# John Harbaugh: Leadership, Family, Culture & Sustaining Success | On The Line with Jim Pyne

An episode of [On The Line with Jim Pyne](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6794668286), 24 Jul 2026, 32 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2632213/episodes/19545170-john-harbaugh-leadership-family-culture-sustaining-success-on-the-line-with-jim-pyne.mp3

Episode 1: John Harbaugh – Leadership, Legacy & Building Championship Teams In the premiere episode of On the Line with Jim Pyne, Jim sits down with longtime friend and Super Bowl-winning head coach John Harbaugh, now entering a new chapter with the New York Giants after 18 seasons leading the Baltimore Ravens. John reflects on the mentors who shaped his career, the leadership lessons that have guided him through decades in the NFL, and what it takes to build a culture of trust, accountability, and sustained success. He also shares stories from his coaching journey, discusses the importance of family, faith, and resilience, and offers advice for leaders in every profession. Whether you're a football fan, business leader, or someone striving to lead with purpose, this conversation is packed with timeless insights from one of the NFL's most respected coaches. In this episode you'll hear: • The mentors who had the greatest influence on John Harbaugh's career • How great leaders build trust and accountability • Lessons from winning a Super Bowl and sustaining success • What leadership looks like during times of change • Advice for aspiring coaches, executives, and leaders • A fun lightning round to close out the conversation If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow On the Line with Jim Pyne, leave a review, and share it with someone who values great leadership and great conversations. Support the show Connect with Jim Pyne Thanks for listening to On the Line with Jim Pyne. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with a friend. Your support helps us bring you more conversations with the leaders, innovators, and game changers shaping sports, business, and entertainment. Follow Jim on LinkedIn and social media for updates on future episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive clips. New episodes released often!

## Transcript

[0:04] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to On the Line with Jim Pine.
[0:06] SPEAKER_00: I'm Jim Pine.
[0:07] SPEAKER_00: This episode is brought to you by PLS Aviation.
[0:10] SPEAKER_00: Private Aviation perfectly executed.
[0:13] SPEAKER_00: Now let's get on the line.
[0:14] SPEAKER_00: Our show today, we have the man that needs no introduction, one of the greatest coaches of all time.
[0:19] SPEAKER_00: 18 seasons in Baltimore, 15 winning seasons, Super Bowl champion, coach of the year, and a great guy.
[0:25] SPEAKER_00: And coach, welcome to the show.
[0:27] SPEAKER_02: Great to be with you, Jim.
[0:29] SPEAKER_02: Always great to be with you.
[0:30] SPEAKER_02: And I just have to comment on that background, man.
[0:32] SPEAKER_02: You got a lot of great stuff back there.
[0:34] SPEAKER_02: Especially love those shoulder pads.
[0:36] SPEAKER_02: I kind of can picture you in those very shoulder pads because you had the neck thing, you know, knocking people off the ball back in the day.
[0:43] SPEAKER_00: That's right.
[0:44] SPEAKER_00: That's right.
[0:44] SPEAKER_00: And I say, you know, I have two sons that play football.
[0:47] SPEAKER_00: I coached a little last night, 13U.
[0:49] SPEAKER_00: And uh, so I every once in a while I put the pads on just to get their first hits on I let them hit dad.
[0:54] SPEAKER_00: They feel good hitting me.
[0:56] SPEAKER_00: So it's that's what my dad, my dad did that to me, so I kind of kept them around just saying I remember hitting my dad, feeling like, oh, and he's just saying if you can block me, you can block anyone.
[1:05] SPEAKER_00: And I tell him the same thing.
[1:07] SPEAKER_00: I'm an old man, it hurts every time they hit me, but it's fun.
[1:10] SPEAKER_01: That's fantastic.
[1:11] SPEAKER_01: Be taking one for the team, you know, taking one for the team.
[1:13] SPEAKER_01: All right, that's good.
[1:14] SPEAKER_00: You know that, you know that.
[1:16] SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, with you, coach.
[1:17] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I one of my most vivid memories of you too, going back when we were at the Eagles together.
[1:22] SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you I don't know if you remember this.
[1:23] SPEAKER_00: We're in a team hotel.
[1:24] SPEAKER_00: I remember you coming down the elevator with your wife Ingrid, and one of you had a backpack on with a baby in it.
[1:30] SPEAKER_00: And that that was your daughter, right?
[1:32] SPEAKER_00: Allison, the young girl.
[1:33] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's good times.
[1:34] SPEAKER_00: I mean, and I I've watched too.
[1:35] SPEAKER_00: I have a daughter who played lacrosse in college, and then she's going to New York City actually next week.
[1:40] SPEAKER_00: Next leaves on Sunday.
[1:41] SPEAKER_00: She's going to investment banking at Lloyd's Bank.
[1:44] SPEAKER_02: So congrats.
[1:46] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
[1:47] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we're proud of her.
[1:48] SPEAKER_00: But for you, you know, I see what you with your daughter, and I looked you up too.
[1:52] SPEAKER_00: You were you gonna be a lawyer if you weren't a football coach?
[1:55] SPEAKER_00: Or were you thinking of doing that?
[1:56] SPEAKER_02: That was the that was the plan.
[1:57] SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, now that Allison, she's actually in law school now, and I saw some of the stuff she's going through.
[2:02] SPEAKER_02: I'm like, wise decision to stay out of that law law stuff.
[2:07] SPEAKER_02: You know, it looked looks really hard.
[2:09] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
[2:09] SPEAKER_00: No, no question.
[2:10] SPEAKER_00: That's what the smart people do that, right?
[2:12] SPEAKER_00: With the football guys, we do what we do, right?
[2:14] SPEAKER_00: But exactly.
[2:15] SPEAKER_00: But you got to be proud of your daughter, right?
[2:16] SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's all that she's accomplished in.
[2:18] SPEAKER_00: I look at it as again, my daughter, I just didn't want to mess it up, but she was in sports, she's smart, she's being a lawyer, right?
[2:25] SPEAKER_00: So that to me, I see that's a tribute to you.
