Jim Harbaugh is still the same weirdo that he was in college football.
Now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, Harbaugh bolted out of Michigan after winning the National Championship. Much of his exit was speculated to have to do with the sign-stealing allegations.
But regardless of where Harbaugh coaches football, he’s still the same oddball that we knew he was.
Harbaugh’s first official day of practice as head coach of the Charges was officially in the books on Thursday, and he was pretty fired up when asked about how things were going at training camp.
“It’s like New Year’s Day. It feels like being born. It feels like coming out of the womb,” he said Wednesday, via ESPN’s Kris Rhim. “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 to have it happen.”
Of course, he could’ve just said, “It feels good to be back out there.”
Or maybe even, “Great group of guys so far, and we’re all very excited about this season.”
But Harbaugh had to make things weird and uncomfortable.
Does he remember being born? He remembers laying in the hospital nursery as a newborn, where they flipped the bright lights on and everyone was looking at him and talking to him? Give me a break.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Chargers have success under Harbaugh’s leadership. The pressure will be there. He’s reportedly being paid more than his brother, who is a Super Bowl champion head coach, and all but three players on the roster.
They went 5-12 last season, and it was an unmitigated nightmare. And they didn’t exactly improve.
Justin Herbert is a franchise quarterback, but the rest of the roster just feels thrown together.
The defense is anchored by Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack and Dewin James. They should be fine. But offensively? That’s a whole different story.
They replaced the often injured Austin Ekeler with the often injured J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards. Mike Williams is on the New York Jets, and Keenan Allen is on the Chicago Bears, leaving the Chargers with Joshua Palmer, rookie Ladd McConkey and whatever is left of DJ Chark’s career.
If Harbaugh keeps the weird quotes flying, we’re in for a fun season. It’s hard to detect a path for these Chargers to make the playoffs in a loaded division headlined by Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Maybe everything is so new and bright for Harbaugh because he realizes that this roster is incredibly flawed, and he probably feels like a baby trying to figure out how to coach this random collection of players.
