Did Jim Harbaugh Play In The NFL?

Although Jim Harbaugh didn’t have a long NFL career, he was a successful quarterback for the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts.

Jim Harbaugh’s Career

Jim Harbaugh is best known for his time as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, but before that, he was a quarterback in the NFL. Harbaugh played for the Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, and Baltimore Ravens during his NFL career. Let’s take a look at his career.

College Football

Jim Harbaugh played quarterback for the University of Michigan from 1983 to 1986. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the 1987 NFL Draft and played for the Bears from 1987 to 1993. He also played for the Indianapolis Colts from 1994 to 1997. Harbaugh retired from playing in 2001 and became a coach.

NFL

Harbaugh played college football at Michigan from 1983 to 1986. He then played for the Chicago Bears from 1987 to 1993 and the Indianapolis Colts from 1994 to 1997. He retired from playing in 2001 and became a coach.

Why Harbaugh Quit The NFL

Jim Harbaugh played quarterback for the Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Ravens, and San Diego Chargers in the National Football League (NFL). He also was the head coach of the Stanford Cardinal football team from 2007 to 2010. In 2011, he became the San Francisco ers’ head coach. After four seasons with the ers, he returned to coaching college football when he became the head coach of his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

Family

Harbaugh has stated that one of the main reasons he returned to coach college football was so he could spend more time with his family. In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, Harbaugh said, “I coached in the NFL for 14 years and my kids were 1, 3 and 5 when I started. I missed a lot of events in their life — school functions, things like that — and I made a vow to myself that if I ever got back into coaching, it would be at a level where I can be home for those things.”

Lack of Opportunities

One of the main reasons Harbaugh decided to leave the NFL was because of the lack of opportunities available to him. He had been a head coach for two teams, the San Francisco 49ers and the Chicago Bears, but both teams had decided to move on from him. In addition, he was not getting any offers from other teams. This made it seem like his time in the NFL was coming to an end.

Another reason Harbaugh may have decided to leave the NFL is because he was not having much success as a head coach. His time with the 49ers was successful, but his time with the Bears was not. He may have felt like he needed a change of scenery and that the college game was where he could find more success.

Harbaugh’s Return to Football

Jim Harbaugh has been a successful NFL coach, but many don’t know that he used to be a player. Harbaugh played for 14 seasons in the NFL as a quarterback. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the 1987 NFL Draft. Harbaugh played for the Bears for four seasons before being traded to the Indianapolis Colts.

Stanford

He left coaching in the NFL to take over at his Alma Mater, Stanford, in 2007. In four years at Stanford, Harbaugh turned the Cardinal into a power house. They went 4-8 his first season but improved to 8-5 and a bowl game in his second year. The next two years they went 11-2 missing out on BCS bowl games by losing late in the season to Oregon. In 2010, they finished 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl. After his success at Stanford, Harbaugh decided to return to coaching in the NFL.

The San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team located in the San Francisco Bay Area. They compete in the National Football League as a member of the league’s National Football Conference West division. The team currently plays its home games at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, located 45 miles (72 km) southeast of San Francisco in theheart of Silicon Valley. Since 1988, the 49ers have been headquartered in Santa Clara.

The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and joined the NFL in 1949 when the leagues merged. The 49ers were the first major league professional sports franchise based in San Francisco. The name “49ers” comes from the prospectors who arrived in Northern California around 1849 duringthe California Gold Rush. The team is legally and corporately registered as the San Francisco Forty Niners, Ltd., and is headquarteredin Santa Clara.

Led by Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh and star quarterback Joe Montana, they won Super Bowls XVI, XIX, and XXIII. After Montana retired following the 1994 season, young quarterback Steve Young took over asthe starter and led them to three additional conference championships along with back-to-back Super Bowl wins during his time as starter. With an offense led by Jerry Rice and Ricky Watters,and a defense featuring Ronnie Lott and Charles Haley, among others, the team advanced to five more divisional playoffs between 1981 and 1994 before going into decline following Young’s retirement from active play after suffering several concussions. The 49ers returned to prominence under Jim Harbaugh followinga successful period led by Mike Singletary between 2008 and 2010 (in which they failed to make it past their first playoff game). Between 2011–2013the 49ers reached three consecutive NFC Championship Games but failed to win any of them; they became one of only two teams since 1966 (the other being Buffalo Bills) to do so but not win a single playoff game between 1995–2008 or 2011–2013 (including becoming one of only four teams ever to lose five consecutive Conference Championship Games). In 2013 they returned to glory with head coachJim Harbaugh at quarterback Colin Kaepernick leading them back to fight for another chance at their sixth Lombardi Trophy but came one game short when they lost bitterly 23-17in overtime against their heated rivals Seattle Seahawks for NFC West supremacy on January 19th 2014 at CenturyLink FieldNow under new head coach Kyle Shanahan for 2017 season with main goal set on winning back that Lombardi Trophy forsf6th time

Conclusion

Harbaugh played quarterback for the Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Ravens, and San Diego Chargers in the NFL.