[2:27] SPEAKER_00: She she likes her dad, wants to be like her dad.
[2:30] SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, I I see it the same way, you see it, just so proud.
[2:33] SPEAKER_02: You know, we've got we're we're we're girl dads, right?
[2:35] SPEAKER_02: And we got daughters.
[2:36] SPEAKER_02: I know you have sons too.
[2:37] SPEAKER_02: I I only had a daughter, but to see to see what they do, you know, what they go through every day to kind of share their life with them, it's a great perspective.
[2:44] SPEAKER_02: It does change.
[2:45] SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's changed the way I see a lot of things, you know, just having a girl and and especially as she came up through sports, uh, she came up with coaches and all those kind of things.
[2:55] SPEAKER_02: So as a coach, I kind of can look at that and say, oh, okay, you know, how what am I learning from this?
[2:59] SPEAKER_02: You know, and you learn a lot from that perspective, you know, the perspective of the parent.
[3:04] SPEAKER_02: So it's it's been it's been so huge and so cool, but so proud of her.
[3:07] SPEAKER_02: She's doing internships, she's uh making her way through law school, she's learning, she's learning um all the things that you learn.
[3:14] SPEAKER_02: But I also think being a part of sports, Jim, you would agree that our kids, and well, it can be something else too.
[3:19] SPEAKER_02: It could be theater, it can be whatever, but but you're part of something bigger than yourself, you know, being a part of a team, learning how to work with others, get along with others, uh, put others before yourself a lot of times, learning the value of that.
[3:32] SPEAKER_02: Uh these are lessons that are so valuable to our to people, you know, any any age, but for our kids, you know, we really want to see that.
[3:39] SPEAKER_00: 100%.
[3:40] SPEAKER_00: You know, and family's everything.
[3:41] SPEAKER_00: And I know you got an amazing family.
[3:43] SPEAKER_00: I know your brother Jim.
[3:44] SPEAKER_00: You know, just seeing the history of the Harbaughs, your dad was a coach, you're a coach, your brother's a coach, your sister married a coach.
[3:50] SPEAKER_00: I mean, coach, what what does your family mean to you?
[3:53] SPEAKER_00: I know it means it means everything to me.
[3:54] SPEAKER_00: I had a dad played and all a grandfather too, but what does family mean to you, coach?
[3:59] SPEAKER_02: It does mean everything.
[4:00] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's amazing how it kind of starts with that.
[4:03] SPEAKER_02: You know, I I I think that's kind of the way God set it up.
[4:05] SPEAKER_02: You know, when he created, he he created a family.
[4:07] SPEAKER_02: It's probably a reason, you know, we have the father and the son and the Holy Spirit, and we have uh we have Mother Mary, you know, we we have our we talk about each other in terms of being brothers and sisters in a kind of the global sense.
[4:19] SPEAKER_02: And then yet he set this uh this uh this analogy up, which is the family.
[4:23] SPEAKER_02: I mean, who hopefully you you're able to love your family, you know, more than anybody, you know, and that's that's kind of the goal, but you do feel it.
[4:30] SPEAKER_02: I know personally, you know, we have just Allison, and uh, you know, we we wanted to have more kids, it just didn't go that way, you know, and and that was it's been it's been amazing.
[4:41] SPEAKER_02: But I never thought, never realized that you can love one person so much as as as I love my daughter.
[4:48] SPEAKER_02: And and uh I I just it's it gives me kind of a it just makes me think about deeper things in terms of how we're all kind of woven together from a humanity standpoint.
[4:57] SPEAKER_02: So family's everything.
[4:59] SPEAKER_02: My my grandfather, he came over my on my mom's side, uh Joe Sapiti, who uh was at many Eagles games, and you, you know, little Italian, little Sicilian guy came over when he was four years old, and uh, you know, first generation type of an immigrant.
[5:14] SPEAKER_02: And uh man, I mean, he was all about family.
[5:17] SPEAKER_02: And family wasn't just family, it was also the neighborhood.
[5:20] SPEAKER_02: It was the friends in the neighborhood that came over for the events.
[5:24] SPEAKER_02: He was a he was a car mechanic, and he would uh he would fix the cars.
[5:28] SPEAKER_02: I went to, I was recruiting Cleveland one year to Benedictine High School, and Augie Basou was the longtime coaching at for for Benedictine High School, a legendary coach.
[5:38] SPEAKER_02: And I was recruiting in there when I was coaching at Pitt, and uh, and we were talking, and he talked about the neighborhood in Cleveland.
[5:45] SPEAKER_02: He was 80 years old at the time, same age as my grandpa.
[5:48] SPEAKER_02: And he says, uh, he goes, Yeah, I go, yeah, we grew up.
[5:51] SPEAKER_02: I go, you ever?
[5:52] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my grandpa, my you know, it's kind of the same kind of background as you, Joseph Petey goes, Joseph Petey.
[5:56] SPEAKER_02: I go, yeah, he goes, Joseph Petey, Joseph Petey and he browsed up.
[6:00] SPEAKER_02: Joseph Petey was my next door neighbor 30 years ago.
[6:03] SPEAKER_02: Joseph Petey used to come over and he would fix my car for nothing.
[6:07] SPEAKER_02: Just because I was his neighbor.
[6:08] SPEAKER_02: I was family to him.
[6:10] SPEAKER_02: We were family, you know.
[6:11] SPEAKER_02: And I just I said, well, that's that's my grandpa.
[6:14] SPEAKER_02: That's exactly who he was.
[6:15] SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that's uh it's what it's all about, man.
[6:19] SPEAKER_00: It is where it starts.
[6:20] SPEAKER_00: It is.
[6:21] SPEAKER_00: And you know, I've read a lot and heard of from your dad.
[6:24] SPEAKER_00: Your dad's 87 years old, right?
[6:25] SPEAKER_00: I mean, still involved.
[6:27] SPEAKER_00: I see the interviews with you and your brother and stuff.
[6:29] SPEAKER_00: And I mean, what an amazing resource to have your dad, who coached 45 years.
