Michigan Football Coach Jim Harbaugh Attends Conservative Rally In Washington

Jim Harbaugh, head football coach at Michigan and one of the biggest names in college football, was seen attending the annual March for Life rally in Washington on Friday.

The rally, which takes place at noon EST near the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, is a staple of Washington culture and one of the capital’s biggest events of the year. Organizers expect 50,000 to attend the rally and up to 100,000 to join the march from the Capitol to the Supreme Court in a show of unity for the respect for life and opposition to abortion.

Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh is attending the March for Life today.

Thank you Coach for your pro-life convictions! h/t @JonathanKeller pic.twitter.com/brvFAqTJHW

— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) January 19, 2024

What makes Harbaugh’s attendance unusual is the political statement his presence makes in a field that has either embraced progressive policies and virtue signaling or tried to leave politics out of the locker room altogether. The Michigan coach, in contrast, hasn’t shied away from revealing his admiration for an array of opinion makers from conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to Black Lives Matter icon Colin Kaepernick. He has been a devoutly pro-life advocate for years and in 2022 keynoted an annual right-to-life fundraiser in Detroit where he said abortion should be outlawed even if it “might involve incredible hardship for the mother, family, and society.”

In typical liberal media fashion, ESPN chased Harbaugh down after his comments to pose a hypothetical dilemma where a Michigan football player impregnates a young woman and then refuses to father the child.

“Sarah [wife] and I will take that baby,” Harbaugh replied.

Raised in both Ann Arbor and Palo Alto, California, Harbaugh was raised in university towns by a Catholic father and football coach himself. He has established a uniquely contradictory ethos on his way to bringing Michigan back to its old ways as a powerhouse in the Big 10. Players are encouraged to watch Clint Eastwood’s film “American Sniper,” but he also encouraged Kaepernick to come out for Michigan’s spring throwing exhibition. He was the first college coach in history to hire a female assistant coach, but has jawboned with members of Barstool Sports where founder Dave Portnoy has also faced his own criticism about sexual misconduct.

The moral of the story, perhaps, is that Harbaugh’s defense for life remains a cross-cutting example in American politics, drawing voters who may disagree on a plethora of issues but who cannot deny that abortion cuts down young lives before they can have a chance.