ExtremeRavens Posted Wednesday at 09:07 PM Posted Wednesday at 09:07 PM John Harbaugh roots for his president, he said, the same way he roots for his quarterback and his football team. The longtime Ravens coach and his younger brother Jim, coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, visited President Donald Trump at the White House earlier this month. When asked about the trip, Jim recently quoted the family mantra: “I mean, who gets invited to the White House with eight other family members and doesn’t go? Nooobody.” And on Wednesday, on the first day of training camp in Owings Mills, John called it an “amazing experience” with his family. John, 62, also took issue with the framing of the question, which pointed out that Trump has previously made disparaging comments about Baltimore, calling it “disgusting, rat and rodent infested.” “Why would you frame that question,” Harbaugh started to say with a big smile across his face. “I would’ve framed the question like, ‘You got a chance to visit with the president, what was that like?’ It was awesome.” That visit, which included nine members of the Harbaugh family, was John’s fourth presidential meeting and Jim’s seventh. Both brothers individually visited the White House during Barack Obama’s presidency. John said that there’s a photo in his office from the family’s visit with former President Ronald Reagan in 1987 when Jim was a Heisman Trophy candidate at Michigan. John spent time with Joe Biden in 2009 as part of the NFL USO coaches tour. Jim has also met Gerald Ford, George Bush and Bill Clinton. It’s unclear what was discussed during the Harbaugh family’s meeting with Trump, but the White House invited the two coaches to visit, according to a USA Today report. John did not elaborate Wednesday. Neither brother publicly endorsed a presidential candidate in the 2024 election. In fact, John has largely avoided wading into politics during his coaching tenure, making only a few comments about Trump in recent years. In August 2015, John backed the idea that headlined Trump’s first campaign: to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. “You don’t have a border, you don’t have a country,” he said at the time. Then, in 2017, John stood by his players when several took a knee during the national anthem before a game in London. Ravens players decided to kneel after Trump said at a rally earlier that year that any player who knelt during “The Star-Spangled Banner” should be fired by team owners. Wednesday was the first time that Harbaugh returned to the topic of the divisive sitting president. He pledged his support for the office of the president, without specifically naming support for Trump. John did note that it was “really meaningful” watching how Trump treated his mom, Jackie Harbaugh. “And I promise you,” John said, “I root for our president. I want our president to be successful, just like I want my quarterback to be successful and I want my team to be successful.” Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn. View the full article Quote
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