EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Jim Harbaugh’s football philosophy is rooted in being physical on both sides of the ball and wearing down an opponent.
However, when it comes to relating to his players, it is nothing but love, respect and adulation.
Like he did with the San Francisco 49ers and the University of Michigan, Harbaugh has turned around the fortunes of the Los Angeles Chargers. The Bolts finished 11-6 in the regular season — a six-win improvement — and are back in the playoffs, where they will face the Houston Texans on Saturday in an AFC wild-card round game.
“I just pretty much take on the personality of the team wherever I go,” Harbaugh said earlier this season. “The love Derwin James has for football, I gravitated to that immediately. The humble warrior Khalil Mack is, everything about Justin Herbert. The toughness, competitiveness and confidence of our players, I want to take on a little bit of that. I want a lot of that in my personality and in my life to keep going. It’s infectious.”
Harbaugh made an early impression on his new team. He participated in conditioning drills with players during offseason workouts. He also had players’ hometowns and recruiting rankings on their nameplates in the locker room to show how everyone got to the NFL.
Before the Sept. 8 opener against Las Vegas, players received a blue-collar work shirt from Harbaugh with an embroidered name patch and the Chargers lightning bolt logo. The shirts looked like those worn by filing station attendants and mechanics. Harbaugh said the shirts for him paid homage to his grandfather, Joe Cipiti, who worked in filling stations and was a self-taught mechanic who ended up teaching automobile mechanics at a trade school in Cleveland, but also to members of players' families who worked in the same type of jobs.
“I feel like that galvanized the team a lot because growing up as a kid, I saw a lot of people in the community who were hard workers. They always had that nameplate and always represented who that person was,” James said. “Just to have that means a lot to us.”
Harbaugh has continued the motivational gifts throughout the season.
After a 17-13 victory over the Falcons on Dec. 1, players received a black metal lunch pail with their names and one of Harbaugh’s favorite words — stalwart — on the front. There were also sweatshirts with the date and score after the Chargers 34-27 victory over the Bengals in a prime-time game on Nov. 17 and the 40-7 win at New England on Dec. 28 that wrapped up a playoff spot.
“To some people, it may seem cheesy, but I enjoy those life gifts,” James said. “It’s been helping to set the culture. We wouldn’t be in the postseason without all the details and stuff we’ve done doing.”
Offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who was also on Harbaugh’s staff at Stanford and San Francisco, said the area where Harbaugh has evolved the most has been relating his experiences as a player or a coach.
Roman said the stories from Harbaugh’s 15-year playing career or previous coaching stops can help reinforce the message at different points of the season.
Harbaugh’s stories — and there have been plenty — still resonate. Players still mention Harbaugh telling the story of remembering the day he was born on the first day of training camp as one of their favorites.
“This thing is always changing with the mood of the team; what just happened, and where are we in the season? I think it can create some great perspective and bring them into one vision instead of reading a line item on the PowerPoint,” Roman said. “With Jim, he has an art to his storytelling. There’s always a moral to the stories, always, like one of those After School specials when you were a kid."
The player Harbaugh might have had the most enormous effect on is Herbert. Harbaugh has been Herbert’s biggest supporter from the time he was hired and catches passes from his quarterback during pregame warmups.
Harbaugh also spends plenty of time in the quarterback room watching film with Herbert.
“The things we’ve learned from him ... I can’t tell you how much. So it’s cool to be able to share that and learn from him,” Herbert said.
NaVorro Bowman, who played for Harbaugh in San Francisco, has developed more of an appreciation for Harbaugh now that he is on his coaching staff with the Chargers.
Bowman knew Harbaugh loved football, but now he gets to see how much on a daily basis.
“Now I understand why he’s so good at what he does. He doesn’t waste a minute. I mean, if he can squeeze out everything in a minute, he will squeeze it out,” Bowman said. “I didn’t get to see or pay attention to it while playing. But now I understand why he’s so successful is because work is what he loves to do.”
Bowman also sees many similarities in the Chargers and the 2011 49ers, who went from 6-10 to 13-3 and reached the NFC championship game before losing to the New York Giants.
“No one expected us to be where we are today, and the only way that happened is because everyone here treats everyone with respect, respects each other’s space, and grinds,” he said.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh listens to a reporter's question during a news conference following an NFL football game, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) celebrates with head coach Jim Harbaugh during the second half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders in Las Vegas, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/John Locher)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s acting leader on Friday accepted the resignation of the chief of the presidential security service, Park Jong-joon, as he faced police questioning over how his forces blocked law enforcement efforts to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol last week.
The acting leader, Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, also expressed regret over the clashes between law enforcement officials and the presidential security service and called for lawmakers to reach a bipartisan agreement to launch an independent investigation.
The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials and police are planning a second attempt to bring Yoon into custody as they jointly investigate whether his brief martial law declaration on Dec. 3 amounted to an attempted rebellion. The presidential security service blocked an earlier attempt to detain Yoon at his official residence, which he has not left for weeks.
