Photo Credit: Melanie Maxwell/The Ann Arbor NewsÂ
As much as it may hurt some to hear it, Jim Harbaugh does not belong in the NFL and he probably won’t again. Harbaugh wanted to move on and he did, but why doesn’t everyone else? Why cling to an idea that is most likely never going to happen again? Certainly strange things have happened in sports before, but Jim Harbaugh making an NFL comeback as a coach seems highly unlikely.
Reason one has to be due to his success in college football already. As an NFL coach, Harbaugh was pretty successful during his time with the San Francisco 49ers, even leading them to a Super Bowl.  Starting this year at Michigan has to be a similar feeling for Harbaugh, because, after their first loss against Utah, Harbaugh was able to rally his team around him and win their next five games before their unfortunate loss to Michigan State. As a former Wolverine himself, Harbaugh has to feel an even more personal bond than he would to with a different team.
The second reason has to be that Harbaugh is happy where he is and it shows. His ability to completely turn around Michigan’s football program should speak volumes to that. After former coach Brady Hoke was fired, some would refer back to his inability to bring the team wins; especially in his last season where Michigan ended up going 5-7, but Harbaugh has brought hope back to the program. It is easy to see how happy he is by the way he acts and talk about the program. As a former football player and alum of Michigan, Harbaugh has pride in his school and his job which is something that almost any coach needs to have in order to be successful. From what Harbaugh has been saying recently, he has no intention of leaving Michigan either, “I won’t comment on it. It’s disrespectful to the game. I look at it as disrespectful” which is the most appropriate response he could give on a matter that really has nothing to do with Harbaugh at all.
The last reason that Harbaugh doesn’t belong in the NFL has to be how his career ended with the 49ers. While it seemed like it was a mutual decision, Harbaugh has completely debunked that. When asked about it, Harbaugh did not hold back, “That’s the truth of it. I didn’t leave the 49ers, I felt like the 49er hierarchy left me” which is not only an extremely powerful statement for a former coach to make but also a pretty courageous decision. His relationship with the NFL seems to be severed for now, especially with the 49ers and if he went back to the NFL now, what message would that send? It would show that Harbaugh essentially didn’t care about Michigan at all and that he took another opportunity as soon as he could without even finishing what he had started.
Even when he was basically fired from the 49ers after their first loss in 2014, Harbaugh continued to stay there until the season was over and was quoted as saying, “I wanted to finish what I started — what we started.”
If Harbaugh wouldn’t quit on the 49ers, why would he leave Michigan then? Harbaugh’s new job is a change that both he, the 49ers and Michigan all needed. If Harbaugh would go back to the NFL, he would give up on his job at Michigan and Harbaugh has shown that he’s not a quitter. Harbaugh’s quote on how it’s “disrespectful” has only fueled this idea and even though Michigan suffered a devasting loss to Michigan State last week, Harbaugh has shown that he can bounce back and that he will put his all into his team.