[6:33] SPEAKER_00: Your brother's a coach.
[6:34] SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine.
[6:34] SPEAKER_00: I'm in business.
[6:35] SPEAKER_00: I have a brother, father, I've called my dad's past, but you know, to be able for you, if you've got a question, you've got to hiring this guy, firing this guy, coach, player, this, that, this.
[6:44] SPEAKER_00: If you need to have a question, right, you can pick up the phone.
[6:46] SPEAKER_00: Not only call your dad and brother, but they're experts in the thick field, right?
[6:48] SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's got to be a great value to you.
[6:51] SPEAKER_02: That's what we do, you know, and uh, and it it's something's going on with any one of us, Tom Crean, Joni, Joni, my sister included, all of us.
[6:58] SPEAKER_02: Like, it's dad always gets the call.
[6:59] SPEAKER_02: And the funny thing is, he doesn't always get the great call.
[7:02] SPEAKER_02: You know, hey, things are going great, dad.
[7:03] SPEAKER_02: You know, what do you think?
[7:04] SPEAKER_02: You know, he gets the call, like, hey, got a problem.
[7:07] SPEAKER_02: You know, this, this, let me tell you what happened.
[7:09] SPEAKER_02: Oh man, this what do you think?
[7:11] SPEAKER_02: What would you do here?
[7:12] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's always the it's always when things are tough.
[7:15] SPEAKER_02: You know, that's right.
[7:18] SPEAKER_02: He's always got a take on it.
[7:19] SPEAKER_02: But the thing about family is, and the thing that I've learned is like, you they your family is on your side.
[7:26] SPEAKER_02: Your family is, and your best interest is hurt.
[7:28] SPEAKER_02: There's no other agenda.
[7:30] SPEAKER_02: If I'm talking to Jim about something that's going on with him or Tom or Joni or anybody, my daughter, you know, it's like you put yourself in their shoes.
[7:38] SPEAKER_02: You want what's best for them.
[7:40] SPEAKER_02: You know, you're gonna do whatever you can do to help them.
[7:42] SPEAKER_02: That's the beauty of it, man.
[7:44] SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, that's the whole point.
[7:45] SPEAKER_02: Like, to your point, is if you can we can expand on that.
[7:48] SPEAKER_02: That's a little bit about what a team's about, an organization, a business that you're running.
[7:52] SPEAKER_02: You want to kind of have that family value mindset, right?
[7:56] SPEAKER_02: Where everybody's got each other's back, then you can, you know, be more successful that way.
[8:00] SPEAKER_00: 100%.
[8:01] SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, I guess you can talk about your dad.
[8:03] SPEAKER_00: What's some of the best advice he's ever given you?
[8:05] SPEAKER_00: I know he's probably giving you a ton of advice, and I see all the the word the the uh encouragement you and your brother have and stuff.
[8:10] SPEAKER_00: I love those, you know, the enthusiasm unknown to man, all that stuff.
[8:14] SPEAKER_00: Who's who's better than us?
[8:15] SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
[8:16] SPEAKER_00: But what's the best advice that you kind of think of your dad when you're on your daily struggles with coaching and life and all that stuff?
[8:23] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, he used to tell us not to take any wooden nickels, you know, and uh never knew what that meant, you know, for a while.
[8:29] SPEAKER_02: Then you figure out kind of what that means, you know, and that makes sense to you.
[8:32] SPEAKER_02: He used to always say, uh, some we'd say, Well, hope something happens, he would say, and this is his dad, his dad gave him this one.
[8:38] SPEAKER_02: It's an old Ohio phrase, but you know, like, hey, I hope we win the game.
[8:41] SPEAKER_02: And he's, you know, he'd say, God willing, and the creek don't rise, you know, and creek don't rise.
[8:46] SPEAKER_02: And I'm thinking, wow, okay, yeah, I guess if the creek flow overflows and floods, that's probably gonna hinder our chances, you know.
[8:53] SPEAKER_02: And and uh he goes, No, you got it all wrong.
[8:56] SPEAKER_02: He said, he said, I'm talking about back in Ohio when we were settling Ohio in the early 1800s, the Creek Indians, they were the warrior tribe, Native Americans in in Ohio at the time.
[9:09] SPEAKER_02: And they were there were relations, they were a little tenuous, obviously.
[9:12] SPEAKER_02: And if the Creek Indians rised up and you know, the settlers were in trouble, you know, and that was going to be a problem.
[9:20] SPEAKER_02: So it's like, oh, got a history lesson here, too.
[9:23] SPEAKER_02: Maybe that was the best, the best, the best message we got, but more than anything, I would say from from my dad and my mom, it was just their the truly their enthusiasm unknown to mankind.
[9:32] SPEAKER_02: It was it was their zest, their their their incredible uh uh just the way they approached every single day, all out, 100% into everything, whether you're doing it, they're doing it, we're doing it.
[9:45] SPEAKER_02: It was gonna be it was gonna be it was gonna be all out.
[9:47] SPEAKER_02: It was gonna be a lot of laughs, gonna be a lot of energy.
[9:49] SPEAKER_02: We maybe we may be making fun of each other, we'd be competing against each other, we'd make a game out of it.
[9:54] SPEAKER_02: Whatever we were doing, it was gonna be all in, you know.
[9:58] SPEAKER_02: Uh, and we would you you you're around one of our one of our family events, or we got friends around, it's just gonna be a lot of laughing and challenges and making fun of each other.
[10:06] SPEAKER_02: And there's gonna be a contest or a competition.
[10:09] SPEAKER_02: We do things like, you know, I mean, the last time we were together at my my daughter's graduation party, Jim found a uh a tape measure in the drawer, you know, the sewing drawer or whatever.
[10:22] SPEAKER_02: And we start measuring head circumference, neck circumference, and arm length.
[10:28] SPEAKER_02: Because we wanted to find out, you know, like uh, you know, the kid, you know, it's like it's like and we found out that that Grammy Joyce, which is my mom's mother, or my wife's mother, Grammy Joyce, my wife's mother, she had the biggest wingspan for her height.
