Jim Harbaugh
There seemed to be little sympathy for Jim Harbaugh after ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd cut short a July 1 interview with the U-M football coach.
After terminating the interview, Cowherd said it was his "clunkiest interview ever" and went on to blame Harbaugh. Some thought Harbaugh was just being a jerk. Harbaugh later tweeted:"In my experience of participating in interviews, I've found it takes 2 to produce a clunker! I'll take 50% responsibility 4 this clunker."
Now, New York writer Michael James, a former reporter for the Detroit News and New York Daily News, writes on his website, The Tribe Sports, that it was Cowherd who should take blame for the lousy interview.
James writes:
If you are one of the many people who came away from that painful and awkward Jim Harbaugh/Colin Cowherd interview/exchange several days ago on ESPN radio feeling that the Michigan head football coach is simply a jerk, you aren’t alone.
Trouble is, you’re wrong. Take another listen. There’s more here than meets the eye.
Oh, Harbaugh may be intense, prickly and quite possibly a jerk, but if you listen closely a second time – and not simply pick up the narrative where most of those who have written on the subject took off – you may discover that Harbaugh had good reason to treat Colin Cowherd in such an aloof and dismissive manner.
That reason is because Cowherd didn’t treat Harbaugh very respectfully before the interview ever began.
If you know anything about radio in general, and ESPN radio specifically, (I worked as a co-producer on Stephen A. Smith’s local radio show on 1050 ESPN in New York), it generally works like this:
A scheduled guest calls in just before slated to go on and makes contact with the show’s producer. The producer then alerts the show host, who does a lead in, such as Cowherd did before making a formal introduction of Harbaugh for his listeners.
During that lead in, the guest – in this case, Harbaugh – can hear what the host is saying about them before the two engage – and this is the place where the Cowherd/Harbaugh interview went wrong – before Harbaugh got a chance to utter one word.
If you go back and take a second listen, as I did after first coming away with the feeling that Harbaugh was an ass who possibly hurt his future recruiting prospects with his behavior, you will hear that Colin Cowherd was quite disrespectful of an accomplished man from a respected football family who deserved much better from a radio host with a national platform.
