JIM HARBAUGH HASN’T BEEN RE-BORN: HIS 15-0 MICHIGAN PROGRAM WAS A SCAM

The NCAA is bringing down Harbaugh and successor Sherrone Moore and should look at the legitimacy of last year’s national champs, who shrugged off Connor Stalions’ illegal spying and will pay a price

     The “birthing” catchphrases can end. Jim Harbaugh finds himself in proverbial hell, pretending he has started anew with the Los Angeles Chargers when his dirty work in college football remains scarred. Might he eliminate his “15-0” tattoo when a stinking agent in El Segundo — and throughout his sport — suggests he was flawed in finding perfection at Michigan?

     He has been accused of a Level 1 violation by the NCAA, along with Connor Stalions and two former assistants. Harbaugh’s successor as head coach, Sherrone Moore, also was accused of deleting 52 text messages with Stalions when the illegal spygating creature became a national villain in the crisis. Michigan was soiled and indecent, in so-called sublimity, and Harbaugh can stop his joyful training-camp slop in the NFL.

     The cheater doesn’t get through a day without saying of the Chargers: “It’s like New Year’s Day. It feels like being born. It feels like coming out of the womb. You’re in there. It’s comfortable and safe, and now you’re out. You’re born. Lights are on, it’s bright, chaos, people looking at you, people talking at you, and it just feels good.”

     How does it feel today? Moore could be suspended with a show-cause penalty, meaning Michigan likely falls backward in the West Coast-expanded Big Ten. And Stalions? Long gone from the program, he’ll appear on a Netflix documentary called “Sign Stealer” on Aug. 27. A questionable operation has become filthy, with seven overseers seeping through a notice of allegations.

     And if Harbaugh chooses to leave the pros and take another college gig? He could be hit with his own show-cause restriction for the entire scam. He never looked for red flags when he was asked amid the investigation. All that’s saving him was his denial to let the NCAA see his messages and phone records. Why do you think he fled Ann Arbor so quickly, bringing assistants Jesse Minter and Steve Clinkscale to L.A. when they’re among the accused?

     “Our athletic department and university continue to cooperate with the NCAA regarding our ongoing investigation,” a Michigan spokesman told ESPN. “We do not have an update to share regarding its status at this time.”

     Making more than $16 million a year with a spanking new facility, Harbaugh already has a major concern in his new gig, even with womb bits: Justin Herbert has a plantar fascia injury in his right foot and might suffer issues all season. He’ll be ready for Week 1, they say, but this is no way to challenge Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid in the AFC West. The No. 2 quarterback is Easton Stick, who is no J.J. McCarthy.

     “Full steam ahead. The preparation, the work continues,” Harbaugh said the other day. “He’s not on the field, in practice, but in the meeting room, still in the training environment, that chemistry that rapport you build with those position players, with his teammates, that continues.”

     There are no worries in Kansas City. And there is nothing but laughter in Columbus, where Michigan’s recent rule of Ohio State is lawless. The lights are off now, Jim, and if people are looking at you, it isn’t a pleasant view.

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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.