[10:44] SPEAKER_02: Now she's not very tall, like maybe five feet tall, but her wingspan was like enormous.
[10:49] SPEAKER_02: She was like twice as much wingspan for her height.
[10:52] SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh my god, Grammy, you're the champion here.
[10:55] SPEAKER_02: To this day, she brags about her wingspan.
[11:00] SPEAKER_00: Love it.
[11:00] SPEAKER_00: The long the long arms we could use as in football, right?
[11:03] SPEAKER_00: That's that's comes in well for sure.
[11:06] SPEAKER_00: I tell you, to the family stuff, because I know it means everything.
[11:09] SPEAKER_00: It means everything to me.
[11:10] SPEAKER_00: One of the coolest things was when your brother Jim, to me, I saw I was tuning in, Michigan was playing for the national championship.
[11:16] SPEAKER_00: You know, a minute or two before the game, you came strolling down the sideline, they have a big hug, embrace.
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: And I to me, I that's cool.
[11:22] SPEAKER_00: Like this that that means it's real.
[11:24] SPEAKER_00: Like you, you and your brother are close, you're good friends.
[11:26] SPEAKER_00: You know, I have brothers, you compete, you're this, you're that.
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: But you want the best of your brother.
[11:30] SPEAKER_00: And what does he mean to you?
[11:31] SPEAKER_00: What's what's what's he mean to you, Coach?
[11:34] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just what you're saying.
[11:35] SPEAKER_02: I mean, like I've I've always we've always we shared a room together for 17 years, uh, you know, and we were brothers, you know.
[11:41] SPEAKER_02: We we had great moments and we, you know, we landed there at night, you know, and just like talking to each other or listening to each other snore or whatever, you know, and then arguing about you know whose socks are on the floor or or whatever, you know, and uh we used to uh he was a he was a saver, so we'd we'd always have jobs, you know, we'd cut grass or whatever, and and I would I was a spender, you know.
[12:01] SPEAKER_02: I would pretty much ever if I had money I'd spend I'd I'd be at the ice cream, I'd be a dairy queen, getting a getting a getting a dilly bar or something like that.
[12:08] SPEAKER_02: And you know, he would always save his money.
[12:10] SPEAKER_02: But he was great because then he would because when he once he would save it and he knew I didn't have anything left, and he'd have fifty bucks or sixty bucks maybe, he would lay it all out on his bed and count it up in front of me.
[12:22] SPEAKER_02: It's like, look at all the money I've got, you know.
[12:24] SPEAKER_02: You need to learn how to save, big brother.
[12:27] SPEAKER_00: That's great.
[12:28] SPEAKER_02: There's always competition.
[12:30] SPEAKER_02: But to this day, you know, like I feel like you know, whatever team he's coaching, when he was playing, uh when he was competing for a quarterback job or whatever it was, man, all I could do was just just just root for him, pull for him, have his back.
[12:43] SPEAKER_02: You know, you're living and dying in every moment.
[12:45] SPEAKER_02: You know, I was that way for Joni, Allison as your daughter.
[12:49] SPEAKER_02: Like you watch your kids play, and it's like you're on the I know you're in the stands.
[12:52] SPEAKER_02: It's like every second you're watching everything they do, you know, yeah, and you and you're pulling for them to do well, and you got some advice for them when it's over, right?
[12:59] SPEAKER_02: And yeah, that's that's how it's been.
[13:01] SPEAKER_02: It's been that way her whole life.
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's great.
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: That's great.
[13:04] SPEAKER_00: I saw one of your videos where the the you said you're rushmore, you had your dad, your brother, and your youth coach.
[13:09] SPEAKER_00: Like Tom, was it Tom Minnick?
[13:11] SPEAKER_00: Was that the his name?
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: What was Tom like?
[13:13] SPEAKER_00: What did he what did he teach you that you still do today, coach?
[13:17] SPEAKER_02: Tom Minnoch, okay.
[13:18] SPEAKER_02: He was our he was our first football coach in that for the Ann Arbor Junior Packers that we were on.
[13:24] SPEAKER_02: And his three boys, uh Jeff, John, were twins, and Jim Minnick was uh was my brother's age.
[13:30] SPEAKER_02: He was he was uh two grades below me and one grade below uh Jeff and John.
[13:35] SPEAKER_02: And uh and and we were we became like a pack, you know, the five of us.
[13:39] SPEAKER_02: We met at the uh at the uh the Ann Arbor uh youth track meet when we when we first got there into town.
[13:45] SPEAKER_02: We were about all about nine or ten years old.
[13:47] SPEAKER_02: And uh we were the fastest, you know.
[13:49] SPEAKER_02: We were winning all the events, the minics and the harbaughs.
[13:52] SPEAKER_02: And uh we were lucky, I guess.
[13:55] SPEAKER_02: And then uh and uh and we got to be kind of pals, and they're like, You're gonna play football?
[13:59] SPEAKER_02: You know, and our dad's coaching the Packers.
[14:01] SPEAKER_02: Why don't you sign up?
[14:02] SPEAKER_02: So we signed up for the Packers, and then we've been lifelong friends ever since.
[14:05] SPEAKER_02: And Tom Minnick was the coach, and he was also the police uh captain, and he ended up being the sheriff for Washtenaw County a few years after that, and uh he was just the greatest, the greatest guy ever.
[14:16] SPEAKER_02: And he he he al he always had he always had great advice.
[14:19] SPEAKER_02: But the biggest advice I remember was he was adamantly opposed to anything other than whole milk.
[14:28] SPEAKER_02: He was a he was a whole milk guy.
[14:31] SPEAKER_02: And there was a time that uh we were sent out to get groceries and we had to bring them back to the Minnick house.
[14:36] SPEAKER_02: We were maybe we were staying there, maybe I don't know what it was, but Jim and I went and got milk and we brought back two percent milk, which is what we had in our house, two percent milk.
[14:45] SPEAKER_02: We thought that was the milk.
[14:46] SPEAKER_02: And he's like, he he like drinks it and spits it up.
[14:51] SPEAKER_01: What is that?
