Ravens coach John Harbaugh was having a normal, boring press conference after Saturday’s practice. He talked about the team, about its first preseason game. He got on the subject of NFL officials, and how he thinks it’s a shame that they don’t work training camps to get ready for the season. And then, to the surprise of reporters present, Harbaugh abruptly did not Stick To Sports.
Currently, officials only work preseason games. The refs say they’d like to work practices, and the NFL claims it wants that too, but there’s the usual dispute over pay. Harbaugh was saying the league and the officials’ union need to work this out. “Both sides want it, so maybe they ought to start talking to one another — maybe like our government, too.”
That was Harbaugh’s segue into a political speech.
“Maybe talk to one another, solve a problem once in a while instead of creating a problem,” Harbaugh said. “Be more concerned about the country than you are your party. How about we do that? Let’s try to fix things around here in this country. That’s what made us great. … They get free lunch at the Capitol, too. Congress, they probably get free lunch there, too. Go eat your free lunch, then go sit in your corner and don’t solve anything. And who suffers? All of us suffer, because they can’t get along.”
OK. We’re kind of far away from football now, but it makes sense. I don’t think you need to give us a specific example of a wannabe-politician promising a firm solution, we get what you’re going for already—John, no!
“I’m going Trump here,” Harbaugh said. “Build a wall, it’s not that hard. You don’t have a border, you don’t have a country. You’re not a country without a border, right? At the same time, you got 12 to 15 million hard-working people here. Give them a shot. Give them a chance, right, to become a citizen so they’re paying taxes. All of us know that it’s not complicated. But this side doesn’t want to solve it and neither does this side. Solve the problem!”
John, your No. 1 receiver is 53 years old. Worry about that before you worry about the Mexicans.