The Bears could have had Jim Harbaugh on the sideline this season, but team president Kevin Warren balked at the idea.
This is according to a report by Chicago sports talk host Dan McNeil and former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi.
McNeil is a longtime podcast host on the BetRivers network with a score of 670. X Post on Thursday morning.
“Breaking news: Jim Harbaugh wanted to talk to the #Bears in January, but Kevin Warren cut him off,” McNeil wrote. “Through a longtime team employee, Harbaugh expressed interest in the head coach job. The staff told Ryan Pauls, who told Warren. The president quickly dismissed it.”
Lombardi appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” and vouched for the report.
“Kevin Warren is leading that team. Let's make no mistake about it. You can sit there and say everyone else is, but he is.” Mr. Lombardi said:.
“And that story about Jim Harbaugh is completely true. Remember, Warren and Harbaugh had some differences… when Warren was the Big Ten commissioner and Harbaugh was at the University of Michigan. But , there were two teams Jim Harbaugh wanted to work for: the Bears, where he played, and the Raiders, where he worked in his first coaching job, but both teams pursued him. I didn't do that.”
A Bears spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this report.
Instead of starting Harbaugh, the Bears opted to bring back Matt Eberflus this season.
AP
At 4-8, the Bears fired Eberflus, marking the first time the organization has fired a coach in the middle of a season.
As Lombardi noted, Harbaugh and Warren were at odds during their time together in the Big Ten.
Harbaugh was critical of Warren's decision to cancel the 2020 Big Ten season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our student-athletes and coaches want to compete,” Harbaugh said after Coach Warren announced the season was canceled. “I know how disappointed they are because they have worked, trained and prepared their whole lives for this opportunity. I share their disappointment today. .”
This decision was later reversed, and the Big Ten played part of the season.
Harbaugh joined the Chargers and the team went 8-4 in his first year in Los Angeles.