[14:52] SPEAKER_01: What is this water, watery milk?
[14:55] SPEAKER_01: Let me look at it.
[14:56] SPEAKER_02: Two percent, two percent milk.
[14:57] SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
[14:58] SPEAKER_02: There is only one kind of milk, it's whole milk.
[15:02] SPEAKER_02: You will drink whole milk in the minute cows also.
[15:05] SPEAKER_00: Love it, love it.
[15:06] SPEAKER_02: It's stuck, it's stuck with us.
[15:08] SPEAKER_02: It's stuck with us.
[15:08] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good strong bones, Midwest, right?
[15:10] SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of cows out there.
[15:11] SPEAKER_00: That's what you do, right?
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: Vitamin D, right?
[15:14] SPEAKER_00: That definitely helps.
[15:15] SPEAKER_00: So yeah, you're getting into like one thing I question after you.
[15:18] SPEAKER_00: I think one of the biggest things players, former players, probably coaches too, struggle with at times is the word transition, right?
[15:25] SPEAKER_00: Transitioning from I see guys like myself and stuff who get out of football, you play for a while, and what do they do next?
[15:32] SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the thing I think the league, us players, us that former players got to help former players, former coaches too.
[15:38] SPEAKER_00: And well, how do you coach?
[15:39] SPEAKER_00: Well, how would you coach up a guy getting out of the league and transitioning into what's next?
[15:45] SPEAKER_00: You know, some things you do.
[15:46] SPEAKER_00: I I know coaches because I coached for three years too.
[15:48] SPEAKER_00: Where's you know, you gotta move from one job to the next, one position to the next, one role to the next.
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: How do you transition?
[15:55] SPEAKER_00: What are some of the keys you do it with with transition?
[15:58] SPEAKER_02: That's such a great question, you know.
[15:59] SPEAKER_02: And I'd love to be able to give you like a couple key things that really like would resonate.
[16:04] SPEAKER_02: But like the truth is, like, for guys like me and my brother coaches, maybe it was my dad too, like that's that's the deal.
[16:12] SPEAKER_02: We have been avoiding the transition, basically.
[16:14] SPEAKER_02: So we have we have we have ran from the transition.
[16:17] SPEAKER_02: Like, like Jim always used to say, He's how long are you gonna play?
[16:21] SPEAKER_02: He goes, I'm gonna play as long as I can.
[16:23] SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna play until they throw me out.
[16:24] SPEAKER_02: Then I'm gonna try to play for two more years after that.
[16:27] SPEAKER_02: Still, he go, I go, well, then what are you gonna do?
[16:29] SPEAKER_02: He goes, Well then I'm gonna coach.
[16:30] SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna coach for as long as I can until they throw me out.
[16:33] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like it's like it's like, you know, you're part of a team, you know, you that's how football is.
[16:38] SPEAKER_02: You don't ever really want to let it go, so you you become a coach.
[16:42] SPEAKER_02: That's kind of I think how we've approached it.
[16:44] SPEAKER_02: But I would say this, you know, because you do think about it, but the thing that like for me, like my personality, I think this is something that would be good advice, is whatever you do do, throw yourself into it 100%.
[16:56] SPEAKER_02: Like don't be halfway.
[16:58] SPEAKER_02: You know, if you decide that you're gonna get involved in it, don't be like, let me try this out and see if it works for me.
[17:03] SPEAKER_02: That's like a pretty much a guarantee it's not going to work for you.
[17:06] SPEAKER_02: Like if you decide that you're gonna get involved in something, whether it's coaching your kid, if you're gonna coach your child's football team, then be all in.
[17:13] SPEAKER_02: Be all in to make it the greatest experience you possibly could.
[17:16] SPEAKER_02: Be the greatest youth football coach that ever lived.
[17:18] SPEAKER_02: And all those kids want to come back and play next year because they love you and they love the sport and they love being a part of it because you've made it so wonderful.
[17:24] SPEAKER_02: And you brought them, you probably bought them Dairy Queen dilly bars after every practice, you know.
[17:28] SPEAKER_02: Whatever it takes to make them happy, but um, whatever it is, throw yourself into it fully and give yourself a chance to, you know, make the most of it, I would say.
[17:37] SPEAKER_00: That's great advice.
[17:38] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[17:38] SPEAKER_00: Another thing, leadership, coach.
[17:40] SPEAKER_00: You you know, you you were a leader in the Baltimore Ravens for 18 years.
[17:43] SPEAKER_00: Now you're at the New York football giants.
[17:45] SPEAKER_00: You know, you got the the owners, the players, the coaches, the corporate partners, the sweetholds, the fans.
[17:51] SPEAKER_00: You're you're leading all those people.
[17:53] SPEAKER_00: You know, how how do you, like building an organization, we'll have listeners who are business running a business.
[17:58] SPEAKER_00: How do you start?
[17:59] SPEAKER_00: How do you lead all those people?
[18:00] SPEAKER_00: Because they're all different groups, different people.
[18:02] SPEAKER_00: How do you lead them?
[18:04] SPEAKER_02: Big question, man.
[18:04] SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's like a gigantic question.
[18:06] SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you answering.
[18:07] SPEAKER_02: I don't think anybody has the exact answer to something like that.
[18:10] SPEAKER_02: But uh the one thing for me, like I just kind of you you you find, you meet yourself where you're at.
[18:15] SPEAKER_02: First of all, like I'm like, where okay, where am I at?
[18:17] SPEAKER_02: You know, what am I trying to accomplish here?
[18:19] SPEAKER_02: You know, why am I even doing this job?
[18:21] SPEAKER_02: And and really, hopefully you have a vision for it.
[18:23] SPEAKER_02: Like you have an idea what it should look like.
[18:26] SPEAKER_02: Uh great, great, gratefully, um, for me in this job, uh, after all these years, I know what I want things to look like.
[18:35] SPEAKER_02: Like, I know what I want the team to look like, the offense, the defense, the special teams, I know what the weight room I want to look like.
[18:40] SPEAKER_02: I know how I want people to operate, I know how I want people to talk to one another.
