Coach John Harbaugh launches family legacy project: `It’s about my dad,’ Jim Harbaugh said

Brothers Jim and John Harbaugh are now 60 and 61 years old, both at the peak of their coaching careers with a combined list of accomplishments that no other family can match, including victories in the Super Bowl and college football national championship.

But after all of their experiences – and all of the lessons they’ve learned from their father and many others – John Harbaugh started to dream about something more:

Like what would happen to all that coaching knowledge when they’re gone?

“You don't want it to just go away,” John Harbaugh told USA TODAY Sports.

He wanted to bottle it up somehow and share it with future generations, especially since his father Jack “isn’t getting any younger” at age 84, as John described it.

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“You get to the point in your life where you’d like to leave something that could live on.”

So he started a family legacy project to pay the knowledge forward. It’s called the Harbaugh Football Academy, a nonprofit digital content enterprise. The family is announcing it today. And John has a big vision for it as the founder, with content contributions from brother Jim, father Jack and brother-in-law Tom Crean, the former college basketball coach.

In the long run, it’s an even bigger deal for the family than a certain game on Nov. 25, when coach John leads the Baltimore Ravens to play against coach Jim and his Los Angeles Chargers.

“When you get right down to it, at its core, it’s about my dad,” Jim Harbaugh said in an email to USA TODAY Sports.

What does the Harbaugh Coaching Academy do?

It’s not just any coaching website. It’s an online endeavor that aims to provide coaching insight, lessons and best practices for all levels and sports, not just football and not just from the Harbaugh family. It includes videos of John Harbaugh interviewing current NFL head coaches Sean McVay, Andy Reid and brother Jim, among others.

“We really couldn't find anything that's like it,” John Harbaugh told USA TODAY Sports in an interview about it.

By comparison, other coaches have had personal websites, just not like this. Former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has an active website for his nonprofit foundation that sells merchandise. Former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll promotes a podcast on his. Both won Super Bowls like John did, but John is drawing on his famous coaching family and connections to provide video and other content that he hopes will teach and inspire others free of charge − sort of a digital library of coaching wisdom for the YouTube generation.

“The Harbaughs’ individual and collective success at all levels of coaching has made them the current gold standard,” said David Carter, sports business professor at the University of Southern California.  “When combining this with their ability to bring in other top-notch coaches, the result should be a substantially differentiated organization.”

What are some examples of this?

In one video on the website, John Harbaugh interviewed Reid, the Kansas City Chiefs head coach who discussed why he values diversity. Reid cited his childhood in Los Angeles, when he said his father refused to move out of the neighborhood when the demographics were changing, as others back then did in other cities.

“We stayed, and I’m glad I did because … I grew up around everybody,” Reid said.

Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy also sat down with John Harbaugh for another video entitled “5 ways to not get in USA TODAY.”

It was advice for players about how to avoid getting your name in media reports for the wrong reasons. Dungy gave the list and said his former player, Hall of Famer Warren Sapp, still remembers it.

“Number one, not (being out) after 12 o’clock,” Dungy said. The other rules are not driving 15 mph over the speed limit, “not having a gun or weapon with you, alcohol or women you don’t know.”

How is this endeavor about their father Jack Harbaugh?

The brothers grew up at the knee of Jack Harbaugh, a 41-year coaching veteran and former head coach at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky.

“I just felt like there were so many amazing things and experiences that we experienced growing up,” said John Harbaugh, who has the second-longest tenure among NFL head coaches after being hired in 2008.

“The wisdom that our dad taught us and the experiences we had as coaches, at some point at time, from a pay-it-forward legacy kind of standpoint, you had an opportunity to do something that’s gonna last, that’s gonna be around after we’re all gone and do it in a timely fashion that my dad can be a part of it. And he can contribute it to it. And people kind of get to know who he was and who he stood for.”

One lesson his dad preached often was that it only takes “one person to say one positive thing to another person, especially a young person, to change the course of their life.”

Memories of that kind of encouragement can last a lifetime while the reverse is also true. Bad coaching can impact young people in a bad way, too.

Another family motivation

John noticed different kinds of youth coaching approaches as his daughter Alison played sports in her younger years.

“I saw coaches impacting Alison in the good ways and not good ways,” John said. “And I felt like, you know, we can do better. There’s got to be a way we can impress upon coaches that there are best practices.”

Almost no detail is too small. That even includes some advice on how to handle the media in an article on the website entitled “40 Coaching Points & Reminders.”

“Either be honest with the media or say nothing,” says item No. 10 on John Harbaugh’s list. “Fewer words go farther.”

Asked about that, John explained:

“The more you say, the less people are going to listen.”

That may be true in press conferences. But in this case, he’s entering the content business, where the volume and currency of the material help attract more viewers and readers.

So what is the business plan for it?

John said he and his wife Ingrid have footed the bill for most of it so far as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. Sponsorships could come later to help it grow into other related nonprofit ventures. Meanwhile, the work and contributions for it are volunteered.

This is John’s baby, so to speak. It’s not about making money. And it has a base-level floor of expectations.

“If we can’t fund it (beyond that), and all we do is volunteer our time and we at least put these videos up and we’re able to keep doing this for some period of time, at least we’ve got that out there,” John Harbaugh said. “And it’s never gonna go away. It’s always gonna be out there. You know how the internet is. It lives forever, right? That’s our floor. Anything above that, we’re hoping, we just got to see how it goes, how it takes off.”

How will Jim Harbaugh be involved?

The two brothers haven’t coached against each other since the Super Bowl in 2013, when John’s Ravens beat Jim’s San Francisco 49ers, 34-31. It was the only time two brothers faced off as head coach in the Super Bowl. And now comes a regular-season rematch this November in Los Angeles.

“It’s probably why we haven't talked too much about football,” John said. “We haven't had too many football conversations (recently) because we're probably both wary, like we're circling each other like two cats or something.”

Jim Harbaugh still said in an email he will do all he can to help the family academy.  He called it “John’s vision” and noted that he put in the work to build it.

“I’m just here to support my big brother in any way, shape or form that I can,” Jim Harbaugh said. “Be part of a panel? I’m there. Offer a piece of advice? No problem. Help him with content? Point me to the camera. He’s my big brother. He’s a Harbaugh. There’s not a thing I wouldn’t do for him…or for that matter my sister Joani, mom, dad, my wife Sarah, my kids, my in-laws, my work family. It’s about family. And this Academy, it bears the Harbaugh name, so it certainly falls under the priority of family to me.”

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]