How Jim Harbaugh channeled a folk-rock ballad to lead Chargers to third straight win - The Athletic

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — A haunting, solemn guitar riff played over the speakers inside the home locker room at SoFi Stadium late Sunday afternoon.

It felt incongruous. This was the winning locker room. The Los Angeles Chargers had just dispatched the visiting Tennessee Titans 27-17, for their third straight win. They improved to 6-3, surpassing their win total from 2023. And yet the booming 808s typically heard in these victorious NFL moments were absent. Instead, there was the folksy strumming of a nearly 50-year-old ballad.

Who was on the aux?

Well, Jim Harbaugh, of course.

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The Chargers coach had chosen to play “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” a song written, composed and released by Gordon Lightfoot in 1976. Over more than six minutes, the song tells the story of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter that sank during a storm in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975. All 29 crew members died. Sunday marked the 49th anniversary of the ship sinking. Harbaugh said after the game that he played the song as a way of “honoring” that anniversary.

The truth is a bit deeper than that.

On Saturday night, Harbaugh held a meeting at the team hotel. According to players, Harbaugh spent part of that meeting delivering a speech about the song and the shipwreck.

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“He went through the whole song,” said safety Elijah Molden.

From the first line: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

The last: When the gales of November come early

As he always does with these stories, Harbaugh tied it to football.

“Not relating to the people on the ship but to the storm and, I think, the Chargers and the bolts in the storm,” Joey Bosa recalled. “We just kind of want to carry that mindset that we’re the storm.”

Harbaugh’s idiosyncrasies draw different reactions from different players. The stories he tells in meetings can meander. But they come back to some kind of overarching point. Usually.

“Just rock out with the story and see where it takes us,” linebacker Daiyan Henley said.

“You kind of have to see the forest through the trees a little bit,” defensive lineman Morgan Fox said. “It took a little bit. But when we got to the point, I got it.”

Be the storm.

“He always has me engaged,” Bosa said. “Everything he says comes from the heart and has a purpose. I definitely feel it. I don’t know if I’ve had a connection like this with a head coach before.”

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Harbaugh’s methods are unorthodox. Henley said he was “lost” during the Edmund Fitzgerald speech. Molden said it was “kind of hard to follow.” Edge rusher Bud Dupree said he “couldn’t really grasp” what Harbaugh was getting at. Center Bradley Bozeman, when asked about the speech, simply offered an “I don’t know” and a smile.

Henley said he kicks his feet up when Harbaugh starts a story. There are knowing glances. Smiles.

“Look around and see, how’s it hitting the crowd?” Henley said.

Go ahead and question the methods. Through 10 weeks, you cannot question the results.

“Each and every day he brings something else up to you that makes you want to play harder,” Dupree said.

stay til the end for the justin speech pic.twitter.com/8LlIDamuU1

— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) November 11, 2024

The Chargers were dominant Sunday.

The defense got off to an uncharacteristic start. They busted coverage on the Titans’ opening drive, which led to a 41-yard touchdown from quarterback Will Levis to receiver Calvin Ridley. They were the first points the defense has allowed in the first quarter since Week 1. But coordinator Jesse Minter’s unit found a rhythm, particularly in the second half. The pass rush came alive, even though edge rusher Khalil Mack was limited to four snaps because of a groin injury. Dupree and edge rusher Tuli Tuipulotu both had two second-half sacks. Bosa had his first sack since Week 2.

The Chargers had seven sacks in the game. They have 13 sacks in the last two weeks. The defense still has not allowed more than 20 points all season.

“They’re playing lights out,” Harbaugh said of the defense.

On offense, quarterback Justin Herbert jump-started the Chargers with his legs. He had seven rushes for 34 yards before two kneeldowns at the end of the game. He was making Titans defenders miss in the open field. No run was more important than his fourth-down touchdown late in the first half. The Chargers never trailed again after that score.

justin patrick herbert

📺 | @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/9OD0mGb336

— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) November 10, 2024

On that fourth-down run, the play was designed for Herbert to run to the edge on a stretch play. But as he accelerated toward the sideline, the Titans got penetration. Herbert cut back. He cut back again. And he scored.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” left tackle Rashawn Slater said.

Herbert completed 14 of his 18 pass attempts. Two of the incompletions were drops — one by tight end Will Dissly and one by tight end Hayden Hurst — that should have been touchdowns. A third incompletion was a good throw down the right sideline to receiver Joshua Palmer in single coverage. Palmer made the initial catch, but cornerback Darrell Baker Jr. jarred it loose. The fourth incompletion was initially ruled a sack-fumble on that same drive. Herbert was hit as he was throwing by Titans defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons. The play was overturned to an incompletion after a replay review.

Harbaugh said Herbert avoiding the sack-fumble and the fourth-down touchdown run were the “two biggest plays of the game.”

“I’m changing his name to Beast,” Harbaugh said. “Beast Herbert.”

herbo went beast mode pic.twitter.com/UStd0oZyda

— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) November 11, 2024

The Chargers put the game away in the fourth quarter. They took over on their own 5-yard line and drove 95 yards on 11 plays and one penalty. Herbert connected with receiver Ladd McConkey for a 37-yard catch-and-run, the Chargers’ longest play of the game. But the real lifeblood of this drive was the offensive line controlling the line of scrimmage in the run game. Of the 11 plays, eight were runs.

“We were able to just kind of march our way down,” Bozeman said. “As an offensive line, it’s very inspiring.”

Mack pointed to Harbaugh’s speech as the genesis of the performance.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” he said, “but it was something we needed obviously.”

“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was not the only song Harbaugh brought up in his Saturday night speech. He also discussed another folk-rock ballad, “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin.

This part resonated with Mack.

“Just understanding fatherhood and being a son,” Mack said. “He kind of tied it all back to just making sure you’re appreciating every day in the moment and the time that you’re able to spend with your family and the time that we’re able to spend together as a football family.”

Harbaugh, at times, can carve out a strange, curious path.

But it always comes back to one fundamental idea, to use his term: The team, the team, the team.

He is a master at building that very specific thing.

From his unique weirdness comes a unique togetherness.

You can’t have one without the other.

“Everything he does has a point and has an emphasis,” Fox said. “So you sit and listen.”

Shipwrecks and classic rock this week.

Who knows what’s coming next week?

Where would the Chargers be without Jim Harbaugh?

“We wouldn’t be this far,” Dupree said. “Where we are now.”

(Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)

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Daniel Popper is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Los Angeles Chargers. He previously covered the Jacksonville Jaguars for The Athletic after following the New York Jets for the New York Daily News, where he spent three years writing, reporting and podcasting about local pro sports. Follow Daniel on Twitter @danielrpopper

Daniel Popper@danielrpopper