It wasn’t immediately clear how Park’s resignation and Choi’s call for an independent investigation to take over the probe on Yoon would affect the push to bring Yoon into custody.
“The government has been deliberating to find a wise solution, but unfortunately, within our current legal framework, it’s difficult to find a clear resolution to end the conflict between the two agencies,” Choi said about the tensions between the anti-corruption office and presidential security service over Yoon’s potential detention.
“We urge the ruling and opposition parties to work together to agree on a bill to launch a special prosecutor investigation that is free from constitutional issues. This will naturally resolve the ongoing intense standoff.”
The main liberal opposition Democratic Party accused Choi of legitimizing Yoon’s refusal to comply with a court-issued warrant under the guise of neutrality.
“It amounts to a public declaration of support for the leader of a rebellion,” said Noh Jong-myun, a party lawmaker and spokesperson.
The Democrats and other opposition parties on Thursday introduced a bill calling for an independent investigation into allegations of rebellion against Yoon.
An earlier bill by the opposition proposing an independent investigation was scrapped after members of Yoon’s conservative party opposed a clause allowing only opposition parties to recommend special prosecutor candidates.
The conservatives also aren't endorsing the new bill, which proposes that the Supreme Court’s chief justice recommend two candidates to Yoon, who would then select one as the special prosecutor. If Yoon refuses to appoint anyone, the older of the two candidates would automatically assume the role, according to the bill.
Park ignored two summonses before appearing for questioning on Friday over allegations of obstructing justice, a week after his forces repelled dozens of anti-corruption and police investigators from Yoon’s official residence. Park said his duty is to protect the president and warned of “bloodshed,” as critics said that his agency is becoming Yoon’s private army.
The embattled president remains holed up at his official residence in Seoul, where the presidential security service has fortified the grounds with barbed wire and rows of vehicles blocking the roads.
Yoon made a short-lived declaration of martial law and deployed troops to surround the National Assembly on Dec. 3, which lasted only hours before lawmakers managed to get through the blockade and voted to lift the measure.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated Assembly voted to impeach him on Dec. 14 and accused him of rebellion. His fate now rests with the Constitutional Court, which has begun deliberating on whether to formally remove Yoon from office or reject the charges and reinstate him.
A Seoul court on Tuesday issued a new warrant to the anti-corruption agency to detain Yoon after the previous one-week warrant expired. The agency and police have not publicly disclosed how long the new warrant will remain valid.
Speaking to reporters upon arriving for police questioning, Park again criticized the efforts to detain Yoon, saying that the investigation should proceed in a manner “appropriate for the status of an incumbent president” and the “dignity of the nation.”
“Many citizens are surely deeply concerned about the possible conflict and confrontation between government agencies,” Park said. “I came here today with the belief that under no circumstances should there be any physical clashes or bloodshed, and am hoping to prevent such incidents from occurring.”
Park said he made several calls to Choi, urging him to mediate an alternative approach with law enforcement and also made similar requests to Yoon’s lawyers, but did not receive a satisfactory response. The anti-corruption agency had also criticized Choi for refusing to instruct the presidential security service to cooperate with its execution of the detainment warrant.
While the presidential security act mandates protection for Yoon, it does not authorize the service to block court-ordered detainments and some legal experts say the presidential security service’s action last week may have been illegal.
Asked in parliament about the presidential security service’s effort to block the detention, National Court Administration head Cheon Dae-yeop said Friday that “resistance without a legitimate reason can constitute a crime, such as obstruction of official duties.”
Although the president himself has wide-ranging immunity from prosecution while in office, that does not extend to allegations of rebellion or treason.
Yoon’s lawyers have questioned the legitimacy of the new detention warrant against Yoon issued by the Seoul Western District Court, arguing that the anti-corruption agency lacks legal authority to investigate rebellion charges or order police to detain suspects.
They also argue that detention and search warrants against Yoon cannot be enforced at his residence, citing a law that protects locations potentially linked to military secrets from search without the consent of the person in charge — which would be Yoon.
Yoon’s lawyers have urged the agency to either indict the president or seek a formal arrest warrant, a process that requires a court hearing. However, they have said that Yoon would only comply with an arrest warrant issued by the Seoul Central District Court, which handles most key requests in high-profile cases.
They accuse the agency of deliberately choosing another court with an allegedly favorable judge, even though the official residence is located in the jurisdiction of the Western District Court.
Demonstrators supporting, bottom left, and opposing impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol lie down on the ground near the presidential residence in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attend with a banner showing portraits of him, center, US President-elect Donald Trump and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, left, during a rally to oppose his impeachment near the presidential residence in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stage a rally to oppose his impeachment near the presidential residence in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A supporter of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans during a rally to oppose his impeachment near the presidential residence in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Security personnel walk on a road lined up with buses blocking the entrance gate of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's residence in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Park Jong-joon, the chief of the presidential security service, arrives at the Joint Investigation Headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (Lim Hwa-young/Yonhap via AP)
