Why did Jim Harbaugh choose Chargers? Exploring reason behind ex-Michigan HC's return to NFL
Former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh has taken a job in the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers. On the one hand, this is not a surprising decision since the NFL is the pinnacle of professional football. On the other hand, he could have burnished his legacy at Michigan by leading the Wolvernines to even more titles.
Having won the College National Championship this year, Harbaugh could have gone for a repeat that would have cemented his legacy in college football. After Nick Saban's retirement, he was arguably the highest-profile head coach at that level.
However, instead of staying on as a big fish in a smaller pond, he is now trying to replicate his success at the national stage. But the reasons might not be as straightforward as that. Here are some other possible reasons why Jim Harbaugh might have ditched Michigan in favor or the Los Angeles Chargers and the NFL.
#3 - Sibling rivalry could be a factor for Jim Harbaugh
As much as Jim Harbaugh has been the toast of the town after winning the National Championship with Michigan at the college level, he knows he can be usurped this year by his brother John Harbaugh by the time the NFL season ends. The Baltimore Ravens head coach has his team in the AFC Championship already, and they are favorites for the Super Bowl. The NFL veteran also has a ring at his brother's expense when his team defeated Jim Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers.
It was a close game settled by just three points. Yet, the current Chargers coach always has that hanging over him and is always compared to his brother. If he wins the title in Los Angeles in the coming years, he will join an exclusive club of coaches that have won it all at both the college and professional level. Currently, Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer and Pete Carroll are the only members of that clique.
If he were to accomplish that, in one swipe Jim Harbaugh will become a bigger commodity that his brother, and one could see John Harbaugh being compared to his sibling instead. The family rivalry could be a healthy motivation for him to leave Michigan and join the Chargers.
#2 - J.J. McCarthy's college football exit in favor of the NFL might have tipped the scales
As in the NFL, college football coaches need good quarterbacks to win National Championships. Jim Harbaugh was lucky that he had J.J. McCarthy playing quarterback for the Wolverines. The head coach was so happy with his player that he compared McCarthy to Andrew Luck, one of the greatest college prospects of all time.
But the youngster has now declared for the NFL Draft. If Jim Harbaugh had stayed back in Michigan, he would have had to rebuild the team around a different quarterback. And in case he failed, people would have been all over him saying that his success was due to the player he had playing that position. One can see the commentary against Bill Belichick, with people calling the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach a fraud because he failed to win a ring without Tom Brady.
#1 - Current Chargers head coach might have felt slighted by NCAA, Big Ten and Michigan
Even though he finished the season winning the National Championship, it was a tough season for Jim Harbaugh. He was suspended twice, once internally and once externally.
He was suspended by Michigan for three games because of alleged infractions of not pausing recruitment during the COVID-19 dead period, as was required by the NCAA. He was also suspended by the Big Ten conference for Michigan's sign-stealing scandal, in which he was the scapegoat for the program's faults.
Harbaugh might have felt let down by the whole experience and decided that winning the title game is the best way to go out of college football, instead of coming back to an environment where he felt attacked.