The first time Captain Comeback came to The Barn for a spring welcome to the Charm City in June 1998. Who knew he’d become the King of Michigan and his brother would beat him in Super Bowl XLVII? And then he’d cheat and win a National Championship in 2024?
In the spring of 1998, Jim Harbaugh joined the Baltimore Ravens, marking a significant moment in the team’s history. During a special Wednesday night edition of Monday Night Live, Harbaugh discussed his early impressions of Baltimore, his integration into the team, and his excitement about the new stadium. He emphasized the importance of running the football and building chemistry with his teammates. Harbaugh also touched on his involvement in auto racing, owning a team in the Indy Racing League, and the commitment of his new teammates to achieving playoff success.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Jim Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens, Super Bowl championship, crab cake, new stadium, offensive line, playoffs, Indy Racing League, Scott Goodyear, Ravens logo, playbook adaptation, mental toughness, training camp, wide receivers, team chemistry
SPEAKERS
Jim Harbaugh, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome back. W n s t, Towson, Baltimore and W n s t.net, we are going into the way back machine. We’ve all heard the voice of John Harbaugh around here since 2008 and our Super Bowl championship that came in New Orleans after that, still hearing his voice. Jim Harbaugh was the first hardball we heard from here. Jim Harbaugh had just signed to beat Ted March of protest quarterback in the 1998 season. It was the spring of 1998 Jim Harbaugh Tony Sarah goose and Michael McCrary and I jumped in a limo. It’s all well documented in Purple Rain one but Jim Harbaugh now in Michigan Via San Francisco who has been in a twisted, weird way in my life, including Jack Harbaugh and John Harbaugh ever since this is the spring of 1998 welcoming Captain comeback to the barn. And I edited it up because it was a little little racy. Quite frankly, ladies and gentlemen, welcome Jim Harbaugh to Baltimore. We are live here at the barn tonight, doing a special Wednesday night edition of Monday Night Live Now, I gotta tell everybody that, like, it got real quiet when Jim comes in because, like, I’m rapping with Jim. Everyone wants to hear Jim like has never eaten a crab. So that’s the first thing we’re gonna teach him tonight. And the second thing my son brings him up a crab cake. And he says, How do you eat this thing? You just dig in. And I said, Yeah, man, you just go tear it up. So Jim’s in here, tearing it up here tonight. Welcome to ball. We got somebody that painted over a colt. This isn’t the old Colt one here, right? A little. We got a little mini dials. Everybody on the radio doesn’t mean anything, but they painted over and made a little purple Jim Arbol maybe got the little Raven logo on it. Only very cool. And that’s yours to keep forever and ever.
Jim Harbaugh 01:52
Thank you, whoever, whoever made that. I appreciate that. Them up here. That’s very nice. And other than that,
Nestor Aparicio 01:57
we’re gonna save the Tatas to the end of the show and put the bed, give some milk and cookies. But so anyway, well, you’re here, Baldwin. How much time have you spent here? Because I know you came into one day when you did the tour of the stadium, and Ain’t she pretty at Stadium? Is that beautiful? I
Jim Harbaugh 02:11
think it’s gonna be the class of the league. It’s awesome. I’ve been here about two weeks now, okay? And just kind of getting familiar with things. Just been staying in hotels, local hotels, and working out, getting recognized
Nestor Aparicio 02:23
yet. I mean, you walk into like a Burger King, somebody says, Hey, you’re Jim our ball. Has that happened yet? Or no, not
Jim Harbaugh 02:29
really, not really. But everybody, everybody that I’ve met, has been super nice. I it’s too cool. I can’t being from the Midwest. I’ve never really been in the East Coast, right, especially to live so but I like it a lot. And not only am I a raven now, but I want to make this my home now,
Nestor Aparicio 02:46
see right here, this is nasty football, Trish. Now listen to that. Oh, my God. We got a trip here Chicago, December 1920 it could be a little nippy out there in Chicago in December. Is it not?
Jim Harbaugh 02:58
It could be, it could be very cold the
Nestor Aparicio 03:02
window you remember that? That’ll
Jim Harbaugh 03:04
be a stroll down memory lane. There definitely one we’re going to want to win, including that game against Indianapolis Colts.
