Leave it to Jim Harbaugh to make a quick decision regarding his health.
The Los Angeles Chargers coach was not expected to hold his Monday news conference because he was undergoing medical tests after experiencing an irregular heartbeat during Sunday’s 23-16 victory against Denver.
However, Harbaugh returned from his appointment with a cardiologist sooner than expected and chose to address the issue right away instead of waiting until Wednesday.
Harbaugh mentioned that he is taking steps to manage the arrhythmia he has dealt with for many years. This includes wearing a heart monitor for the next two weeks and taking a blood thinner to help keep his heart in rhythm.
It was unusual for the 60-year-old Harbaugh to share so much detail, as he often avoids discussing the health of his players. In his first season with the Chargers, he usually says players are “working through it” when it comes to injuries.
“For anybody that could be out there hearing this or if I’m butchering this in any way, I apologize. I’m pretty confident on this one and that I know what it is and how to deal with it. But as always, we’ll trust the doctors to tell me what to do,” Harbaugh said during his 20-minute news session on Monday.
The Chargers informed reporters just two minutes before the news conference that Harbaugh would be speaking. They had offensive coordinator Greg Roman and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter ready to take his place for the regular media time.
Harbaugh stated that he has been dealing with atrial flutter for many years, a condition that can cause the heart to beat too quickly.
He had ablation procedures in 1999 and 2012 to address the irregular heart rhythms and mentioned that another procedure might be needed. An ablation procedure involves using small burns or freezes on heart cells to create tiny scars in heart tissue, which helps prevent the heart from producing an irregular rhythm.
When asked if the trip to Denver and being at a high altitude might have affected his arrhythmia, Harbaugh mentioned that he started to feel it before the team left Southern California on Saturday.
It began to flare up during the pregame warmups. In the first quarter, Harbaugh briefly went into the medical tent before heading to the locker room. While in the locker room, he had his pulse checked, underwent an EKG, and received an IV and magnesium.
Harbaugh returned to the sideline after the EKG showed that his heart was back to a normal rhythm.
Quarterback Justin Herbert said after Sunday’s game that Harbaugh had mentioned something about his health Saturday night, but he didn’t think much of it.
Most players didn’t know what had happened to Harbaugh until after the game. “I knew they were so locked in the game that this is what we wanted them locked in on,” Harbaugh said.
Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter took over head coaching duties while Harbaugh was in the locker room. Harbaugh explained that it was because the defense was on the field at that time, and offensive coordinator Greg Roman was in his usual spot in the press box.
This was not the first time Minter had to step in for Harbaugh. Minter was the interim coach at Michigan last year for the season opener against East Carolina when Harbaugh was suspended due to NCAA violations.
Baltimore coach John Harbaugh, who ended his postgame news conference early after a win over Washington when he learned what had happened, wasn’t surprised to see his younger brother back on the sideline.
“That’s not surprising. Not at all. He’s never going to let an opportunity like that be wasted,” John Harbaugh said Monday. “I don’t think the doctors really wanted him to go out there, but they had cleared him somehow. Somehow, he convinced them to clear him to go out there and get back out on the field, and he was fine.”
Despite everything that happened, Jim Harbaugh watched the game tape on the plane back to Los Angeles and noted that the first three quarters were the best his team had played this season.
The Chargers jumped out to a 23-0 lead before the Broncos fought back to make it competitive. “Pretty darn good. You know, crisp, like a crisp graham cracker,” he said.
