Jim Harbaugh

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh turned back the clock on Monday during training camp.

Harbaugh, who spent 14 years as a quarterback in the NFL, got some throws in during practice as he completed a pass to tight end Zach Heins.

The 60-year-old is far removed from his playing days, as he took his last NFL snap as a member of the Chargers during the 2000 season. He also played for the Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, and Indianapolis Colts.

Harbaugh previously reminisced about his time on the field with Los Angeles receiver Joshua Palmer during Sunday's practice, as he discussed his playing style compared to Tom Brady and Lamar Jackson.

"I couldn't throw as good as Lamar or Tom and couldn't run as good as Lamar," Harbaugh said. "But I was a pretty mobile quarterback."

Harbaugh was hired by the Chargers on Jan. 24 following a successful stint at Michigan, his alma mater. The Wolverines finished with a perfect 15-0 record in 2023, defeating Washington in the College Football Playoff National Championship.

He'll look to bring sustained success to Los Angeles, as the team has missed the playoffs in four of the past five seasons. After the Chargers finished with the third-best passing attack in the NFL during their 2022 season, they fell to the No. 13 spot in 2023 as Justin Herbert missed time due to a fractured finger.

Although Herbert was diagnosed with an injury to the plantar fascia in his right foot on Thursday, he's still expected to be ready for the start of the regular season. While Harbaugh will be patrolling the sidelines, Los Angeles will look to bounce back in 2024 with a healthy quarterback under center.

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh has an eclectic personality, so it makes sense his music playlist would feature a wide range of styles.

The Chargers posted Harbaugh's playlist prior to Wednesday's practice which included selections from Phil Collins, Yo Gotti, Moneybagg Yo, Meek Mill and Def Leppard.

Harbaugh's musical taste is even more broad than this list would suggest. Leading up to the College Football Playoff Championship Game in January, multiple Michigan players talked about his love of "Defying Gravity" from the musical Wicked.

He also showed off his own voice in April by singing the Michigan fight song after Wolverines players Blake Corum, Roman Wilson and Zak Zinter were drafted back-to-back-to-back in the third round of the 2024 NFL draft.

It's not a surprise that Harbaugh's list would lean primarily into sounds of the 80s. He was in his late-teens when that decade began, played college football at Michigan in the mid-80s and was in the NFL by 1987.

Studies have shown the most important period for men in forming their musical taste is between the ages of 13 to 16. None of the songs on Harbaugh's list came out during that period of his life, but "In the Air Tonight" and "Eye of the Tiger" were released as singles before he turned 20.

Songs like "Eye of the Tiger" and "Dreams and Nightmares" have become staples at sporting events. The Philadelphia Eagles have used Meek Mill's song as their anthem since their run to Super Bowl 52 during the 2017 season.

Whether or not Harbaugh's diverse taste in music actually helps him as a coach could be debated, but his teams have always produced results. The 60-year-old has a 188-71-1 career record in 20 seasons between the NFL and college.

The Chargers will be happy if that trend continues as they look to rebound from a 5-12 record last season when Brandon Staley was their head coach for most of the year.

Jim Harbaugh has reportedly been making Justin Herbert wear a yellow practice jersey, and not the standard red that quarterbacks normally don, for reasons that only Jim Harbaugh could contrive.

"It's because, supposedly, (Jim) Harbaugh wants everyone to know that Justin's that gold standard, but also, a gold halo, meaning you better not get within three yards of this guy or your butt's getting cut," Herbert's former backup, Chase Daniel, told The Athletic's Dianna Russini on Tuesday.

"I know he hates it," Daniel added. "I know Herbert hates it. I saw a quote like, 'Yeah, Harbaugh's making me so I've got to do it.'"

For what it's worth, backup Eason Stick eventually received his own gold jersey, but Daniel noted Herbert was by himself at the start of training camp.

It's the sort of thing that Harbaugh would do. He's a very successful head coach at both the college and NFL levels, but he absolutely marches to the beat of his own drum.

If he revitalizes the Chargers, however, Herbert and the fan base won't care one lick about the color of his practice jersey.

Los Angeles Chargers first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh is quite excited as the Bolts embark on training camp, so much so that he equated the first day back to "being born" and "coming out of the womb."

Harbaugh just capped a nine-year stint as the head coach of Michigan, his alma mater, with a 15-0 season and a national championship. He's now embarking on a new challenge with the Chargers, who have not made the playoffs since 2018.

Harbaugh, a former NFL quarterback who played in the league from 1987-2001, is getting his second crack at coaching a pro team. His first stint was an undeniable success, as he took a previously downtrodden 49ers squad (eight straight non-winning seasons before his arrival) to three consecutive NFC Championships from 2011-2013, winning one. Harbaugh went 44-19-1 in four years in San Francisco before leaving for Michigan.