Nestor Aparicio 03:12
We don’t like that much. Now I’m going to tell you the same thing. We had a party out here. We had a party out here for goose last year about this time, and I told him, I said, as long as you got that ugly uniform off, you know, we’re okay. You weren’t purple, you’re good to go here. But I didn’t like you much or goose two years ago when we were out there on that Sunday night. I
Jim Harbaugh 03:31
mean, I can understand that,
Nestor Aparicio 03:34
because you’re playing with March of brota and you and Ted. I mean, Ted cried after the game. I think he had such an emotional attachment to you and goose and did Eugene and Rosie. I mean,
Jim Harbaugh 03:44
players felt the same way when the game was over. I mean, 3040, guys went up and hug Ted. I mean, that’s we love Ted when, when he was in Indy, and he’s just a great guy to play for. And it was, it was tough to have to, you know, go against one of his teams, because the year we had in 95 and 94 when Ted was there, was just those memories are so thick. I mean, you got to brush them away from your face. I mean, just being back here, seeing Ted, seeing goose, it brings back a lot of great memories, and hopefully we can get it rolling here. So
Nestor Aparicio 04:18
I like to say that, you know, they stole the team 14 years ago. We’re stealing the best parts back, and we’re leaving the rest of them there. Yeah, that’s what I think we’re doing.
Jim Harbaugh 04:26
Yeah, I plan on doing that. Maybe we can, we can hook up. I’m gonna get a Mayflower van and in the middle of the night, move my stuff right out of India. I’m
Nestor Aparicio 04:33
driving some bitch. I’ll tell you what. I’ll try it right out. That’s what I think. Well, we’re out here with Jim Harbaugh at the barn. Anybody in the phone lines wants to talk to Jim or got a specific question, as long as you’re keeping it clean, except for the girl that’s in here, 821, 1360, pound sign, 1360, we’ll gladly take some questions for Jim. Jim said Jim was supposed to, he’s supposed to fly to Orlando tonight, and you just canceled the thing. You said you want to hang out at the barn, right? They
Jim Harbaugh 04:58
said, this was too much fun. I gotta go. To cancel the flight and hang out here. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 05:01
that’s what we’re going to hang out here all night. Then we’re going to be here for a couple hours talking some football with Jim Harbaugh, 821, 1360 pound sign, 1360 let’s get into this thing about the former Colts. Tell me about Rosie poscas. Rosie was going to come out tonight, and he couldn’t make it. I understand he might be calling in the next hour, but tell me what we’re expecting to see out of him. Rosie’s
Jim Harbaugh 05:21
a warrior. I mean, Rosie, he’ll go in and and just, you gotta, you gotta watch him isolate on him on running plays when he’s one on one with a with opposing linebacker. I mean, he will go in there, Barry and blow him up. Nice. That’s, that’s what he does. And good hands. Can run the football and everything that I hear. We’re gonna, we’re gonna we’re planning on going a lot more to back. So we didn’t
Nestor Aparicio 05:44
see anybody getting blown up last year because we did not even have a blocking back. Let me know full back last year. So, I mean, Kenyan cotton played on a Gold Line situation, fourth and 1/3, one, that kind of thing. But really having a blocking back, tell me about the offense and how they’re maybe tailoring it to help you out a little bit this year, because I think you and Vinny different type of quarterback, for the most part.
Jim Harbaugh 06:04
Well, I mean, vinnie’s got got a lot of skill, and, you know, probably one of the strongest arms in the National Football League, and great ability. Hopefully we can help out the offense this year by getting into the two backs and start running the football. I mean, just start pounding it down people’s throats, and with a back like Eric Rhett, Potts, Jay Graham, looks real good on film. You mentioned cotton, there’s plenty of good backs to run the football. And if you can’t run it behind the offensive line that we have here in Baltimore, it can’t be done. So hopefully we can just get into a mow we start manhandling teams running the football and use the play action pass and move the ball that way. That’s
Nestor Aparicio 06:42
Raven football. That’s why we got to do it. Man, as far as getting into this situation with Ted, how much of the old Indianapolis playbook is still there for you and Ted, or plays maybe implemented, that kind of thing, and how early do you start working? I mean, is this from day one, you get with Ferengi, get with stroke, you get with Teddy and you start working on things even this early. How much can be done without getting out there, putting the pads on and having the whole team together? Well, a lot can
Jim Harbaugh 07:09
be done. Like right now, my schedule is I work out in the morning with the rest of the guys on the team, and in the afternoons, I spend about 234, hours a day just watching film, talking to the coaches, and in just learning the plays. So it’s a good time to be up here so early, to be traded so soon, because it allows me to do that and the playbook. It’s a lot of what we did in Indy, but but not totally. Don strokes had a lot of input in the playbook, along with you mentioned Kurt brands offensive line coach so and and several of the other coaches. So you got to tailor it to the to the kind of talent that you have here. And so just trying to learn that and find a way to fit in. As
Nestor Aparicio 07:53
far as that offensive line, the big guys we got up in front there, Ogden and brown. Now I notice a lot of times when I put on the prime time on Sunday night. I bet you know how many squares are in the roof under Hoosier dome, from counting them, from that front line, how many squares are to just for the record, you know as about 256 256 and I think you’ve seen all of them in vivid color. We want to make sure you don’t know how many, how many light berries we have in a new stadium down and make sure that doesn’t happen as far as this front line. I mean, Big Bad throw people around. Lord knows when Vinnie and Eric were in there. Really not getting the kind of pressure that you you’ve been accustomed to seeing in Indianapolis last year too. I
Jim Harbaugh 08:30
think my biggest problem is gonna be seeing over these guys. They’re huge. Ogden, six seven. Orlando, brown, he’s got to be at least 6667, we
Nestor Aparicio 08:39
had John came down on opening day and did our show down at Camden pub, and the owner candid pub said, John, who’s carrying him, who’s carrying him into the building. I mean, he’s so big, even for a big guy like you, but I mean, videos will taller than you are, but I mean, seeing over these guys are six feet eight. That’s a tough thing. You know, it
Jim Harbaugh 08:58
could be a problem. But with this kind of offensive line, if we can’t run behind them, if we can’t throw behind them, it can’t be done. I mean, I feel like, I mean, we’re going to go to the playoffs, and if we don’t, it’s because I didn’t do my job. There’s plenty of skill here.
