking, ‘I’m gonna have 100 percent conviction on this, and if they (Minnesota) have 100 percent conviction on this, then it’s something I’m gonna do.”
“I’m an honest person,” he would later say. “There was a large pull there (for the NFL). But I didn’t feel it was that way for both parties. And that’s it. That’s my mindset now.”
Harbaugh spent the evening after his interview in a hotel room in the Twin Cities before calling up athletic director Warde Manuel and telling him that Michigan was the spot he wanted to be.
“I called Warde and I asked him if he wanted me to be the head coach,” Harbaugh said. “And he said, ‘Yes, 100 percent.’ And I said, OK then. That’s what I want to do.’
“And I told him, ‘Warde, this will not be a reoccurring theme every year. This was a one-time thing.”
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Harbaugh’s message to his players, the Super Bowl pull
There have been plenty of fans and pundits wondering how Harbaugh could go through the NFL process and return to Michigan as nothing happened. If there are sour feelings in Ann Arbor, they are not coming from players.
“They said ‘Coach, we all want to go to the NFL, too. And whenever one of us wants to explore going to the NFL, you support us and wish us well. And if we look at it and we come back, you’re thrilled and we get right back to work,” he revealed.
Harbaugh is a football guy through and through. He has a great respect and reverence for the history of the game. That is why winning a Super Bowl was, and likely still is, a dream for him.
However, the climb it takes to win a national title is arguably steeper with an uneven playing field. Harbaugh is embracing the challenge of grabbing Michigan’s first since 1997.
“Sure, the Super Bowl is the greatest prize in our sport,” he said. “But winning a national championship. That’s pretty darn great. Let’s do that.
“There was a pull to the NFL because I got that close to the Super Bowl but this was the time (to try and return.) And this is the last time. Now let’s go chase college football’s greatest prize.”
Time – and victories – will heal any wounds that came out of this saga. For now, Michigan continues to build and will attempt to recapture the magic and momentum from the 2021 season.
