MMQB Harbaugh Story
This story in Peter King's MMQB about the Harbaughs playing basketball last year on vacation is just fantastic (told from John's point of view):
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/03/13/nfl-free-agency-patriots-browns-49er…
Harbaugh on vacationing with brother Jim’s family: “No one is more competitive than him. He has a bunch of kids now, young kids. Just had a baby, John Paul. … Last Memorial Day we did vacation together. My wife and I have a cottage up north in Michigan on Lake Huron. We get Jim to drive up with the kids and all that, and we have a basketball hoop in the front yard in the driveway and we were going to play a little game with the kids and we just started shooting around and next thing you know it was a 4-on-4 game. It was Jack, who is two-and-a-half, Addy who is six, Katie who is four-and-a-half or five at the time, Allison who is 13 or 14 and she is a little basketball player, and Jim and me and Sarah, my wife. We're playing and you can picture the kind of game it is, right? Allison happens to hit a couple jumpers and we're playing to seven, and we're up maybe 5-1. Next thing you know, Jim starts going over the top of Allison for rebounds, he's boxing her out 10 feet away from the basket. Next thing you know, it's 5-5 and Jim has made all the shots for his team of course. I'm like, you know, maybe Addy would like to touch the ball? Maybe Katie or Jack could dribble a little bit now and then? It goes 6-6 and a long rebound comes out the side, he goes and gets it. I see Allison happens to be over there, so I see him going to the basket, he's going to take Allison to the hole, you know, he's about 6-3, 235, so I'm going to go cut him off. I get him with my right arm bar across his chest and I'm trying to body check him into the pricker bushes behind the driveway and he just powers his way to the basket, lays one over the top, a reverse layup off the board and all he could talk about is how he won. He picks up Jack and says, 'Doesn't it feel great Jack, to win? Doesn't it feel great to win?' An hour later we were crossing paths in the backyard to go get a soda or something, and he looks me right in the eye and he says, ‘Hey John, have you won anything yet?’”
I'm trying to body check him into the pricker bushes behind the driveway
Damn, this whole thing made laugh. The entire Harbaugh family provides endless entertainment. Thanks for posting!
March 13th, 2017 at 10:07 AM ^
Haha--I had just highlighted this section and I was going to paste it into my comment, but then I scrolled down and saw that you beat me to it. A competitive bunch, those Harbaughs.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:20 AM ^
It's hilarious! I remember playing hoops with my dad when I was young and we had this horribly sharp tiny pine tree right behind the hoop. If you made it through a game of one-on-one without getting slammed into that tree, you really had a good game.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:22 AM ^
SoDak Blues copies and pastes so much faster than you.
901 P, have you won anything yet?
It's contagious....
March 13th, 2017 at 10:34 AM ^
I would never play poker against John Harbaugh. He's trying to pass it off as, "Look at Jim, boy he sure is competative," but John was straight up trying to DRAW BLOOD.
John strikes me as the kind of poker player to sandbag himself for the first few hands... then next thing you know, you are sweating big time with your mortgage on the table, while John is smiling and saying, "What the heck: might as welll see if my luck can hold out a little while longer," whille sitting on a queen-high straight.
Something about Jim tells me he doesn't have a great poker face.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
would have been if Crean was there and Jim posterized him on that final shot. "Won anything lately Crean?"
March 13th, 2017 at 11:23 AM ^
YOU RUINED THE GAME, TOM!
March 13th, 2017 at 10:04 AM ^
!!! This is hilarious. Great thing is my wife loves Harbaugh and his penchant for winning so she's all for Harbaughisms in the house when we have kids!
March 13th, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^
out loud in my office. That last chirp by Jim is hilarious, "Have you won anything yet?".
March 13th, 2017 at 10:26 AM ^
March 13th, 2017 at 10:09 AM ^
crabcakes and winning thats what Harbaugh does
March 13th, 2017 at 10:15 AM ^
Jim Harbaugh in family jedi competition
March 13th, 2017 at 10:22 AM ^
Love it.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:25 AM ^
March 13th, 2017 at 10:30 AM ^
I thought the same thing. On the surface it's funny, but when your older brother has to keep you from running over your daughter to win a "friendly" game of basketball, that seems a bit much. I guess that competitive drive is what makes Harbaugh though.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^
will win participation trophies, and the Harbaughs make millions of dollars a year to coach at the highest levels.
Don't take offense, it's a fair point, as Jim Harbaugh is about 8 standard deviations outside the norm when it comes to competitiveness and it's obviously not for everyone...but not everybody is a Harbaugh. Most people are Brady Hokes and are content with mediocrity and a slap on the back.
Per the kids, better he is competitive and too serious for himself so long as he isn't the soccer dad putting pressure on the kids and yelling and screaming at them from the sideline. That said, he probably does / would do that too. Thankfully he has the whole coaching football 18 hours a day thing as an outlet which probably helps keep his kids and wife insulated from him and sane.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^
I think the "participation trophies" comment is over the top. There's a healthy balance between competition and fun that most people can walk. Just because someone isn't win at all costs doesn't mean that they just show up and go through the motions.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:50 AM ^
If you read the rest of my post it kind of explained that. No doubt he's out there and it can probably be exasperating for the family, which is why it's great he has the job that he does - for both them and all of us.
