Watch CBS News

TBT: That Time Harbaugh Lost Control Of His Handshake, Battled With Schwartz

Love Michigan football or hate it, everyone is talking about Jim Harbaugh today in the wake of reports the school tried to lure him to Ann Arbor with the biggest coaching contract in college football.

And it got us thinking: What would Harbaugh be like back at his alma mater in Ann Arbor? Sure, he seems like a nice guy on occasion, especially when he let his wife make him the butt of a dad pants joke. (Butt, see what we did there?) Then there was the time he made fun of his hyper-competitiveness by challenging a walrus to a push-ups competition.

On the other hand, there's this thing local football fans won't soon forget -- the time he delivered what's been called a "roundhouse backslap" to former Lions coach Jim Schwartz.

And Schwartz ended up chasing him down and screaming while the players on both sides got all worked up, jostling and trash talking. It was like a hockey game broke out in an NFL stadium.

WATCH THE COMPLETE VIDEO HERE

How did it happen? At the post-game presser, Schwartz claimed Harbaugh had used an obscenity and shoved him out of the way. "It was a surprise to me at the end of the game," he said at the time.

Obviously still elated in his post game press conference, Harbaugh explained it this way: "I was just really revved up ... I shook his hand too hard, and I really went in, and it was a strong, kind of a slap-grab handshake. It was a little too hard of a handshake."

What do you think, would Harbaugh be able to keep his overly strong man hands under control back in Ann Arbor?

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.