[18:44] SPEAKER_02: Like I just know what it looks like, you know.
[18:46] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like you evaluate a football player.
[18:49] SPEAKER_02: It's like, well, I've seen it so much.
[18:51] SPEAKER_02: I know what it looks like.
[18:52] SPEAKER_02: Like, and I'm you can be wrong, you know, a guy can turn out not to be as good or to be better than you thought he was gonna be, but you know you like what you see or you don't like what you see, or you sort of like this and you don't like that.
[19:02] SPEAKER_02: Because you've seen it so much.
[19:03] SPEAKER_02: So, like that's a vision to me.
[19:05] SPEAKER_02: It's like you know what you want it to look like, how you want it to operate, and there's principles and methods and things involved in all that.
[19:12] SPEAKER_02: And then the second thing is is to um to make a gracious assumption about everybody that you work with in terms of that they want to be great, they want the organization to be great, they want to be successful, they want to do things the right way, approach them from that perspective rather than the suspicious assumption that they are not motivated or don't want to work hard or whatever.
[19:32] SPEAKER_02: And if things don't go well, then you know try to find out why from you know a good heart that you assume you assume the best, and that way help them be the very best they can be and try to just meet people where they're at.
[19:45] SPEAKER_02: Uh, you got to motivate people, you gotta hold people accountable, uh, you got to find a way to bring out tough things because everything's gonna be way harder than it seems.
[19:53] SPEAKER_02: Everything's gonna be the hardest thing you've ever done in your life if you want to be good at something, and uh try to impress that upon them, but that you're there to help them uh accomplish those things.
[20:04] SPEAKER_02: Because whatever dreams they have, I mean, there I I always say this, like you were playing, when you were playing center for the Eagles and all the teams you played for, you know, you had a vision, you had a dream.
[20:15] SPEAKER_02: You thought your whole life, and there were things that you I'm gonna talk to my team about this.
[20:20] SPEAKER_02: There are things in your heart for yourself as a player, a coach, or whatever, whatever job you're doing, uh, as a father, husband, there are dreams and hopes and ambitions inside of you that you maybe are hard for you to even tell anybody.
[20:35] SPEAKER_02: There are also beliefs about yourself, like you believe in yourself in certain ways that you would almost like not want to share with anybody because you might, it might not sound exactly right, or it might be, it might be stepping out on a limb to say so, but you really believe you're capable of certain things.
[20:50] SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, you might have people might have looked at you and said, hey, he's not quite big enough, he's not quite strong enough, his arms aren't quite long enough, whatever it might be.
[20:57] SPEAKER_02: But you know it's like, yeah, I got, but I got in your heart, you're like, yeah, but I can block people.
[21:02] SPEAKER_02: I'm tough.
[21:03] SPEAKER_02: I can knock people off the ball.
[21:04] SPEAKER_02: I have great feet, I have great balance, I can bend, I can adjust, I can play.
[21:09] SPEAKER_02: I'm a great player, and I want you to see that.
[21:12] SPEAKER_02: So as a leader, I want to to Jim Pine as a player, I want to be able to say, hey, Jim, I see that in you.
[21:19] SPEAKER_02: This is what I see in you.
[21:21] SPEAKER_02: And and and that person, that player knows, or that that employee knows, it's like, oh my gosh, I have a boss or a that's on my side that sees all the things that I see for myself and wants me to become all those things in reality.
[21:34] SPEAKER_00: Who believes in me, right?
[21:36] SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
[21:36] SPEAKER_02: Who believes in me?
[21:37] SPEAKER_00: Believes in me, right?
[21:39] SPEAKER_00: And here's another word, coach, adversity, right?
[21:41] SPEAKER_00: You've dealt with adversity in your life, you're gonna deal with adversity coming up.
[21:44] SPEAKER_00: What do you do when an adverse situation comes up, or how are you gonna face adversity?
[21:49] SPEAKER_00: What any key points you do, you coach yourself.
[21:52] SPEAKER_00: Your dad used to tell you, Hey, tough times hit, tough times pass, tough people last.
[21:56] SPEAKER_00: What any words of advice?
[21:58] SPEAKER_00: How do you handle adversity?
[21:59] unknown: Yeah.
[22:00] SPEAKER_02: Those are the all all the things.
[22:01] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like I I I guess, you know, we never really talked about that, like, but we but I always watched it in him.
[22:06] SPEAKER_02: And the thing that I learned, I guess, and have learned over the years is that I think adversity is just an opportunity.
[22:11] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like everybody's gonna face it, you know.
[22:14] SPEAKER_02: The the the Bible, Jesus himself told us that, you know, you're not gonna face anything that everybody else doesn't have to face.
[22:20] SPEAKER_02: Everybody else, everybody faces trials and tribulations.
[22:23] SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, who faced more than than than the Messiah himself, you know?
[22:28] SPEAKER_02: So that's that's that's written into the into the into the into the into the plan.
[22:33] SPEAKER_02: Uh it's just part of it.
[22:34] SPEAKER_02: And it's not so much about uh, it's about the opportunity that goes with it.
[22:38] SPEAKER_02: You know, like like you know, you you you might you might hope for patience, pray, you might pray for patience, you know.
[22:44] SPEAKER_02: Okay, uh, well, here you go.
[22:46] SPEAKER_02: You're patient all of a sudden?
[22:47] SPEAKER_02: No, no.
[22:48] SPEAKER_02: You're you're given challenging opportunities that that are gonna are gonna hit your weakness for impatience, and you're gonna have the opportunity to grow in your patience or your understanding of others, or your your ability to love other people, or your ability just to tough out a tough situation.
[23:05] SPEAKER_02: How about how about how about in the fourth quarter down by two touchdowns?
[23:09] SPEAKER_02: You're gonna you're gonna you're gonna quit playing hard, or you're gonna fight to the bitter end because the fact that, you know, maybe a couple plays can get made and we could find a way to win this game, or just the very fact that you prove to everybody that you can be counted on right to the very end to fight no matter what the odds are against you.