March 13th, 2017 at 11:39 AM ^
March 13th, 2017 at 12:25 PM ^
It's who he is, the kids will have never known any differently. It's very much outside the norm, but their entire lives are going to be that way. There's going to be a lot of great and unique experiences they'll be so fortunate to a part of, and yes there will be a lot of pressure. It's going to be an out loud life for them. But it's not something Harbaugh can temper.
IMO most who attempt to achieve have a strong fear of failure. I wasn't pushed at all, I sometimes blame that for not being prepared to take on challenges, especially when I was younger.
How do you explain that the one that actually won the Super Bowl isn't the one that acts like that in that situation? How did he get to the top without that extra level of crazy over competitiveness that his brother has which you claim is necessary? How many other champions in anything would bull their way over a 13 year old niece that you're twice the size of? How many would be moving that fast, hard, rough and out of control on the same court as their 3, 4 and 6 year olds?
I mean I was MacEnroe + Steve Grote + Seething sideline Jabrill in competitiveness and intensity whenever I played sports, but I would never go hard at/with little kids half my size or a 5th my size like the littlest one must be. That's insane.
March 13th, 2017 at 11:10 AM ^
I think Jim let the kids have fun for a while; that's how it got to be 5-1 before he took over. If he had been "too" serious, it would never have been 5-1.
March 13th, 2017 at 11:38 AM ^
To me, that's the perfect illustration that he takes it too seriously. Coach might as well say "OK kids, have fun unless it means I have to lose". That's not a very good lesson to teach your kids in my opinion.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:26 AM ^
Surprised John didn't mention the Super Bowl victory over Jim lol
March 13th, 2017 at 11:05 AM ^
I'm sure John knows that loss eats at Jim every day. He doesn't need to mention it.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:29 AM ^
I'd probably just hold up my Super Bowl ring.
"Yeah, bro. I won this Super Bowl ring this one time...."
March 13th, 2017 at 10:59 AM ^
I hate to say it, but that would have been my answer as well if I were in his poisition.
The story did make me laugh though, mainly because there is only one family that I know of where this scene would play out and it would be totally believeable.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^
March 13th, 2017 at 10:38 AM ^
March 13th, 2017 at 10:47 AM ^
March 13th, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^
Told my wife about the leaders eat last statement and my 5 year old son overheard it. So every time he has to stand in line for something, he's at the end. I asked him why are you always at the back of the line he replied you said " leaders go last." My wife looked at me and laughed.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^
March 13th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^
Above the Harbaugh family bball game story was an interesting blurb about TPeezy and free agency.
Everybody got paid, except Terrelle Pryor. He should still be a Brown, but this was a bad misjudgment of the market by Pryor.
He's been making bad misjudgments since 2008. So at least he's consistent.
March 13th, 2017 at 11:32 AM ^
A bad misjudgment is a good judgment.
March 13th, 2017 at 11:56 AM ^
"bad" is acting as an adverb.
If you're gonna correct the grammar, at least be right about it
I am right about it.
March 13th, 2017 at 11:03 AM ^
That's awesome. You play to win. Always couldn't stand the people who said I took sports too seriously and that it's just a game. Those are the people sitting at home on welfare now freeloading off of my tax money.
March 13th, 2017 at 11:18 AM ^
March 13th, 2017 at 12:05 PM ^
Didn't give it to Jack because he didn't want him to get called for traveling.
March 13th, 2017 at 12:07 PM ^
If I'm a parent of a recruit and I have a neutral or unfavorable impression, a story like this (and there seem to be many) is going to make me want to put my child in the care of another coach. Can't see why I'd give him the benefit of the doubt to try to change my impression. Of course, I'd have major concerns about my kid playing for most coaches (especially Saban and Meyer).
March 13th, 2017 at 12:13 PM ^
He gets his guys to the NFL. He runs (by all accounts) a clean program. The kids play hard for him and say good things about him. As I said above, I'm glad I wasn't his son, but I'm glad he's our coach, and I'd let my own son play for him in a second.
March 13th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^
I much prefer those other 3 locker rooms you mentioned.
March 13th, 2017 at 12:49 PM ^
What is the Penn State rumor? I believe I'm familiar with the others
March 15th, 2017 at 12:18 PM ^
Based on what I know, I would love to have my kid play for Harbaugh. While Im not a fan of the behavior described in this story, I have enough other information to counterbalance it. If I had a neutral or negative view of Harbaugh, this story wouldn't help.
March 13th, 2017 at 12:27 PM ^
LOL .....the disconnect between a humorous anecdote about a family gathering and fear that an 18yr old recuit will have his life ruined by Harbaugh's intensity.
Safe to say, any kid being recruited by MICHIGAN is going to know Coach and Staff far better than one story, likely told intentionally exaggerated and with some levity.
And ...being a big brother my whole life, I can attest to having had some ofh the fiercest competitions with my sibling and family -- cuz theyre family.