Nestor Aparicio 09:15
I like that talking playoffs in April. That’s good stuff, man. 821, 1360 pound sign. 1360 I got to steal Clement. I got to steal some traffic. Let’s want to get traffic real quick. Get it out of the way. This traffic report brought to you, and we’re letting Jimmy dig in on the delicious crap. How’s that crab cake? Jim? Is that good? Mount pressing full good. Happy. Bring two more. This traffic report brought to you home. There is no more traffic. The only traffic we’re concerned about the traffic on the way to the bar, because everybody wants to say hello to Jim Harbaugh out here. 821, 1360. Pound sign. 1360, it is 540, in the afternoon. We talked a little racing with Clem. Tell me about your rate, because somebody called me about three weeks ago and they said they saw you on some pit crew with some Raven emblem, helmet hat thing on some drive, and I don’t know boo about, like cart or NASCAR. Are, I don’t know any of that stuff, so educate me.
Jim Harbaugh 10:03
Our I own a car, a team actually, in the funny cars that long and thin, or just like a NASCAR. It’s IRL Indy Racing League. So our Nestor, our next rest race, is the Indy 500 okay, but that’s, that’s Indy car. So cars that run around at the Indy 500 Okay, so we’re sponsored by Pennzoil, our driver, Scott Goodyear, and doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of reaction out of that. This is more horse racing here. They don’t understand
Nestor Aparicio 10:30
it. Here, they don’t know auto racing. They don’t, they don’t, we don’t know, I don’t know NASCAR. We got NASCAR people here, right though, raise your hand. Scar. Fans here, any hillbillies from NASCAR here? See, they’re always afraid to admit it, because I call them hillbillies when they admit it. But I’ve been to NASCAR Ray. I went down to Dover last year, and that was
Jim Harbaugh 10:48
just, you know, we were raised to Dover, July 19.
Nestor Aparicio 10:52
Okay, so how did you get involved? Is this from playing in Indianapolis, like in Michigan? Did you know boo about this stuff? Or no, yeah,
Jim Harbaugh 10:58
I grew up watching it when I was in Michigan. My dad used to take me to some of the races at the races at the Indy 500 but as far as getting to be a team owner, I just got four other partners. And thank you very much, Joe,
Nestor Aparicio 11:13
two more crab, low fat. They’re low fat. Man, I don’t care. Simmons won’t have any problem with this. Don’t worry
Jim Harbaugh 11:20
about it. So, yeah, just got involved with, like I said, with my partners, and we finished. We crashed our first race in Orlando, and our second race, we finished six so that you were trending upwards.
Nestor Aparicio 11:32
Tell me pencils involved in this thing, but tell me, like, where the Raven logo comes in. Are they wearing a raven logo in a helmet, or the jersey, or something like that, and for the racer, for Scott good year. Is that
Jim Harbaugh 11:41
right? Right? No, Scott, the driver, doesn’t wear the helmet. But to the guys in the pit crew, the fueler and the jack guy, they both painted their helmets up with ravens emblems. So that
Nestor Aparicio 11:53
was cool, that you make them do that. No,
Jim Harbaugh 11:55
I didn’t. I didn’t. I didn’t make them do it. They They asked me if I could get some of the stickers from the team, which I did, and they they did it on their own.
Nestor Aparicio 12:04
Well, it beats the hell out of a cold emblem. I’ll tell you that that’s darn right. Does, far as being here and working with this offense and working with the wideouts, Draft Day is coming here, and we’ve heard a little bit about maybe getting a wide receiver that, have you, you’ve been throwing balls to Mike, even throwing balls to Jermaine out here in the nice springtime weather, we’ve had it last week or so.