It wouldn't be a surprise to see Harbaugh engineer similar success in L.A. He has a great track record of turning around struggling programs and leading them to victory, with another example including his time at Stanford. Having Justin Herbert under center doesn't hurt.

For now, Harbaugh's optimism appears sky-high as the Bolts prepare for the 2024 season, which begins Sept. 8 at home against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Jim Harbaugh sure knows how to welcome a new team to a new season.

The Los Angeles Chargers head coach opened up his first training camp back in the NFL by narrating a quote that is hanging in the locker room.

"We predict those who stay will be champions," he said in something of a nod to his previous coaching job since the Michigan Wolverines famously say "those who stay will be champions."

Here is the full quote that can be seen at the end of the video:

"Welcome to the 2024 Chargers locker room, your football home.

"We want to compliment all who have earned the opportunity to get here and recognize the journey traveled to now be playing at the highest level of football.

"None here were born on third base, but rather had to work their way to first, then second, then third.

"Congratulations on taking your life circumstances and turning them into success.

"By your talent and effort you will be known.

"We predict that those who stay will be champions. And those who produce will stay.

"A piece of advice if I may: Treat others as you would want to be treated. Any respect you give will be returned and then some, I've noticed.

"We are all now on third base, together, poised to bring it home."

Michigan fans will surely notice another part of Harbaugh's narration and quote.

The head coach saying that "none here were born on third base" evokes his previous criticism of Ohio State head coach Ryan Day. When Harbaugh was still with the Wolverines, he famously said of Day that some people "standing on third base, think they hit a triple."

Day did not have any head coaching experience when he took over the Buckeyes starting with the 2019 season. He inherited a program that was seemingly operating on all cylinders following Urban Meyer's seven years at the helm.

Meyer went 83-9 overall and 7-0 against Michigan during his tenure. He also won a national championship with the Buckeyes, which was the third of his college football coaching career.

While Day has kept Ohio State among the country's best, he has not won a national title. He also hasn't won a Big Ten championship since the 2020 campaign, and, most notably when it comes to any rivalry with Harbaugh, has seen the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry switch under his watch.

The Buckeyes lost The Game just twice from 2001 until 2021, when the Wolverines won their first of three straight. Michigan also won the Big Ten in each of the last three seasons and enter the 2024 campaign as reigning College Football Playoff national champions.

Perhaps things will once again swing in Ohio State's favor with Harbaugh now in the NFL, but the former Michigan coach clearly couldn't miss an opportunity to get one more dig in before starting a new season with the Chargers.

Los Angeles fans will likely delight in having a coach who isn't afraid to mix it up with his rivals, as the team has to deal with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West.

Kansas City has won back-to-back Super Bowls and three of the last five Lombardi Trophies. It is the gold standard of the NFL with one of the best quarterbacks in league history under center and still just 28 years old.

It will be up to Harbaugh, Justin Herbert and Co. to turn things around in the division if the Chargers are going to become champions like the coach predicted in his quote.

Fortunately for Los Angeles, he has a history of turning rivalries around.

Netflix's UNTOLD documentary series will return this summer with episodes about the murder of NFL legend Steve McNair, Michigan football's sign stealing scandal and Hope Solo's battle against U.S. Soccer.

The three-week event will start Aug. 20 with the premiere of UNTOLD: The Murder of Air McNair, which is directed by Rodney Lucas and Taylor Alexander Ward. UNTOLD: Sign Stealer, directed by Micah Brown, premiers Aug. 27 and UNTOLD: Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer, directed by Nina Meredith, premiers Sept. 3.

McNair, a three-time Pro Bowler and 2003 co-MVP, was shot and killed by Sahel "Jenni" Kazemi, his 20-year-old mistress, on July 4, 2009. Kazemi shot McNair while he was asleep on her couch and then shot herself in the head in a murder-suicide.

McNair played for the Tennessee Titans franchise from 1995 to 2005 and the Baltimore Ravens from 2006 to 2007. The Titans held a two-day memorial for McNair following his death and have retired his No. 9 jersey.

Michigan's sign-stealing scandal took place just last year and centered on assistant Connor Stalions, who devised a scheme to steal the signals of opponents, seemingly behind the back of head coach Jim Harbaugh. An NCAA investigation found Harbaugh had no knowledge of the scheme, but the coach was suspended for the final three games of the 2023 regular season.

Michigan went on to win the College Football Playoff. According to the Netflix release, Stalions will speak on his role publicly for the first time.

Solo represented the United States as the goalkeeper of their women's soccer team from 2000 to 2016, winning gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2015 World Cup. U.S. Soccer terminated Solo's contract in 2016 amid several controversies, and Solo later sued the USSF, claiming violations of the Equal Pay Act and sex status discrimination.