Around the waves of stories on the Michigan Wolverines’ alleged sign-stealing scheme and the NCAA’s investigation into it, an often-heard sentiment has been that head coach Jim Harbaugh might leave for the NFL if the NCAA issues significant penalties to him and the school. There could be discipline for more than the sign-stealing, too. While Harbaugh served a school-imposed three-game suspension over alleged recruiting violations during a NCAA-mandated dead period around COVID-19 and not cooperating with investigators, the NCAA has not issued its own ruling on that case yet.
But NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported Sunday that the idea of the NFL as a “safe harbor” for escaping NCAA punishment is unlikely to work for Harbaugh. And they cited former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel, and a team-imposed suspension he received from the Indianapolis Colts (where he was working as a gameday consultant) in 2011 as a precedent:
The NFL is unlikely to make itself a safe harbor for Harbaugh to escape what could be substantial NCAA discipline, league sources say, raising the strong possibility Harbaugh would need to serve some or all of any possible suspension he could face in college if he returns to the pros.
There isn’t a bylaw governing the matter. But sources pointed to former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel as precedent for how the NFL and its teams could handle a college suspension of Harbaugh, who already served a school-imposed three-game suspension this year for alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period and not cooperating with investigators, could still be further disciplined by the NCAA in that case and now faces allegations against the program for an elaborate sign-stealing operation.
In 2011, the NFL issued a five-game suspension for a player not yet in the league, Terrell Pryor. That was after the NCAA handed Pryor a five-game suspension over an improper benefits case, and Pryor declared for the supplemental draft; the NFL announced that they would suspend Pryor (who was eventually picked in the third round of the supplemental draft by the then-Oakland Raiders) the five games the NCAA had, and upheld his suspension on appeal. Ohio State also announced a five-game suspension for Tressel at that time, but he resigned instead to take the game-day role with the Colts. But while the league itself didn’t punish Tressel, they left that to the Colts, and Tressel didn’t start his work with them until Week 7.
The NFL has not always handed down discipline for infractions at the NCAA level. Many players who ran afoul of NCAA or individual school discipline at that level didn’t receive punishment in the NFL. And on the coaching side, many saw Pete Carroll’s 2010 move to the Seattle Seahawks as a way to dodge a NCAA hammer (the organization announced penalties for USC in June 2010, after Carroll’s January 2010 move, but that move came while that investigation and ruling were in the works), even though his punishment from them was vacated wins rather than a suspension.
So there’s been some logic to the idea that under-fire NCAA figures could just head to the NFL. And there’s certainly been some interest in Harbaugh from that level; he was a head coach there with the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2014, leading them to a Super Bowl appearance in 2012, and he interviewed for the Minnesota Vikings’ job two offseasons ago and for the Denver Broncos’ job last offseason. But it’s notable that Rapoport’s and Pelissero’s sources are saying discipline from the NCAA may still matter at the NFL level.
There are a lot of unknowns here. We don’t know what the NCAA punishment for the Wolverines will eventually be, and if it will involve any personal punishment for Harbaugh. We also don’t know that Harbaugh will be leaving Michigan, or that he’d specifically look to jump to the NFL. And we don’t know that a NFL team would certainly hire him. But it is certainly interesting to have prominent reporters citing sources that the NFL and its teams would likely apply some discipline to coaches facing NCAA punishment.
[NFL.com]
