What happened to Harbaugh's bonus money?
USA Today filed an FOIA request on Harbaugh's pledge to reimburse the athletics department employees who lost money during the pandemic-related pay cuts. Here's the story that came out today.
Good job Coach!!!
Did Harbaugh really pay Howard or am I reading that wrong?
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/jim-harbaugh-said-bonus-money-100054610.html
Thanks for the story and link. I know we talked about this last week a little, but USA Today puts their stories behind a paywall on USA Today.com but offers them free on Yahoo? Weird.
I couldn't see it on USA Today but I found it today on Yahoo. I wonder if it will stay up there long?
I was thinking this might be a hack job on coach
The headline certainly seemed to imply the article was going to contradict Harbaugh's promise. Overall a good read but a clickbait-y headline (probably put forth by an editor and not the writer).
If they FOIA'ed, they absolutely started out hoping it would be a hack job. And it looks like possibly wrote the headline before they got the info back. But alas, Harbaugh continues to be a man of his word.
So Juwan took less money so he was able to get some of it back from Harbaugh. Can't be mad about that.
Men’s basketball coach Juwan Howard received the largest amount — nearly $133,000. Based on calculations by USA TODAY Sports in conjunction with its 2020-21 men’s basketball coaches’ pay survey that were confirmed by Michigan, Howard had been due to take a total reduction of nearly $195,000.
I'm going to speculate that when Coach Harbaugh said he was donating the funds back to the athletic department, to be given to those who took a pay cut.... it had to be across the board to avoid discriminating against anyone.
I'm pretty sure Juwan doesn't need the $$ and is free to keep it or donate it, but they couldn't single him out because he also took a pay cut. I'm sure there will be a few jagoffs from cbus, or just general Michigan haters that will try making a big deal about it, saying Howard was greedy or classless for taking $$ intended for those who needed it.... but that'll always be the case.
Who cares.
It says in the article that anyone in the department who wanted reimbursed was paid. There was nobody less fortunate to take the money from.
Anyone who doesn't get that is probably too dumb for you to be wasting your time arguing with.
"... or just general Michigan haters ..."
Rainer Sabin is burning up the keyboard as we write.
"Juwan Howard gets X times as much bonus money as the average UM AD employee."
Umm... Harbaugh isn't the university.
He could give all, or none of it, to whomever he chooses.
I'm sure there are some tax implications if he takes it and gives it instead of never receiving it. (voluntary pay cut).
There definitely are taxable consequences if he "constructively receives" any funds. It needed to have been never paid to him by the university.
If that is the case point them to the line in the article where it mentions that for people under contract pay reductions were voluntary. Juwan is under contract so the reason he’s getting paid back at all is that he loves this university enough to VOLUNTARILY give up $195k of his own earned money in the first place.
Wow, he covered all of the losses? That's awesome!
In the age of obscene money to players AND coaches, it's nice to see gestures like this.
Beating OSU always leads to good things.
So many people that work for athletic departments make meager salaries. Thumbs up to coach for making them whole.
Ehh... at U of M, the AD pretty much pays the highest salaries for any given job title. Doing the same job in any other university department will generally pay less.
Meager is a very relative term.
See what public school teachers & social workers make compared to 1) the amount of education required for those jobs and 2) the actual benefit to society they produce.
Thanks for posting. It’s good to read the follow-up to Harbaugh’s wonderful gesture.
Coach Jim Harbaugh is the real deal. We are fortunate to have him.
“I didn't know at the time how much would reimburse the whole athletic department,” he said later in the interview. “And I was really happy that we ended up — our team ended up — earning enough to cover, to make it make it a total reimbursement.”
And he gives credit to the team for making it possible. Awesome, coach!
My favorite part too.
This is the thing that no Harbaugh hater ever acknowledges - he NEVER blames his team and will not take credit for their successes! It's always 'I need to do better' when they lose/make mistakes, and 'he/they did good', sometimes he uses 'we' when it all goes right. It is so very different from Rich Rod's blame game and from the crap you hear from other coaches around the country (looking at you, St Nick, Tiny Tom, Dabo, etc).
He's got a huge ego but unlike a lot of his contemporaries he seems able to recognize that he won't be successful without his players and staff and that throwing them under the bus isn't beneficial to anyone.
Tom Izzo and Brian Kelly say “Hi”.
I spent it
Not exactly hookers and blow more like Whole Milk and Lu-Lu-Lemon.
steak and dip?
Steak and whole chocolate milk
Hopefully this story is widely distributed through the media outlets. But I’m betting that it won’t be as visible as the umpteen negative stories.
I know JH didn’t do it for PR but I’m past tired of the stupid speculative BS stories and hit pieces, so it’s only right to give equal time, right? Yeah, right.
Yeah. No. Harbaugh sneezed on the media will be a big story and the pencilneck over at ESPN will be all over that. This one will get a remark somewhere but nothing wide spread. It is a click-baity world.
Just to clarify, did he pledge the money or donate it? Important distinction
Amber turd is not amused
Actually donated. You're right that the distinction is important.
Pretty good moral compass on that Harbaugh fella. Well done, Jimmy. Love to see the media contrast this w/ what goes on at some of the SEC powerhouses (and failures)
Thanks for posting.
I re-read the article because the headline DEFINITELY implies something WRONG.
The ending about Howard was to imply something 'nefarious' going on with Harbaugh & Howard.
I love how much the "media" loves to hate on Michigan.
Almost as much as the referees do.
We must be the most click-bait school on the Inter-webs.
"Michigan vs Everybody" - even the student-athletes know it.
GO BLUE!
This should only endear Coach Harbaugh even more to the Michigan Faithful. He is THE coach for our program!
The title is pure clickbait. I expected to see that Harbaugh spent the entire bonus on these Bo bobbleheads.
I received a Harbaugh bobblehead for Christmas...it was in my office while he flirted with the Vikings...GLAD HE STAYED.
Maybe related… every Event Team Member (usher, ticket scanner, response team, tower staffers, etc) received an extra $50 for last years OSU game. Now you may say “ehh, 50 bucks so what!” but multiply by 600 (700?) workers and we’re talking real money. Thanks Jim? Warde? some anonymous donor?
Yeah, it's really cool how he actually followed up on his promise and gave away $1.5M. And it happened around the same time guys like Tucker and Franklin were seeking huge contract extensions.
Harbaugh isn't perfect by any means but he does have a genuineness to him that isn't common in CFB.
guys like tucker and franklin eat more chicken than beef.....
I don't like the post title. It feels click-bait-y and comes across as negative in tone.
Excellent content though.
Maybe something like "Harbaugh's distribution of his bonus money" would be a better title. A positive tone.
So this dude takes a $4,000,000 pay cut and then wins the big ten and makes the CFP the next year. He then decided to donate his $1,500,000. Yet people still hate on this man. For what!?
I heard he blew it on NFT's