losses piled up and
critics piled on Lions stayed
the same old Lions

They mocked him in the beginning, convinced he was going to end up just like the rest, run out of town within a few years because nothing had changed. Nothing ever changed in Detroit. Then they ripped him during the climb for being too honest, for being too out there, for having the nerve to think some sort of miraculous turnaround was coming, even as the losses piled up and the critics piled on and the Lions stayed the same old Lions.

From The genius of Dan Campbell: ‘He’s the best leader I’ve ever been around’ by Zak Keefer in the New York Times on Jan 15, 2025

culture easy to
identify difficult to
define – a rare skill

Culture is easy to identify but difficult to define. You know a good one when you see it, when you feel it. Understanding the specifics of what it takes to build one? That is a rare skill.

Harbaugh has changed the Chargers’ culture in one season. The Chargers went from 5-12 in 2023 to 11-6 in 2024. They are in the playoffs and will play at the Houston Texans in the wild-card round on Saturday afternoon.

How did he do it? The trust exists in the moments. In doing up-downs in front of the team. In reciting Black Eyed Peas lyrics. In wearing Jordan cleats to every practice while doing drills with his players. In wearing powder blue gloves on game day while catching passes from Herbert.

The process cannot be faked. It cannot be rushed. This culture was built day by day, brick by brick, steady and gradual. It was proven and reinforced by, as Slater put it, “Coach Harbaugh being Coach Harbaugh.”

“You don’t really get buy-in if people don’t look at you and say, ‘He’s being authentic. He’s being real,” Slater said. “He’s so vulnerable and OK with just being goofy like that — because that’s just how he is — that you have no choice but to respect it.”

From How Jim Harbaugh built the Chargers culture: Black Eyed Peas, blue-collar gifts, authenticity by Daniel Popper, Jan 9, 2025, in the Athletic (click here for PDF).

I hear you Mr. Popper.

I agree with you Mr. Popper.

Still, in the early years of Mr. Harbaugh coaching on the University of Michigan, I got my Doctor to write, Suffers from Harbaugh on my chart (he was a Notre Dame Grad) but my insurance refused to cover it.

I went to school with Jimmy Harbaugh.

Saw him often in the hallways of buildings of the University of Michigan.

Doubt he ever saw me.

I admit he can make athletes achieve things they didn’t know they could and as long as you win, the show works.

And I enjoyed that Championship season very much and thank you.

But in my book, you will always be, Jim “I lost the Brown Jug” Harbaugh.

Time can’t change that.

meaningless for them and
meaningless for us – this is
just fairytale stuff

“That’s the only way we know. It’s just go and find a way to win,” Goff said. “This is what ended our season last year. There’s a lot of guys on this team that were there last year that wanted to get one back on them even though in a lot of ways it was meaningless for them and it was meaningless for us.”

The stakes for this game were miniscule compared to the last meeting between the teams when a berth in the Super Bowl was on the line last January.

San Francisco was eliminated from playoff contention last week and Detroit plays Minnesota in the regular-season finale next week, with the winner earning the NFC North title and top seed in the NFC playoffs, and the loser relegated to being the first 14-win wild-card team in NFL history.

“This is just fairytale stuff,” Campbell said.

Had the Vikings lost on Sunday, Detroit could have clinched the division and No 1 seed on Monday night. But now the win against the 49ers would only matter if Detroit and Minnesota tie in Week 18, with the Lions now set to earn the No 1 seed in that unlikely scenario.

Campbell said he considered resting some starters but decided it would be unfair to the backups who hadn’t prepared and the starters who still would have had to play. It all worked out, with the Lions getting the win and coming out healthy.

“I ended up settling on the right thing to do was playing those guys,” he said. “We owed it to the team. … That was tough. I think the biggest thing is there was things we wanted to do better than we did last week, and we did.”

Dan Campbell, Head Coach of the Detroit Lions on beating the San Francisco 49ers as told in the article, Goff and Lions see off 49ers 40-34 in tune-up for Week 18 showdown.

didn’t want to play
if don’t want to, ain’t got to …
he ain’t want to play

Matt Barrows and Jimmy Durkin write in their New York Times article, 49ers’ De’Vondre Campbell refuses to play, quits TNF game in third quarter that:

Following their 12-6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said linebacker De’Vondre Campbell Sr. told the team he didn’t want to play and he left the field in the third quarter of the “Thursday Night Football” matchup.

“He said he didn’t want to play today,” Shanahan said postgame, noting the team wanted him to replace Dre Greenlaw when the linebacker left the game in the third quarter with some soreness. Greenlaw was playing for the first time since tearing his Achilles in the Super Bowl and was expected to play limited snaps. Greenlaw replaced Campbell in the starting lineup.

Dre Greenlaw was quoted in the same article, saying “He didn’t want to play so I guess if you don’t want to play, you ain’t got to play. He ain’t want to play.”

Got to repeat that.

He didn’t want to play so I guess if you don’t want to play, you ain’t got to play. He ain’t want to play.

Mr. Greenlaw, I feel I have to mention, is a graduate of the University of Arkansas.

Somewhere in the back of my mind is this bit of history about the World Wide Web but I cannot recall the fellers name in question.

But he traveled the major college circuit trying to build up interest in this thing called the ‘Internetwork of Computers’.

One problem this feller had, he said, was getting past the fact that he had a southern accent and came from the University of Arkansas.

With those two things going for him, he said, college people had a hard time taking him seriously.

Welllll

If you don’t want to play so I guess if you don’t want to play, you ain’t got to play and they ain’t want to play.

Or words that affect.

people are greatly
roused up over the defeats
coaching is main thing

Dear sir:

Mr. George Huff handed me your letter to him of December 27th and requested me to answer for him. Illinois has secured coaches for 1901 but Michigan has not yet selected hers, although we shall do so very soon.

We won the Western Football Championship for several years, namely 93, 94 and 95. Since then, however, we have won the championship but once, namely in ’98. This has been largely due, I think, to unsatisfactory coaching, though I believe our failure this year was mostly due to the fact that we have a green team, as we had only three old men back.

Our people are greatly roused up over the defeats of the past two years, and a great effort will be made. Alumni everywhere have promised to cooperate, and as we will have three-fourths of the old men back the outlook is splendid. Coaching is the main thing bothering us now.

Would you care to coach at Ann Arbor? What terms? Do you expect to come east soon? If so, could you stop and talk the matter over with us?

If you receive this before you start east, will you please wire me at once whether or not you care to consider the matter and if so, whether you can talk the matter over.

Yours truly,

Chas. Baird

Charles Baird, Athletic Director of the University of Michigan to Fielding H. Yost on January 5, 1901 as reproduced in the book, Stagg vs. Yost : the birth of cutthroat football by John Kryk. Lanham, Maryland, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2015.

Mr. Kryk writes, “Yost would be the first UM football coach who wasn’t either a former star player at Princeton or Yale or a UM grad. In fact, in 1901, Yost would be the only coach among the seven schools good at football at the time who hadn’t learned his craft at one of the Big Four universities in the East. That Michigan would hire this gregarious nomad with personal and educational pedigrees unlikely to impress Western athletic men, let alone any easterners, spoke to the heights of Yost’s coaching overachievements thus far. Such heights were nothing compared to those he was about to reach at Michigan.”

In a caption to a photograph of Mr. Yost, Kryk write, “Fielding H. Yost had more personality than any man I have ever met,” according to Ring Lardner.”

And that’s good enough for me.