Chargers News: How Jim Harbaugh Channeled His Favorite TV Show When He Took LA Gig
Upon accepting his new gig as the Los Angeles Chargers head coach, reigning Michigan Wolverines national champ Jim Harbaugh decided to embrace a unique opportunity to channel his favorite TV show, the James Garner detective adventure "The Rockford Files:" he'd live on the beach for his first two months in town in his RV.
Per Sam Farmer of The Los Angeles Times, the 60-year-old lived in an RV across from Huntington Beach proper for two months starting in January.
“On the sand it was $120 a night, but across the street it was $80,” Harbaugh explained of his decision to live across from the beach rather than directly on it. He's reportedly earning $16 million a year to coach Los Angeles.
“An homage to Rockford? Yeah, that’s a perfect word for it,” he said. “It’s a tip of the cap to James Garner and all of the writers of that brilliant show.”
Growing up in the chilly midwest (Michigan, to be precise), Harbaugh saw the 1974-80 classic as an aspirational adventure.
“Laying on your stomach, hands on your chin, elbows on the floor, looking at the palm trees and mountains, sun, ocean,” Harbaugh said. "'Wow, I want to be there someday.’”
“Rockford wasn’t trying to impress anybody,” Harbaugh noted. “I think we all go wrong when we try to make that leap to, 'Today I’ve got to impress somebody.' Because then you’re not yourself anymore. You don’t have a lot of practice at that.
“If you want to get better at something, just work a little harder at it," Harbaugh suggested, in continuing his lessons learned from the show. "And whatever you do, don’t get a big head. That’s a trap. A deep, dark, lonely trap.”
