When John Harbaugh watched his daughter Alison play youth sports, he didn't just study the scoreboard. He studied the sidelines.
The way coaches treated young athletes – for better or worse – shaped how he would one day lead the Baltimore Ravens. And for Harbaugh, a lifelong Catholic, that calling was always about more than football.
Like any devoted parent, Harbaugh expected team leaders to nurture young athletes and stand by them.
"The coaches that provided that, I just love them," he recalled in a recent interview with Mark Viviano on Catholic Review Radio, part of the Baltimore archdiocesan news operation. "And the coaches that didn't provide that, I kind of would get mad at them. It would really upset me."
Now in his 18th season as head coach of the Ravens – and a parishioner in the Archdiocese of Baltimore – Harbaugh has carried those early lessons into one of the toughest jobs in sports.
Good coaching, even at the highest level, isn't about winning championships, he said. "It's about becoming a champion for the people you coach."
"I know that they're calling their mom and their dad every night after practice and telling them how it went," he said, noting that he makes sure what he says to players is uplifting, edifying and comes from a place of love.
"You've got to check your own heart and say, 'Where am I coming from?' " he insisted. "Am I coaching for me or am I coaching for them?"
Harbaugh is no stranger to success. With 12 playoff berths, six AFC North division titles and a Super Bowl victory in 2013 over the San Francisco 49ers – a team then led by his brother Jim – his record speaks for itself.
He is currently the NFL's second-longest-tenured head coach and one of just five to reach at least 12 playoff appearances in his first 17 seasons. He's also the only head coach in league history to win a playoff game in six of his first seven seasons.
Raised in a Catholic household, he spent most of his elementary education in Catholic schools, moving from Ohio to Iowa to Michigan as his father pursued high school and college coaching opportunities.
Harbaugh today credits his faith as his anchor amid the highs and lows of professional sports. He views competitive drive – that burning desire to excel in whatever one pursues – not as a character flaw to be suppressed, but as a divine gift to be stewarded wisely.
"Understanding why it's there and what you're supposed to do with it – that's really your challenge," he said. "But embrace that for the right reasons. Don't run away from that."
Being the face of an NFL franchise means living under constant pressure. Losses sting. Criticism is instant and amplified on ever-present social media.
"I'm sensitive," Harbaugh admitted. "I have a thin skin. There's no doubt about it."
His natural instinct is to fight back.
"The first challenge that comes up, I'm balling my fists inside and I'm up for the fight," he said. "That's always been the personality trait. And I have found that that probably gets you in more trouble than it's worth."
Instead, Harbaugh has taken to spending time in an office closet he's set up for prayer. Sitting in a comfortable beach chair, he reads Scripture, prays and meditates daily for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or more.
He's not afraid to share his faith with others, sometimes beginning news conferences with a passage from the Bible and openly talking about his faith. That wasn't always the case.
Early on, he worried what others might think if he was more public about his beliefs.
"But then you read in the Bible not to be a pleaser of men, you know – not to be swayed every which way the wind blows by the opinions of people or the crowd or whatever it might be, but to be a pleaser of God only," he said.
The Ravens have a team chaplain, and many players gather for prayer and Bible study. Some of the videos produced by the team have focused on themes from the New Testament. Harbaugh said many players recognize Christ as their savior and embrace the power of the Holy Spirit.
"We're not going to tamp that down and not talk about that, but we're also going to embrace the other guys," he said, noting that there are Jewish and Muslim players who are encouraged to be "their true selves."
All people serve as coaches in different ways – whether that's as the leader of a sports team, a teacher in a classroom or parents at home, Harbaugh said. At a time when challenges with mental health seem to be touching the younger generation in difficult ways, he sees coaching as critical.
"We've got to find opportunities for people to get off their phones, to get into the real world and connect with each other on a real, personal level," he said. "We've got to make that happen for our young people. And I know sports does that and there's a lot of ways to do that."
Harbaugh, who helped launch the Harbaugh Coaching Academy in May 2024 to provide free online training for coaches, parents and mentors well beyond the NFL, said he wants everyone to understand they are made in the image of God.
"You are the crown jewel of God's creation," he said. "And I'm talking about the whole universe – you are the crown jewel of the material world. … You're the only one that can be you."
