Wonder if that helped him get the job.
John Harbaugh got a big endorsement when President Donald Trump recommended him for the New York Giants job earlier this month. And in his introductory press conference with his new team, Harbaugh seemed to embrace the president’s support.
Of course you knew Harbaugh wouldn’t be on the market for long after being fired by the Baltimore Ravens on January 6, following a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers that ended up knocking his team out of the NFL playoffs.
The Super Bowl-winning coach, who had been with the Ravens for 18 seasons, making him one of the longest-tenured head coaches in the league, and is the only NFL coach in history to win a playoff game in each of his first five seasons. He finished with a 193-124 record in Baltimore, and was rightfully viewed as one of the top – if not THE top – head coach on the market in a season when some surprising teams decided to make coaching changes.
Sure enough, Harbaugh wasn’t on the market very long. It was reported that the Giants, the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans were all interested in hiring Harbaugh, but after his interview in New York it was clear that the Giants had emerged as the frontrunner for his services.
And from the beginning, one man was pushing HARD for the Giants to hire Harbaugh: President Donald Trump.
In a post to his Truth Social, the president issued a glowing endorsement of the coach and encouraged the Giants to get a deal done to bring him to New York:
Harbaugh and his brother, Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh, were at the White House last summer visiting with President Trump, a visit that the coach said was “amazing” after the media tried to bait him into criticizing the president:
Well, after negotiating a contract that would allow him to report directly to owner John Mara, Harbaugh was officially announced as the next head coach for the Giants earlier this week. And though it may finally mean there’s some hope for Giants fans after all, it seems nobody was happier with the hire than Trump:
During his introductory press conference with the Giants today, Harbaugh was asked about having the president’s endorsement, and the coach embraced the support – while jokingly wondering whether Mara had put the president up to issuing his statement:
“It feels really great. And I’ll tell you, I also noticed on that post he said, ‘And John, take the job,’ so I thought John Mara might’ve had something to do with that. I don’t know.
But it’s cool, and it’s sports, you know, it’s sports. And everybody’s excited, everybody follows it at every level. People follow football, they follow the Giants, they follow the National Football League. Like we said, it’s the biggest sport, you know? And this is – it’s the most iconic franchise in the biggest sport, so here we are.”
Now, there’s probably a lot of pressure on Harbaugh to win and win fast knowing that President Trump put his own reputation on the line to endorse him. I mean, can you imagine what a bunch of New Yorkers are going to say if Trump’s chosen candidate comes into New York and is a total failure?
Luckily it wasn’t exactly going out on a limb to suggest that the Giants should hire Harbaugh. Pretty much any football fan will tell you it’s a home run hire for a team that desperately needs the help.
But for everybody’s sake, I hope Harbaugh doesn’t let Trump – or Giants fans – down.
