John Harbaugh on the report that Jim's family is urging him to take the Michigan job: "absolutely incorrect"

Submitted by FrankMurphy on

This is from a conference call with the media, so it's all over the Twitters.

John Harbaugh says report Jim Harbaugh's family is urging him to U of Michigan is "absolutely incorrect."

— Tony Grossi (@TonyGrossi) December 24, 2014

EDIT: The full quote is on NFL.com (http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000449127/article/john-harbaugh-family-not-influencing-jim-on-future). Interesting that he mentions Schefter by name.

"The report that says that his family is encouraging him to go to Michigan by Adam Schefter is absolutely incorrect," John Harbaugh said on a conference call with Cleveland media. "There's been no family that I know of that has given him any advice at all. That's a personal decision, that's his to make. And that's just absolutely false. I don't know where that came from, but it didn't come from the Harbaughs. My dad and I both said, don't tell us. If something gets out, we don't want the finger pointed at us. Leave us out of it and don't tell us what you're going to do."
MGoBoard

NRK

December 24th, 2014 at 9:41 PM ^

Ignore him - you were right to point this out and were right on your thought.

Harbaugh admitting that he's encouraging his brother to leave would be tampering. He was preppred and ready. The teams know the Anti-Tampering Rules pretty well.

Joined: 02/20/2009

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NRK

December 24th, 2014 at 9:26 PM ^

Sorry, but you're wrong. That's not what the NFL's Constitution and Bylaws or Anti-Tampering Policy say.

While the rule has been changed since then, go read the background around the Vermeil or Policy/Holmgren Anti-Tampering decisions and you'll see why Harbaugh is saying this.

John Harbaugh is an employee of the Baltimore Ravens, and is restricted from tampering with any coach under contract by another organization. That's in the NFL's constitution and bylaws. The Anti-Tampering policy specifically calls out  "any interference by a member club with the employer-employee relationship of another club"  in addition to trying to hire a coach.

There's a reason John Harbaugh is denying this. If he were to say "yes, I encouraged my brother to breach his contract with the 49ers and go coach UM" he is admitting to violating the Anti-Tampering Policy. Think of it like a tortious interference with a business relationship claim built into the league's rules.

The NFL is not going to crack down on advice that coaches might give each other if its private, and especially when someone's not under contract. But if there is one head coach of another team encouraging another coach to quit, that is tampering.

The most plausible scenario is that John Harbaugh was told by someone, likely an attorney for the Ravens, that he should not publicly admit to encouraging his brother to go to UM, and should in fact deny it so they don't get hit with a tampering charge. In that light, this is probably pure rules CYA by John Harbaugh and the Ravens.

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NRK

December 25th, 2014 at 10:46 AM ^

This might help you understand why I'm not going to do that: Argument from Ignorance

I don't have one, but that does not mean its against the rules. Go read the Constitution and Bylaws and the Anti-Tampering Policy before you start telling people what the Policy allows/doesn't allow.

Specifically, your statement that it only applies to teams negotiationg with coaches is wrong. In '98 Carmen Policy  (Browns) got fined for saying speculative things about a coach he'd like to hire, all of which happened to be true of Holmgren, when asked about hiring Holmgren. He even prefaced the comment that he couldn't comment on Holmgren because that would be tampering.

Also, your argument simply does not make sense. if coaches or other employees discussing jobs did not violate the Policy then every team would just have some low-level employee tamper.

The first line under the Non-Player Section of the Policy states the general rule for anti-tampering for everyone else: "No club, nor any person employed by or otherwise affiliated with a club, is permitted to tamper with a non-player employee of another club."

Giving advice that a coach should breach his contract with his current team clearly fits into this. Look - most of the time these coach-to-coach conversations don't become public so it's a non-issue. Most of the time, these conversations also occur when a coach is not currently under contract. This is a unique situation, but if John Harbaugh is encouraging Jim to leave it is in violation of the rules.

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jsquigg

December 24th, 2014 at 4:00 PM ^

All this means is that the "NFL insiders" were covering their previous hack reporting to try to make it look like there's no way Jim could be interested in a college gig over the NFL unless outside factors were pushing him there.  Guess what?  Jim is interested in the UM job and always has been.  The NFL hacks can suck it.

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FrankMurphy

December 24th, 2014 at 4:02 PM ^

I agree with everyone that this doesn't imply his family doesn't want him to take the job and that John probably means they'll support him no matter what decision he makes. But it does throw cold water on an earlier report that his family and friends are encouraging him to take the Michigan job. If that were true, then John would have given a stock answer, e.g., "I can't speak to Jim's decision process. He'll talk about that when he's ready."

There has been plenty of positive news, vibes, rumors, and bits of insider info in the past week. This one should just just be filed under the negative tab. Hopefully it ends up being meaningless.

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erald01

December 24th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^

At this point it seems pointless..I think we already have a coach and he will be intoduced after christmas. Will find out then who it is. All the signs seem to point towards Harbough, because if not Hackett would have introduced him by now.

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JNewmn26

December 24th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^

Gregg Henson knows more than Jim's family. Hell, he knows more than Jim. Just ask him. He'll tell you. He's the only source for Harbaugh information and a legend in his own mind.

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uminks

December 24th, 2014 at 4:15 PM ^

I wonder if Jim will resign if the 49ers would like him to finish out his contract. Is there any possible way Jim would stay with the 49ers one more season if they do not fire him?

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The Reeve

December 24th, 2014 at 8:26 PM ^

Anything in isolation falls apart with enough paranoid picking. The bottom line is that if this signaled Jim still had interest in an NFL job, then he would pump the brakes with his alma mater so as to 1) not embarrass a school he loves, 2) not burn bridges, and 3) so that they could, like Florida, Nebraska, Wisconsin et al move quickly enough on a new coach so as not to have a recruiting class eviscerated. 

None of this is happening. He would be a fraud, liar and phony if he permitted Michigan to operate in confidence that he was coming, continuing all manner of suicidal behaviors (reputation, no plan B movement, recruiting, etc.) while secretly pursuing NFL options.The current behavior of all parties involved reveals that he has agreed to be the coach. Can an asteroid strike? Yes. But not likely.

 

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m1jjb00

December 24th, 2014 at 10:36 PM ^

I think the key word is "urging", which is open to interpretation.  My own interpretation on this whole thing is that some people are saying, "Jim, I think you'll be happiest at Michigan."  Others are saying, "Jim, follow your heart."  And others are saying, "Jim, we're behind you whatever you decide."  Is the first category, "urging'?  I dunno.  I doubt that the family is doing anything other than trying to help him.  So, I don't see this as contradicting anythin that I already believed.

Whatever will be will be.

 

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