Not one. Not two. Not three…Lebron James ensured the crowd in Miami of the bright future of winning championship rings with the juggernaut Heat team of him, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. New Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh didn’t go as far as James in his introductory press conference, but he did say the goal is to win ‘multiple championships.’
According to Harbaugh, that’s what LA wants from its teams. “We’re in one of the great cities, said Harbaugh, “There is one thing I know, it is Los Angeles, Southern California, respects talent, effort, and winning. And it needs to be multiple, multiple championships.”
During the hour-long press conference, Harbaugh was asked multiple versions of the same questions. Essentially, how do you take a team that so fantastically fell short of expectations over the last few seasons (and for the entirety of its existence) and turn them into winners?
Jim Harbaugh’s Approach to Winning with the Los Angeles Chargers Starts in the Weight Room
Harbaugh had multiple ways to answer the question, but one answer sums up what he is doing right now, today, to change the Charger’s culture.
Harbaugh said, “There won’t be any magic formulas. The only ones I know are just good old-fashioned hard work and teamwork. And that’s the vision that I’ve received from the Spanos family. This has to be done like a team, and the great family that they are. Team, family. Those are synonymous for each other. I gotta quote Katie, my daughter, Katie Harbaugh.. ‘work together, win together.’
He even mentioned how one of his first orders of business was ‘cleaning up the weight room.’ And he meant that literally.
“The weight room is, we’re getting it cleaned up right now..” “..Just yesterday. Talk about fulfillment. Going in there to Home Depot and getting the ShopVac. We’re getting all set. Let’s get it good. When these players come in here, then everything’s organized. And they’re gonna see that things are changing. Things are different.”
Harbaugh Taking Coaching Notes From TV
Harbaugh talked in the press conference about his love for the acclaimed Apple TV show, Ted Lasso, and even admitted to taking coaching lessons from the show. In the show, one of the first orders of business for the new coach of the Richmond Football Club, Lasso, was to fix the low water pressure in the team showers.
Whether or not the lesson of setting the tone in even the smallest detail came from Lasso or not…cleaning the weight room is doing just that. Coaching great John Wooden puts it this way, “the way you do anything, is the way you do everything.”
The Los Angeles Chargers are nowhere close to winning multiple championships. But you can’t tell Jim Harbaugh that. He is too busy trying to make the team great today. From fans to the Spanos family, many already believe in Jim Harbaugh. And if you ask Coach Lasso the first step is ‘Believe.’
