John Harbaugh goes Jim Harbaugh defending Jackson, QUARTERback

John Harbaugh is weary of reporters questioning the quarterbacking credentials of Lamar Jackson.  So this is what the Baltimore Ravens coach said when he was asked about the rookie QB’s lack of presence in the pocket:  “Yeah, we’re gonna throw the ball more down the road.  The guy can pass.  He threw some great balls out there.  How many plays did the kid make?  Running around throwing the ball, in the pocket throwing the ball, he can do it.  All right?  So all this veiled stuff, ‘Is he really a thrower?’  I got news for you, the kid can throw.  He’s a QUARTER-back.  . . . If anybody’s out there who can’t believe Harbs is so ticked, I don’t appreciate the insinuation of the question.”

Dear Coach: Your older brother would be proud of you standing up so passionately for your player against a media horde that’s dismissive of a first-round pick who ‘s never played any position but QB.  Still, when he runs 27 times and passes 19, what are they to think?

 

Mike Leach makes a costly tweet about Obama

Mike Leach, the innovative and currently successful coach of the Washington State Cougars (10-1 for the season), has a shady side that surfaced in years past with allegations of physical abuse of players.  He also has a dry sense of humor that some might call “warped.”   Last June he tweeted a doctored video of Barack Obama that showed the President saying words he did not utter in a 2014 speech to the European Union.  Leach asked twitter followers what they thought of the video.  Some thought so little of it that they shut off $1.6 million of contributions to the university.  The matter stirred so much debate that WSU’s director of marketing and communications, Phil Weiler, felt compelled to issue a clarification.  First, the good news: “No one who made a cash gift has asked for their money back.”  Then the bad: “We did have five donors who let us know they had altered plans for their future giving.”   He cited the withdrawal of $1.6 million in estate gifts promised upon the donors’ deaths.  Leach regarded his prank as a mental exercise that could benefit a country that’s proved remarkably gullible in accepting whatever is posted on the internet, whether it comes from Americans, Russians or robots.  In follow-up tweets, Leach challenged his followers to “prove” his video false.  He asked: “What is a fact?”     

Dear Coach:  You could have a future as a political scientist in the new world of alternative fact.  A few presidents might be eager to hire you if you someday fall back to your .500 ways and get run out of the left-wing left coast.