[23:26] SPEAKER_02: You know, though all those things to me are just opportunities.
[23:29] SPEAKER_02: If you look at life as an opportunity as opposed to uh disappointment or or you know or uh things like that, then you probably have a good chance to uh to overcome any challenges that you face.
[23:42] SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
[23:43] SPEAKER_00: Then the word culture, I read what you said, a bunch of guys who see the game the same way.
[23:48] SPEAKER_00: How do you build culture?
[23:49] SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, in a team, I can imagine you know, your quarterback's a key position, you got a linebacker, certain guys and certain things, but how do you get the guys to buy in, you know, culture in a business in a in your business?
[24:01] SPEAKER_00: How how how important is culture and how do you how do you set it up and how do you get guys to buy into it?
[24:06] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a couple different, I mean, I yeah, that's such another big question that's kind of like nebulous, you know, and like how do you do it?
[24:13] SPEAKER_02: And it's it's all about it's all about relationships.
[24:16] SPEAKER_02: But we talk about we took we will talk this training camp about faith, uh, belief, and trust, and then we'll kind of talk about what those things kind of really mean.
[24:24] SPEAKER_02: Hopefully they're not just words.
[24:26] SPEAKER_02: That's kind of that's those are some principles.
[24:28] SPEAKER_02: And then with that is the idea of shared experience and a constant communication so that we can kind of come to understand what we're facing and who we are together, what we believe in, because that culture is not gonna be like imposed upon any group of people.
[24:44] SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be built and shared by a group of people, and they all have to believe in it.
[24:49] SPEAKER_02: You know, like in our country, like if we want, if we want to have culture, like something that that is that is something that that we all uh can admire and it's a good culture, it's gotta be something that's gotta be based on really good principles, you know, truths that are that are our uh are are never-ending, you know, or self-evident truths like our Constitution talks about, then we all have to like we have to share experiences to build something that's worthwhile, you know, together.
[25:15] SPEAKER_02: So that's what we're gonna try to do.
[25:17] SPEAKER_02: You know, we're gonna try to do that as a team.
[25:18] SPEAKER_02: We're gonna try to build something that's worthwhile, something that we can all be proud of, that we can stand for, you know, and we got to believe in it, you know.
[25:25] SPEAKER_02: And it can't be we can't be told about it.
[25:27] SPEAKER_02: We all gotta build it together.
[25:28] SPEAKER_02: Because so I gotta I gotta hear, I gotta hear what you have to say, what you have to say, what you have to say, how you think, how you see it, how do you see it?
[25:33] SPEAKER_02: We're all talking together.
[25:35] SPEAKER_02: At some point in time, along with all the challenges that we face, we come together and grow and we become basically like you had talked about before, a family.
[25:42] SPEAKER_02: And then we then we do share something that we can be proud of, and that kind of becomes our culture.
[25:49] SPEAKER_00: One of your quotes, days are long, but the years are short.
[25:52] SPEAKER_00: What do you want the next generations of harbars to remember you as?
[25:57] SPEAKER_00: Coach John Harbor.
[25:59] SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
[25:59] SPEAKER_01: It's a yeah, that's a great question.
[26:01] SPEAKER_02: I love that.
[26:02] SPEAKER_02: I love it, I love it.
[26:03] SPEAKER_02: I I you know I do believe what Maya Angelo said.
[26:07] SPEAKER_02: Uh I I heard that quote in it many years ago, and it just hit me so much that people don't remember what you do or what you say.
[26:14] SPEAKER_02: They remember how you make them feel, right?
[26:16] SPEAKER_02: I see you shaking your head, Jim.
[26:17] SPEAKER_02: You've heard that one.
[26:18] SPEAKER_00: It's a great one.
[26:19] SPEAKER_00: It's a great one.
[26:19] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I think that's true.
[26:21] SPEAKER_02: You know, I just want I want people to like maybe someday, hopefully, you know, they'll think about me and they'll smile inside, you know, go, you know, just kind of smile inside and go, okay, cool.
[26:30] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that would be that'd be good.
[26:31] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a good feeling.
[26:32] SPEAKER_00: Like that.
[26:33] SPEAKER_00: We're I'm in a business, I take care of people, logistics and stuff.
[26:36] SPEAKER_00: You know, like you said, I remember where you went, this and how how we made you feel.
[26:39] SPEAKER_00: I tell my people that work with me that we want everyone to feel good, feel that they they mattered, we care about them.
[26:45] SPEAKER_00: So that that's important.
[26:46] SPEAKER_00: And last few questions here, coach.
[26:49] SPEAKER_00: What does your dad still coach you on?
[26:53] SPEAKER_02: What does my dad still coach me on?
[26:55] SPEAKER_02: Um, well, you know, I might he is a uh he's a stickler for the for the offense.
[27:01] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's funny, like he was a defensive back coach, but when he became a head coach, he became enamored with the offensive line.
[27:08] SPEAKER_02: And then he was a became a run game guy because at Western Kentucky, you know, they weren't really getting the quarterback that could throw the ball.
[27:13] SPEAKER_02: So we got a quarterback named Willie Taggart, who's now an NFL coach and a successful college coach.
[27:18] SPEAKER_02: He's on my staff now.
[27:20] SPEAKER_02: But Willie was a he was a good thrower, he'll tell you that, but he was a great runner.
[27:24] SPEAKER_02: So they put he put the he put the the the the wishbone in.
[27:27] SPEAKER_02: They ran the ball about 70 times a game.
[27:29] SPEAKER_02: I think they set records left and right.
[27:31] SPEAKER_02: Willie's like the all-time leading rusher in Western Kentucky history as the quarterback.
[27:36] SPEAKER_02: And uh, and so he became enamored with combination double teams up to linebackers and scoops and zones and zone reaches and gang calls and all the different stuff that you guys do.
[27:47] SPEAKER_02: So so he'll he watches, he watches our tape, and he pretty much watches uh the run team period and inside run.
[27:53] SPEAKER_02: And he wants to see how the run game's looking.
