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Another year and another coaching vacancy has the rumor mill whispering the name Jim Harbaugh as the most wanted replacement. The pining will have to continue though, because it appears that Harbaugh is pretty adamant about saying in Michigan. Why wouldn't he want to stay at his alma mater where he gets paid a ton of money to bring his college team back to glory?
The latest advance that has people wondering if Jim Harbaugh will leave the Michigan Wolverines after just 2 seasons is the job opening created when the Los Angeles Rams fired coach Jeff Fisher. One of the key voices that criticized Fisher before his termination was Eric Dickerson who immediately floated Harbaugh as his top choice as successor.
To this, Harbaugh says no and that any rumors regarding him as leaving the University of Michigan are just lies created by his enemies. The paranoia apparently runs deep with Harbaugh because he believes that there are 3 head coaches that love to spread these rumors to advance their own agendas, though he did not name those coaches specifically.
"I'm not leaving Michigan," Harbaugh the Detroit Free Press, "Not even considering it. A lot of this talk is coming from our enemies, from coaches, you know the names. You probably know the names of the top three I'm referring to. They like to say that to the media. They like to tell that to the recruits, to their families, try to manipulate them into going to some other school besides Michigan."
This reeks of the same type of personality trait from all-time greats like Michael Jordan and LeBron James who are both notorious for creating chips for their shoulders even when they don't belong there. This is a classic example of that because the rumors start because of the desire people have of luring Harbaugh away because he is a good coach, it doesn't have to be nefarious.
It's that simple really, the rumors are there because people just want him to lead their team whether he has any interest in doing so. This is the problem with being a good coach who has lead multiple successful teams. It's the same reason the Miami Dolphins interviewed him to be their coach while they still had a head coach employed and the same reason why the Raiders doggedly pursued him before he chose to go to Michigan.
Of course, Harbaugh explained this to his team in a most classic Harbaugh way. He referenced an old school term that most of the kids on his team have probably rarely heard by calling them jive turkeys.
"We know them as jive turkeys. Say it like it is. that's the way it is."
One of the Wolverines players, safety Dymonte Thomas, associated the saying to Jim Harbaugh quoting the movie Tropic Thunder which makes it even more hilarious because it's much more likely that Harbaugh just still uses old slang like that regularly.
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