Jim Harbaugh and Will Ferrell is the unlikeliest comparison of the NFL offseason, but it actually works?
A Los Angeles Chargers player compared coach Jim Harbaugh to comedian Will Ferrell, and hopes he’s not in trouble.
You may remember new Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh from his playing days or earlier stops in his coaching career. During previous stops, he was known much more for being a passionate fighter, not necessarily a comedian. Yet, one member of his new team seems to think differently.
“My first impressions of Harbaugh — I hope I don’t get in trouble for this — but he reminds me of Will Ferrell,” Chargers linebacker Denzel Perryman told Pro Football Talk. “I don’t know if it’s the way that he talks, his analogies and everything, but they really remind me of Will Ferrell. It’s just funny to me. It’s funny, but I know he means well, like everything comes from the heart. I feel like you have to have a sense of humor to understand his lines and gimmicks. But I love it. I love him as a coach and I love the direction he’s got us going in.”
With such an answer to the question about his head coach, Perryman was asked to follow up. How exactly is Harbaugh like a famous actor known for his over-the-top style? Which Ferrell character fits?
“Just Will Ferrell in general,” he continued. “Step Brothers is a good one. I don’t know, man. He’s just giving Will Ferrell vibes. I don’t know if it’s his tone of voice or the way he talks in general, but the first thing that comes to my head is Will Ferrell. I mean, I do take him seriously. Everything he says, I take seriously though. But when he does joke around, I start cracking up in my seat.”
Harbaugh has a long list of intense-not-funny moments in his career. As a player in 1997, he says he broke his hand and missed three games after punching former Buffalo Bills QB Jim Kelly, Harbaugh previously said he hasn’t been in a fist fight since he was 39, around the year 2003 when he was working for the Oakland Raiders as their quarterbacks coach. While at Stanford, he went for two late in a blowout win over rival USC prompting a postgame conflict with Trojan coach Pete Carroll. During his previous NFL head coaching stint with the San Francisco 49ers, Mosty famously, perhaps, Harbaugh got into a postgame scuffle with then Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz in 2011.
As of late, Harbaugh has developed a Dad Joke persona, perhaps leaning into his age with humor alongside his trademark khakis. When discussing that particular postgame dustup with Schwartz, Harbaugh landed a one-liner:
“The postgame isn’t the place for anything,” he said. “If you’re bitter, change the ‘i’ to an ‘e’. Don’t get bitter, get better.”
Classic.
In November 2023 while he was at Michigan, this gem made national news.
“I like my locker rooms like my mother’s bathing suits: in one piece,” he said.
Another classic, even if it was directly from the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso.
Harbaugh did make it to the roast of former Michigan quarterback Tom Brady, so he’s got a sense of humor. Some other funny quotes have been attached to Jim Harbaugh over the years, too:
- “I drank a lot of milk, a lot of milk. Whole milk, not the candy-ass 2-percent or skim milk.”
- “[Spring practice]‘s like coming out of the mother’s womb. You’re in a nice, warm, cozy environment — safe. And now you are out into the chaos and bright lights. It’s a happening. It’s all those things rolled into one.”
When you combine the intensity, the goofiness that is sometimes displayed, and the propensity for one-liners, we’re on board with this comparison.
Harbaugh and Ferrell may not take too kindly to the comparison, though maybe not for the reason you think. We mentioned Harbaugh’s Stanford Cardinal rivalry with the USC Trojans, and Ferrell is one of USC’s proudest alums.
For that reason among many, I wouldn’t expect there to be a Will Ferrell/Jim Harbaugh joke-off similar to the drum battle Ferrell had with noted lookalike, drummer Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, though. But I would definitely tune in to watch if it happened.