[27:55] SPEAKER_00: You know, I love I love it because I saw in your press conference when you took the Giants job you your reference to your dad called.
[28:00] SPEAKER_00: You talked to him about yeah, we saw you see the old line, how they come off the ball.
[28:03] SPEAKER_00: I love that.
[28:04] SPEAKER_00: That your dad 87, he's watching the film, advising you.
[28:07] SPEAKER_00: That's great.
[28:07] SPEAKER_00: And I guess here's here's another question.
[28:09] SPEAKER_00: What's the best team you ever faced, coach?
[28:13] SPEAKER_02: The best team.
[28:14] SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know what?
[28:15] SPEAKER_02: I I would say the the Niners in uh in 2012, Jim's team, that was a great football team.
[28:20] SPEAKER_02: He he did a great job of that team.
[28:22] SPEAKER_02: They had it all, man.
[28:22] SPEAKER_02: They were they were physical, uh, they were creative, they came up with so many great schemes.
[28:27] SPEAKER_02: Their defense flew around, they were well coached on defense, Vic Fangio.
[28:31] SPEAKER_02: Obviously, and that's when Vic was just kind of getting back into the game as a coordinator and and uh establishing what he was doing.
[28:37] SPEAKER_02: He was just starting off of that the system that he's built so well now.
[28:41] SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, man.
[28:42] SPEAKER_02: I I would say that was the best team.
[28:44] SPEAKER_02: We got our guys played great.
[28:45] SPEAKER_02: We got off to a great start.
[28:46] SPEAKER_02: That whole Super Bowl was a crazy game, but um, that was a great football team.
[28:50] SPEAKER_02: Jim did a great job with that team, I would say.
[28:52] SPEAKER_02: I would say them.
[28:53] SPEAKER_02: The Niners by Jim, Jim Harbaugh coach 49ers.
[28:57] SPEAKER_00: I love it, I love it.
[28:58] SPEAKER_00: And then what one word your wife would describe you with.
[29:02] SPEAKER_02: Oh, I don't know, besides a pain in the butt, you know, maybe I don't know.
[29:05] SPEAKER_02: That's that'd be too many words, wouldn't it?
[29:07] SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, I heard a great joke, okay?
[29:11] SPEAKER_02: It's a great joke about that.
[29:12] SPEAKER_02: So uh yeah, I told my wife I told my wife that she needed to embrace her mistakes.
[29:22] SPEAKER_02: She gave me a hug.
[29:26] SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
[29:27] SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
[29:28] SPEAKER_00: I like that.
[29:29] SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
[29:30] SPEAKER_00: Well answered, Coach.
[29:32] SPEAKER_00: I like that one.
[29:32] SPEAKER_02: Feel free to use that one.
[29:35] SPEAKER_00: I guess we kind of covers for your dad, but last couple questions.
[29:38] SPEAKER_00: Best advice you ever got.
[29:41] SPEAKER_02: Andy Reid gave me great Well, you know, I mean, I I I'm I'm a I'm a I'm a biblical guy, but this kind of ties to Andy Reid had a had a had a thing just on his card behind his desk.
[29:51] SPEAKER_02: It said, you know, you were there, you saw it.
[29:53] SPEAKER_02: Hey, it said, Don't judge.
[29:54] SPEAKER_02: Don't judge.
[29:55] SPEAKER_02: As a coach, you know, that was a big lesson for me because we that's what all we do is judge, so to speak.
[30:00] SPEAKER_02: But it's a difference between coaching and judging, and that was that was probably the greatest that really brought it home for me at that time.
[30:07] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Andy's the best.
[30:08] SPEAKER_00: I was I'm happy he's done well and doing well here.
[30:11] SPEAKER_00: But then the last question I had, if you weren't coaching football, what would you be doing?
[30:15] SPEAKER_00: I guess we talked on the transition.
[30:17] SPEAKER_00: You don't know what you would be doing, but if you had a guess, what would you be doing, coach?
[30:21] SPEAKER_02: I I would probably be, I'd probably be running a landscaping business, I think.
[30:24] SPEAKER_02: I'd be selling trees, arbor, I'd be, I'd be building, uh, I'd probably be building hardscapes, you know, making beautiful gardens.
[30:31] SPEAKER_02: That'd be what I'd do, cutting grass.
[30:33] SPEAKER_02: I used to, I had a coach, uh, Scott O'Brien, you might remember him as special teams coach.
[30:37] SPEAKER_02: He used to say, he used to say, like, he would always be, he was kind of a cynical guy.
[30:41] SPEAKER_02: I love Scott.
[30:42] SPEAKER_02: And he'd basically say, Boy, he said, next year I'm gonna be in Arizona doing a grass cutting business.
[30:47] SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm like, Arizona?
[30:49] SPEAKER_02: Do they have grass in Arizona?
[30:50] SPEAKER_02: He goes, That's the point.
[30:52] SPEAKER_02: That's the point.
[30:54] SPEAKER_00: I love it.
[30:55] SPEAKER_00: I love it.
[30:56] SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, coach, I really appreciate the time.
[30:58] SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
[30:58] SPEAKER_00: And we'll do it again sometime down the road.
[31:00] SPEAKER_00: But best of luck this season.
[31:02] SPEAKER_00: I uh the Giants are better because you're there, in my opinion.
[31:05] SPEAKER_00: And uh I think big things are heading that way.
[31:07] SPEAKER_00: So I really appreciate you and the best to you.
[31:10] SPEAKER_02: Great to be with you and great to be.
[31:11] SPEAKER_02: It's an honor to be on your show.
[31:12] SPEAKER_02: And I know this is going to be a great podcast.
[31:14] SPEAKER_02: You have a lot to offer.
[31:15] SPEAKER_02: You've always been you've always been a deep thinker.
[31:17] SPEAKER_02: You've always been and you've been a guy that's proven it uh kind of in business and in football your whole life as a family man.
[31:23] SPEAKER_02: So can't wait to see the rest of these podcasts.
[31:25] SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it, coach.
[31:26] SPEAKER_00: Take care.
[31:27] SPEAKER_00: Have a great one.

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