The Los Angeles Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh was a star quarterback at Michigan and in the NFL before embarking on a successful coaching career that’s included a national title at his alma mater as well as a Super Bowl berth.
But his real game, according to daughter Grace, is hide and seek.
‘I was a kid and we were at my uncle John’s house,’ Grace recently told the Ice Breaker podcast, referring to Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. ‘And we just decided to play a big game of hide and seek.’
The Harbaugh brothers have coached against each other in the NFL, with John’s Ravens beating Jim’s 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.
But hide and seek, it turned out, brought out another level of competitiveness from the 61-year-old Jim.
‘Everybody went and hid in a closet or outside,’ Grace continued. ‘And my dad – and we didn’t know at the time – decided to go underneath a table and somehow suspend himself, and he used all these chairs to put his body under the table, and nobody could find him for, I think it was eight hours.
Jim Harbaugh, right, with his family as he is introduced as the new Los Angeles Chargers head coach during a press conference at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood
Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh, right, greets his brother and Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, left, after the Ravens beat the Chargers in 2024
Daughter Grace congratulates dad Jim Harbaugh on his first national championship victory
‘People started getting worried and he won,’ she added. ‘We’re not allowed to play hide and seek anymore in my family.’
The story wouldn’t surprise anyone who has worked with the famously intense Chargers head coach.
During his 49ers days, Harbaugh nearly ignited a brawl with an overenthusiastic slap on the back to Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz.
Harbaugh has been seen slamming headsets, tossing clipboards and kicking dirt on the sidelines of games, and even jumps into the occasional practice drills with his players.
He now enters his second season with the Chargers after guiding Michigan to a 2023 national title. The team reached the playoffs in his first season in LA, going 11-6 before falling to the Houston Texans in the Wild Card round.
This offseason, the Chargers added starting running back Najee Harris from the Pittsburgh Steelers, rookie North Carolina running back Omarion Hampton and Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles right guard, Mekhi Becton.
