A 15-0 EPIC IS MARRED BY PROBATION, AS HARBAUGH LOOKS AT PALM TREES
Michigan’s program will suffer from the dead-period wrongdoing of the ex-coach, who ignored COVID-19 with recruiting violations and impermissible tryouts before taking an NFL job at $16 million a year
You wonder if Jim Harbaugh stared at the water in Huntington Beach, where he lived in an RV for $80 a night. It was his way of paying tribute to James Garner, the star of the television show he will take to his grave, “The Rockford Files.” His first months in California as coach of the Los Angeles Chargers were spent near the sand in Orange County, where offensive coordinator Greg Roman had his own RV, just as Jim Rockford did in a tumbledown Malibu pile.
“Laying on your stomach, hands on your chin, elbows on the floor, looking at the palm trees and mountains, sun, ocean,” Harbaugh told football writer Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times.
He has moved into a house with his family, as the NFL draft approaches, but he had to sense what was happening in Ann Arbor. Did Harbaugh really think he’d bolt for the league without his own ugliness torching the University of Michigan? His program was hammered Tuesday by the NCAA, which nailed Harbaugh and his staff for recruiting violations and impermissible tryouts during the COVID-19 dead period. The crimes were all about Harbaugh, who was trying to save his job and beat Ohio State, and nothing he can say today can help him. We were in a pandemic, trying to stay alive, and this man was screwing around behind the scenes.
As the Big Ten moves ahead with expansion, new schools such as USC, Oregon, Washington and UCLA know that Michigan will serve three years of NCAA probation. Say hello to recruiting restrictions, Sherrone Moore, who begins as the head coach amid more muck. Harbaugh did not cooperate with the investigation and faces a Level I charge, which could have him thrown out of college football by the Committee on Infractions. Not that he cares with a new deal of $16 million a year. He’ll be coaching Justin Herbert, trying to beat Patrick Mahomes and the champion Kansas City Chiefs, while southern California might attempt to know who the Chargers are and what they do. Michigan will pay fines. Five current or former staff members agreed to Level II violations. Moore already served a one-game suspension to begin the 2023 season.
Hail to the cheaters.
Michigan finally won a national championship. But perfect as the 15-0 season was, it is tainted by the COVID-19 downfall and Harbaugh’s link to Connor Stalions, who was investigated for an elaborate sign-stealing operation inside enemy stadiums. “Today's joint resolution pertains to the University of Michigan Athletic Department and several former and current employees,” athletic director Warde Manuel said in a statement. “We are pleased to reach a resolution on this matter so that our student-athletes and our football program can move forward. We have no additional information and cannot comment further on other aspects of the NCAA's inquiries.”
Move forward? Consider a few steps backward, as Ohio State’s NIL collectives re-signed seven Buckeyes stars and dipped into the transfer portal for more help. J.J. McCarthy is off to the NFL, but Ryan Day has All-Big 12 quarterback Will Howard, an All-SEC running back in Quinshon Judkins, All-American safety Caleb Downs and a commanding center in Seth McLaughlin. Alabama lost. Ohio State won.
Don’t expect to hear anything from Harbaugh. His attorney, Tom Mars, told ESPN, “I filed a lengthy response to the (Notice of Allegations) on behalf of Coach Harbaugh, which unfortunately hasn't been made public and will probably never see the light of day. That concluded Coach Harbaugh's participation in the case.”
He won the national championship in a blur. He delivered an all-time season. And it was dirty. As Harbaugh told Farmer, in a story everyone should read: “Rockford wasn’t trying to impress anybody. I think we all go wrong when we try to make that leap to, ‘Today I’ve got to impress somebody.’ Because then you’re not yourself anymore. You don’t have a lot of practice at that. If you want to get better at something, just work a little harder at it. And whatever you do, don’t get a big head. That’s a trap. A deep, dark, lonely trap.”
Too bad Harbaugh tried to impress himself in a health-mandated dead period. No matter how he performs in the NFL, for the second time, he’ll never live it down. That is a trap.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.