Jim Harbaugh can’t lose

Apparently, it’s possible to play poker, bet big on a hand, fold, and win anyway. At least, it’s possible if you’re Jim Harbaugh.

Last month, I had the wrong read on Harbaugh’s interview with the Vikings, thinking that it was him seeing if he wanted to coach there, rather than the Vikings seeing if Harbaugh was the right fit for them. It seems that Harbaugh also had that read on it, going to Minnesota with the intention of returning to the NFL, and seeming a bit surprised that “I didn’t feel it was that way for both parties.” Minnesota went instead with Rams assistant Kevin O’Connell, a first-time head coach.

The way that it scanned was that if Harbaugh got that far, beyond the whispers and rumors that he might be interested in returning to the NFL, to actually interviewing on-site with an NFL team, that it was because he was leaving Michigan for that NFL job. Before you get to that point, as I wrote, “an NFL rumor could pave the way to getting that contract redone to stay in Ann Arbor.”

But Harbaugh got the new deal anyway, with Michigan announcing a new five-year contract for its head coach. Gone is the five-year contract that Harbaugh signed last January, in the wake of a 2-4 season and the end of a five-year bowl streak. Now, Michigan is fresh off its first Big Ten title in 17 years, its first appearance in the College Football Playoff, and unbeaten by Ohio State for the last 809 days.

When you come crawling back somewhere, you usually don’t wind up getting rewarded for it. Somehow, Harbaugh has. Whether that turns out to be a good idea football-wise, or if 2021 was the peak of the Harbaugh era at Michigan, he comes out of this, somehow, a winner.

And also, the Knicks

There’s nothing I can say about the Knicks after their latest collapse that Stephen A. Smith didn’t get into his rant on ESPN.

It’s hard to believe that it was just two-and-a-half months ago that I was thankful for this team. We’ll always have… the one playoff series that they made.