Jim Harbaugh 12:24
Yes, that’s let us get out outside and throw the ball, plus we got that artificial turf field there, so we’re throwing with Michael last week, and again, this week, Jermaine. Jermaine is really quick. He’s incredible. And Michael, Michaels a big play guy looks like he can make a lot of you know, just got to throw the ball around him it looks like, and gets up in the air and gets it runs very good discipline routes. So we’re having fun out there just kind of chucking it around right now and and we’re going to start getting really serious in two weeks. Get all the receivers out there, the backs, tight ends, and maybe some of the defensive guys, and taking
Nestor Aparicio 13:00
snaps from Wally, that kind of thing too. That’s so important. Yeah, haven’t
Jim Harbaugh 13:03
taken a snap from Wally yet, but he’s been in there every day, working out and lifting along with the rest of the offense. Just about everybody’s there. I mean, Ogden is there, Orlando, brown Wally, Rhett Potts, Goose Ray Lewis got in town this week. So I see a lot of commitment there. I see, I see guys with with a fire in their gut to get to the playoffs and and I like that.
Nestor Aparicio 13:27
I think so many of the guys on this team last year, I know you weren’t here, but felt like this team last year had the had the talent to be a playoff team, and little things went awry. And, you know, I want to shoulder all to blame on Vinny, because there’s plenty of blame to go around with a team win six games versus nine ties one. But I think a lot of people felt like in that fourth quarter that, you know, a play here, a play there, or a first down here, and we could have been very easily, been a nine and 710, and 16 last year.
Jim Harbaugh 13:55
That’s pretty much the way it is around the league. You know most of your games, you know 1012, of your games are going to be deciding the decided in the last two minutes of the game. So, you know, it’s important for a team to be mentally tough up and down the roster, so the more the guys work out, spend time working together. You know, if you working next to a guy for six, eight months in the off season, you know it’s going to make it that much harder to quit when you’re in the last two minutes of the game. So as long as guys understand that that’s what, that’s when the games are won and lost. I mean, you gotta, you gotta play good football, but it’s gonna come down to this, in this league, to the last couple minutes of the game, and you got to be ready to go out and win it. We
Nestor Aparicio 14:36
got a mob scene here tonight. We’re live at, at the bar corner, chopping Harford road captain. Come back. Jim Harbaugh, here wasn’t gonna step out, take a break. We’ll gladly take some phone calls at 821, 1360, pound sign, 1360, No autographs during the break. Chill out. Jim’s gonna eat some crab cakes. Delicious crab cakes here from the barn. They don’t leave that man, that’s good, right there. Eat that part right there. Put it all in one plate. 821, 1360, pound sign, 13. 60. We’re back for more from the barn with Jim Harbaugh, and we might even have some surprise visits here a little bit later on, from what I understand, hooting a boat fish. Now we gotta talk about that in a minute. Back for more right after this, this w n s t throwback to celebrate our Hall of Fame conversations during my career here in Baltimore. At w n s t has been brought to you by our friends at Toyota. Find this and hundreds of other retrospective, intelligent and often pressing conversations in the buy a Toyota audio vault@wnst.net this is a Baltimore positive summer, and I urge you to join us in our mission to make the city and our area a better place. All of our wnst Summer Dusties are brought to you by hammer and nails, the ultimate man cave Nirvana in the town center in Owings Mills, manicure, pedicure, TVs, adult beverages, a hot towel, shave and relax. Do it all at hammer and nails, Patrick’s and Essex, my old stomping grounds right on Eastern Avenue. Cold beer. Great bands never recover, and always that steak dinner and prime rib for 1199 on Thursday nights, the MO del lyric, all summer long and beyond and into the fall. You know about the tradition, go to modell lyric.com, to learn about my favorite place to see a show. There’s always magic at the modell lyric, sportaculture, the flowers around me on the wnst said, can be yours there a click away, my man court will be telling you more about the lava lamp this football season, sportaculture.com my pal Lee Tess here, who I met through my wife’s leukemia, march out selling homes with over 50 years of experience in helping local buyers and sellers Just like yourself, locating the finest Properties, go to leetessier.com and learn about them. They’re on the scene. Leetessier.com my friends at Royal farms, refresh real fast, the tasty coffee, the best fried chicken in the land. And of course, using that app and the ROFO rewards card, when you gas up, you’ll get your western fries and your fried chicken free of charge. And don’t forget Cole roofing, sponsor of our community and charity series, along with Gordian energy, they’ve been there 100 years, and Bill Cole giving me weekly therapy here Cole roofing, the morning newspapers brought to you, of course, by Planet Fitness at Planet fitness.com sign up for that. It is free online. And of course, all the breaking news, first on the wnst tech service that is brought to you by our friends at coons four security Boulevard and Dennis colos here from three until five this week and every week here at wnst, find me anytime nasty@wnst.net as we present nostalgia and our Hall of Fame conversations, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram and streaming live on our Facebook and our YouTube. WNS TV channel, we are wnst.net am 1570 and wnst Towson, Baltimore and we never stop talking. Baltimore supports you.
