If you expected John Harbaugh to be a bellicose tyrant who ranted about everything and turned the New York Giants into a no-fun team, you are likely disappointed.
Harbaugh’s recent reaction to Cam Skattebo’s recent failed backlip was a joking “Dude, at least stick it.”
He reacted with a similar blaise attitude to Jaxson Dart’s leap off a yacht after an impressive long throw to someone on a jet ski.
“I was impressed by the yacht. I thought it was pretty nice,” Harbaugh said. “The surroundings looked
amazing. It’s like, dude, where are you? Like, I mean, I don’t even know. But more than anything, I just was happy that he threw a dime out there on the on the deal. It was a very accurate throw.”
Gary Myers recently asked Harbaugh about his casual responses.
“He throws the ball off a yacht to a jet ski. Am I supposed to get mad about that?” Harbaugh told me. “I’m just happy he completed it, to be honest with you.”
The jump off the yacht?
“It’s just water. He jumped into the water. So, he should be alright if he can swim,” he said. “I guess he can swim. I’m not worried about things that aren’t too important.”
Myers got this fantastic tidbit from Harbaugh on why he can seem so unconcerned about things that have some in the fan base up in arms:
Harbaugh said the mistake young coaches make is they start thinking everything “is a reflection on them and the program they’re running. It’s not like that. When you start thinking like that, you overreact to things. You make things more important than they are and blow things out of proportion. So I have definitely have learned that lesson over the years.”
Valentine’s View
I have to love this. Harbaugh worked with these young men all spring. He knows their work ethic, and he knows they care about their profession. He also knows that they are single men in their early 20s doing things single men in the early 20s will do when given the opportunity.
It’s just not that big of a deal that people choose to have fun when they aren’t working.
Harbaugh, as I have found out in a couple of personal conversations, does not yell, belittle, or issue ultimatums when he isn’t happy. He has a quiet way of letting you know he isn’t happy simply by the fact that you are having a discussion.
I won’t be surprised if he has such discussions with Dart and Skattebo to simply remind them that sometimes the optics of things that seem innocent can cause an unintended reaction.
