Michigan Wolverine Football: Silent (Day and) Night

Posted at 6:00am — 12/22/2014

Michigan Wolverine Football: Silent (Day and) Night

Awaiting Harbaugh’s Decision

Wait. Did you hear that? Shhhh—there it is again!

That’s the sound of nothing.

I know right?

The only thing more incredible than the thought of San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh jumping from a successful NFL coaching career back into the college realm and taking over as the next coach at Michigan, is the almost deafening silence coming out of both camps.

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Last week came word that terms of a contract offer had been leaked: 6 years for a total of either $48 or $49 million, depending on which source was cited. Since then there have been reports that he’s already signed the contract and it’s a done deal, reports of unspecified inaccuracies in the initially reported offer, and reports questioning the very likelihood there any offer was presented at all. Soon a report will emerge claiming that there is no Jim Harbaugh.

The truth is, nobody knows nothing right now. You don’t need no report to tell you. And you know why nobody knows nothing? Because nobody’s saying nothing neither.

Forget the impending potential blockbuster deal that may rock the very core of the football coaching world. This shroud of silence that has been upheld, THAT is what’s unprecedented. This is Will He Come Home 2.0. But while Lebron James faced a similar decision this past summer, the choice and the burden of silence was essentially his. This time, it’s a head coach, his agent, a major university’s football program, a potential NFL suitor (or two, or three), and all who are involved with them. So many affected parties. And none of them are talking. It’s the football version of a four-week Dharamsala retreat.

Michigan issues a statement saying that they’re not stating anything. Coach Harbaugh stands at his weekly pressers, waits for it, then answers with a consistent “I’ll only talk about the job that I have” and “it’s a long-standing policy.” Yeah but come on, Captain Khaki. Coaches break those all the time. You can’t throw ‘em a bone, just one? Maybe explode or something? Even a little wink and a smile?

Journalists have lowered themselves to reporting such “breaking” topics as the coach’s evolving emotional state (“Sources say he’s torn… hopeful for a continued, worthwhile future in the pros, yet yearning for a nostalgic and heroic return to his collegiate home…”). The only things that are “evolving” are the opinions of the writers themselves, as they posture and re-posture their on- the-record speculation (since proven to be nothing more than scientific wild-ass guesses) to prevent the appearance of being flat-out wrong in retrospect.

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Michigan Wolverines

This type of prolonged silent treatment is so very rare these days. We’re in the golden age of social media. You command and your hand-held device obeys. Cameras and recording devices are everywhere, watching and capturing everything. So is the media. Just ask the hordes of paparazzi chasing anyone of notoriety up and down Sunset Boulevard. That’s what makes the lack of any concrete Harbaugh news lo these weeks on such a monumental secret almost unfathomable.

But me, I love it. Maybe I didn’t at first. It’s like those mornings when you accidentally leave your cell phone at home. You may start to panic a bit at the office, but you sure grow to like the liberation of being digitally disconnected pretty doggoned fast.

So, good for them I say. Good for interim AD Jim Hackett, a loyal foot soldier who’s kept his word about not talking about life on the front lines, until the mission is accomplished and he returns home. Good for Harbaugh too, a man poised to earn a few million dollars more in the next tax year. He has yet to even twitch despite being besieged with the same question for the past month, whether meeting with the media or talking to the butcher at the deli counter. “Will this order be for here or to go sir… and where will you be going?”

So it appears the two fortresses will continue their white noise at least until Sunday, when the 49ers play their last game of the season. Until then, expect this week’s breaking news to sound something like this:

‘Twas the night before Christmas
And from Cali to Ann Arbaugh,
Not a creature was yapping—
Neither Hackett nor Harbaugh.

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Written by GBMWolverine Writer — Chris Hill

Go Blue — Wear Maize!

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