Will Jim Harbaugh return to the NFL next season? That is yet to be determined. However, the road may not be as difficult as it was a few weeks ago.
According to Fox’s Jay Glazer, teams were originally concerned about Harbaugh and the sign-stealing inquiry.
“As the last couple weeks have gone, that has just completely changed,” Glazer went on to say. “‘You know what, regardless of what we hear in that investigation, that’s not going to affect the way we look at Jim Harbaugh, if he wants to come back and coach in the NFL,'” said one team. I firmly believe that the NFL has moved on from this.”
It’s one thing for NFL teams to be unconcerned about the issue. It’s another thing entirely for the league office to be unconcerned. The league’s in-house TV network has already promoted the notion that 345 Park Avenue will uphold any ban imposed by the NCAA on Harbaugh — despite the fact that there is no explicit NFL regulation that Harbaugh would have violated.
That is the true question. Will a team hire Harbaugh as coach despite the possibility of a league suspension? And would a team be willing to go a certain number of games without Harbaugh in his first season?
Then there’s the question of whether Harbaugh or the organization that hires him will fight back, even if it means going to court. That could be determined by who hires him.
If the Raiders become Harbaugh’s next NFL destination, perhaps Mark Davis will follow in his father’s footsteps and file an antitrust lawsuit challenging what arguably would be an attempt by the league to make up the rules as it goes.
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