Mike Hart, Jim Harbaugh and the lesson of ‘reckless words’
A lesson from 2007, when two Michigan Men ran their mouths. Proverbs 12.
“I think that people say things when you’re angry, and I’ve learned not to say things when I’m angry, I’ll tell you that.” — Michigan running backs Coach Mike Hart
Proverbs 12:18: “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
The two men, themselves, Michigan Football Coach Jim Harbaugh and running backs Coach Mike Hart — they’re over it. Long ago.
But the media hadn’t wetted its beak on whatever reconciliation had occurred — that had to have happened for Hart leave Indiana, an ascending program, to join Harbaugh this spring at Michigan.
So into the wayback machine we went, to a war of words from 2007. For the world, this is entertainment on a boring August day. But we can learn from this.
Harbaugh and Hart are two of the biggest talkers in Michigan Football history. Perhaps the two biggest.
Two decades before Karan Higdon in 2018 mumbled a “guarantee” to beat Ohio State, at the urging of a reporter, Harbaugh said it in 1986 with his whole chest.
Unprompted. And then did it. This really happened. There’s even video.
So now it’s 2007, and Jim Harbaugh is the new head coach at Stanford.
It’s a great school with an oddly interesting football history. Harbaugh joined a head coaching lineage that includes legends like Walter Camp, Fielding Yost, Pop Warner, and Bill Walsh.
Harbaugh was proud to be there, rightly so. But he did not simply speak proudly of his school, he boasted pridefully about it, drawing negative comparisons to others. It’s fair to question whether he really was lowering expectations for himself ahead of a 4-7 debut season.
“College football needs Stanford,” Harbaugh said at the time. “We’re looking not for student-athletes, but scholar-athletes. No other school can carry this banner. The Ivy League schools don’t have enough weight. Other schools which have good academic reputations have ways to get borderline athletes in and keep them in.”
Gee, wonder who he’s talking about, a school with a “good academic reputation” that’s not in the Ivy League. Who ever might that be?
A week later, Harbaugh told the Ann Arbor (Mich.) News, “I would use myself as an example. I came in there, wanted to be a history major, and I was told early on in my freshman year that I shouldn’t be, that it takes too much time, too much reading, that I shouldn’t be a history major and play football.”
Feelings were hurt in Ann Arbor. Hart’s among them. Hart was a captain on the 2007 Michigan Football team, and naturally he was asked about Harbaugh’s remarks.
“He’s not a Michigan man,” Hart said. “I wish he had never played here. But it is what it is.”
This was two talkers, talking too much, talking about things that had no bearing on winning.
Harbaugh was trying to build a program. Hart was applying duct tape to his. Michigan came into the season ranked No. 5, but lost to Appalachian State in the season opener, the greatest upset in college football history. It’s never been the same since.
Michigan did beat Michigan State that year, but again Hart’s mouth would create ripple effects. Hart’s “Little Brother” remarks were apparently just the disrespect MSU needed. Since 2008 Sparty is 8-4 against Michigan.
After “Little Brother,” then-MSU Coach Mark Dantonio dropped some Proverbial wisdom of his own, from Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
“They need to check themselves sometimes,” Dantonio said. “Let’s just remember: pride comes before the fall.”
Hart said he regrets “Little Brother,” too. There, too, he cited youth and inexperience.
From the outside looking in, Mike Hart was on top of the world in 2007. But the words he spoke at 21 would cause him problems for years to come.
Proverbs 12:18: “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
His takeaway should be your lesson. You don’t have to touch the hot stove yourself. Just watch what happens to the guy who did.
Imagine talking some trash in back 2007, before America even had a black president. Imagine squashing the beef man-to-man, years ago, to the point you’d work for the guy.
Now imagine being asked to take it from the top, 14 years later. All for another day or two of stories that in no way help the team.
Say it again, Mike: “I’ve learned not to say things when I’m angry, I’ll tell you that.”