Michigan Football: Jim Harbaugh can’t win when he speaks to media

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh started trending on Twitter Wednesday after saying he didn’t think sports would cause further spread of COVID-19.

When you are as well-known and in some cases, as disliked as Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh, people can try to make a lot, out of a little.

And when someone as outspoken as Harbaugh, an intelligent individual who isn’t afraid to speak his mind, opens up, it can create a bit of a firestorm as we have seen more than once during his tenure with the Wolverines.

This is probably why Harbaugh doesn’t do tons of press conferences and interviews. Everything he says is distorted one way or another. When he advocated for football players to have more rights in the process of becoming a professional, he was attacked as doing it out of self interest only.

People said the same thing when he proposed an 11-team playoff, which actually, if you dig into the logic, is a darn-good idea and not just because Michigan football likely would have made the playoff two or three times. It’d make the regular season more exciting all around, but that’s another argument for another day.

On Wednesday, Harbaugh met with the local media via Zoom and said some things that caused a stir such as this when asked about playing football this fall:

"“Yeah, my thoughts would be, it’s a different conversation if there’s no students on campus. If students are on campus, then my personal belief as a parent of a daughter who would also be on campus that this is a safe place. As safe as possible, would be within the University, in our athletic buildings and complexes. That safety precautions that have been put into place. I would feel good with the medical oversight of the students, student athletes. I would want the responsibility. I would want the responsibility of keeping our players safe and also educating them. I would not want to come off of that guard tower of educating and keeping our players safe.”"

He continued to explain that sports, in his opinion, weren’t going to make things worse:

"“Now, if it comes to a point in time where you say that we can’t play, it’s obvious, it’s clear, then everybody would be reasonable and know that was the right thing to do. COVID is part of our society. Wasn’t caused by football or caused by sports. And there’s no expert view right now that I’m aware of that sports is going to make that worse. It’s part of our society, we’re going to have to deal with it.’"

Shortly after Harbaugh said this, his name started trending on Twitter and to be honest, I avoided most of the comments. Some people want to bash Harbaugh no matter what he says and some, even when he takes a very measured approach, as he did Wednesday, still attack him.

As Ethan Sears of the Michigan Daily points out, Harbaugh isn’t an idiot and no one should be surprised that he wants to see football this fall. That’s what these guys do for a living. They eat, sleep and breathe the game. Plus, let’s not pretend that most of us don’t want to watch football this fall too. Certainly, we want it to be safe, but let’s not act like Harbaugh was talking crazy.

Now, the local media didn’t go after Harbaugh. They generally took the stance of he advocated for the season. But, Twitter had a field day it sounds like and why not? Jim Harbaugh said something.

Like him or not, Harbaugh says what he thinks. But he doesn’t speak off the cuff, he gives well-thought responses and people should at least respect him for that. He is right in the sense that sports didn’t cause COVID-19 and as some leagues are showing, it can be managed, at least so far.

Harbaugh also talked about some of the precautions his team is taking, which is a reminder that he knows all about the realities of his virus.

"“They’ve taken it to the extra level where they’re out in public to wear a mask, to socially distance, cooking their own food, shopping. Everything they’re doing, they’ve been a really great example and a force for good.”"

While much of the focus was on his COVID-19 comments, Harbaugh actually talked about the team quite a bit. But a lot of that gets lost because people want to try and turn him into a villain.

Yes, Harbaugh hasn’t beaten Ohio State. But that doesn’t make him a dummy and if you are going to tear him to shreds every time he talks, don’t complain about his media availability.