Lunch with John Harbaugh

[camdenyard]

I attended a vendor presentation today with about 20 others. They hired John to come in over lunch and speak a bit, then to do a Q&A session and take pictures and chat afterwards. He signed footballs for everyone, gave away hats and signed a bunch of other stuff (like my SB ticket). Super nice guy, a little shorter than I thought but he has a presence. Thought I would share some of the Q&As, much of which is not new to many of us but he had some interesting twists.

Book Foreword
He started by reading 2+ pages of text he wrote as a foreword to a book that’s being written (about the season I suppose). It was a summary of the trials and victories. He was quite proud of his work and asked us if we thought it was good (it was).

Cameron
He said the parting was very mutual. They both knew that he wasn’t taking the offense where it needed to go, and Cam agreed with John that it was the only move to make. Still gushes what a great guy he is.

The SB Blackout
He acknowledged that he went overboard with the league official near the end of the blackout (giving him the business). Explained that the NFL wanted to restart play at a certain time and that they were going to take the Ravens’ booth phones away and not give our coordinators time to exit the booth and come down to the field. SF’s phones were dead since the beginning and their people were on the field already. Told the official (paraphrasing) “you’ve already screwed us over with the rock-hard practice field and now you want to screw us again? We’ve already waited 35 minutes, take what time is needed and get it right!”

Jim Harbaugh
He said Jim avoided him all during the lead-up to the game…to the point of excess. In NOLA, John wanted to talk to PK David Akers (John coached him for 10 years in Philly) and Jim wouldn’t let him, saying that John was up to no good. Said the Ravens were much looser as a team that week. I got a distinct impression that Jim is still in denial, and that John was enjoying it all. Obviously tremendous competitiveness between them.

The Last Stand
John said he ordered Pees to not let SF run it in…to blitz every down and make Kap throw it. I asked if the Washington game (when Collins was able to walk in the tying TD) influenced him. He said no, but the Philly game did – recall that Vick (similar style to Kap) ran it in on us late in that game.

Torrey, McPhee
John spent some time talking about the family losses the team experienced. He painted a picture on Torrey’s…got a call at 1:30am and was told that Torrey was in the facility crying his eyes out. Was told he had to drive to Virginia to see his mother. John seemed annoyed that anyone would seriously consider letting him drive, that the team would get someone to drive him. He just assumed that Torrey wasn’t playing against NE. Torrey actually changed his mind a couple times before deciding to play.

The Exodus
He was asked about the players that left. Said it was all economics. Ed wanted $6MM and wasn’t backing off it. Pollard, he got visibly irritated that the public perception was that he was only dumped because he was outspoken. Said he has an open mike policy but with that comes responsibility “not to come off sounding like an idiot”. Said Pollard was $2.5MM and that they knew they could pay less and get the same production.

Rookies
He’s excited about the draft class. Especially the fact that they are all great people, they all love football and they are workout warriors (which he loves). Noted that the Ravens have a part-time stretching coach on staff and all of them were in at 7am learning stretching techniques (you could tell he really liked this).

Leaders
John was asked who would take Ray’s place. He said there would be players to fill the void in their own way – Ray Rice, Joe, Oher (emphasized that he’s been a real leader already), Sizzle. Said that when he came on in 2008, he didn’t understand Ray and thought the dance was too self-promoting. Ray told him why he did it – the fans and the players wanted him to – but he would stop if John wanted him to. John said “No, that is OK, keep doing it”.

2013 Season
John made no bones about it – that the team is better now, and will surprise a lot of people next year.