FootballSaturday, September 19, 2015
8

Show me the money? Not what 
Harbaugh’s about, ex-agent says

Leigh Steinberg 

discusses experience 

with coach, stays 

optimistic for future

By MAX COHEN

Managing Sports Editor

When Jim Harbaugh spurned 

lucrative NFL offers to return to 
college and coach the Michigan 
football team this offseason, the 
overwhelming reaction nationally 
was one of surprise — surprise 
that Harbaugh would leave the 
sport’s highest level, and surprise 
that he would forsake the financial 
benefits that come with that 
challenge.

Harbaugh’s first agent during 

his NFL playing career, Leigh 
Steinberg, had no such reaction. 
He has seen Harbaugh’s love for 
Michigan, ever since the first 
time he met Harbaugh in Ann 
Arbor 
soon 
after 
Harbaugh’s 

college 
career 
at 
Michigan 

ended. Harbaugh was ill that day, 
answering the door wrapped in 
blankets, but the two still met and 
forged a player-agent relationship 
that lasted much of Harbaugh’s 
playing career.

Steinberg, 
once 
an 
NFL 

superagent, is widely considered 
the inspiration for the movie 
Jerry Maguire, in which the 
agent’s primary client frequently 
yelled at the agent, “Show me the 
money.” Harbaugh, Steinberg said 
Thursday, was never that kind of 
client.

“He might be, of the 300 to 

400 athletes I’ve worked with, 
the least concerned with what the 
economics were of his contract,” 
Steinberg 
said 
in 
a 
phone 

interview.

In Steinberg’s experience, most 

players use contract negotiations 
to prove their value compared 
to other players. Once, when 
Steinberg negotiated an expensive 
deal for Buffalo Bills running 
back Thurman Thomas, Dallas 
Cowboys running back Emmitt 
Smith insisted that his next deal 
be worth one dollar more than 
Thomas’.

Harbaugh had no such request 

during his contract negotiations.

“Even though all of the figures 

were explained to him and he had 
all of the information, his only 
question was, ‘Do you think it’s 
fair?’ ” Steinberg said.

If 
Steinberg 

answered 
in 

the affirmative, 
Harbaugh 
would agree to 
the deal.

Steinberg 

visited 
Ann 

Arbor 
this 

week to speak 
in front of the 
University 
of 

Michigan Sports 
Law Society. Steinberg’s book, 
The Agent, My 40-Year Career 
Making Deals and Changing the 
Game, was recently released in 
paperback. Steinberg will also 
lead the Leigh Steinberg Agent 
Academy on Sept. 26 for aspiring 
agents.

Steinberg has struggled at times 

in recent years, battling alcoholism 
and financial difficulties. His life 
has experienced drastic changes 
since the peak of his career. 
Steinberg is no longer the premier 
agent he once was.

But 
in 

Harbaugh, 
Steinberg 
sees 

a rock, a coach 
who acts very 
similarly 
to 

the 
way 
he 

did during his 
playing 
days. 

Steinberg 
stopped 
in 
to 

visit Harbaugh 
during his trip 

to Ann Arbor, and it was just like 
old times.

They 
joked 
about 
their 

memories — especially the time 
during Harbaugh’s rookie year 
when they fired squirt guns 
at a Bears executive to ease 
the 
tension 
during 
contract 

negotiations — and talked about 

the present. In Steinberg’s eyes, 
Harbaugh is as happy as he has 
ever been. He’s at the school he 
loves with a family he loves and a 
coaching staff that will work hard 
with him.

None of Harbaugh’s coaching 

success surprises Steinberg. He 
claims that he could see a coaching 
career in Harbaugh’s future even 
in the early days of his playing 
career. He points to the way 
Harbaugh dealt with adversity, 
particularly in how he earned the 
nickname “Captain Comeback” 
when 
he 
quarterbacked 
the 

Indianapolis Colts.

“He had a unique ability to tune 

out all the discord and notes that 
might come with adversity and to 
elevate his level of play in critical 
situations,” Steinberg said.

Like everyone else, he sees 

the 
quirkiness 
in 
Harbaugh. 

He remembers a Super Bowl 
party in the San Diego Zoo 
when 
Harbaugh 
disappeared 

for a couple of hours, only to be 

found “ensconced back in a cage 
somewhere, having a good time.”

That 
quirkiness, 
Steinberg 

believes 
— 
combined 
with 

Harbaugh’s sense of humor — 
helps him stay composed and 
keep perspective in stressful 
times.

“He’d like to see the irony 

in things,” Steinberg said. “So 
whenever things are going wrong, 
it’s like, ‘What’s next? Locusts? A 
river of blood? Darkness?’ He had 
a great perspective about things. 
It was not that he was oblivious to 
adversity, it’s just that he accepted 
it and could joke about it.”

Steinberg has no doubt that 

Harbaugh will turn Michigan 
into a power in the next few years. 
He has seen the coach’s values 
remain strong and unbending, 
his mettle tested time and time 
again.

More 
than 
anything 
else, 

Steinberg knows that Harbaugh 
is not involved in the game of 
football just to see the money.

RUBY WALLAU/Daily

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has never been concerned with financial comparisons between contract offers, as a player or as a coach.

“He might be ... the 

least concerned 

with what the 

economics were.”