What really was behind the Ravens\u2019 firing of John Harbaugh depends on which NFL insider you believe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hours after the Super Bowl-winning coach\u2019s canning after 18 seasons in Baltimore, NFL Network\u2019s Ian Rapoport reported<\/a> the move was \u201csimply [because] Harbaugh lost the locker room\u201d in one of the first of many attempts to explain what led to Harbaugh\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n The Ravens disappointed, finishing 8-9 and missing the postseason after a heartbreaking loss to the Steelers in Week 18<\/a>.\u00a0But, Rapoport added, the firing was about more than just their play on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n John Harbaugh looks on before the Ravens\u2019 game in Baltimore on Dec. 7, 2025. AP<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end, players just simply had doubts about whether or not they wanted to play for him as their head coach,\u201d Rapoport continued. \u201cThe opinions of players was valued here, it was listened to, it went to all levels and it\u2019s not just Lamar Jackson. Now it started, it sounded like to me, with Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson not being on the same page. It continued throughout the locker room, maybe not 100 percent, but more than enough for the Baltimore Ravens to say among the reasons to move on, this was a big one.\u201d<\/p>\n Over at ESPN, Ravens insider Jamison Hensley suggested<\/a> that Baltimore players no longer had faith in Harbaugh without saying so explicitly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a feeling by some within the organization that Harbaugh had run his course with Jackson and this core group of players,\u201d Hensley wrote, adding that one player told him he was \u201csurprised but not shocked\u201d at the move.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hensley\u2019s ESPN NFL colleague, insider Adam Schefter, appeared to disagree.\u00a0<\/p>\n During an appearance on \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show\u201d on Wednesday, Schefter spun a different narrative, outright disputing Rapoport\u2019s claim that Harbaugh had lost the locker room.<\/p>\n NFL Network Insider reporter Ian Rapoport during the NFL Scouting Combine on March 2, 2022, at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, IN. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that information right there could be any less true,\u201d Schefter said regarding Rapoport\u2019s report. \u201cThe players were coming to his office, crying, hugging him, sending him goodbyes, calling him one by one. If they felt that way, why are Mark Andrews, Zay Flowers and Isaiah Likely and all these players coming in, crying, hugging him, giving him these long, warm goodbyes? I\u2019m not buying it.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 Sometimes, nobody does anything wrong, you go on for 18 years, and it\u2019s time for everybody to go a different direction,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s OK. Nobody has to do something wrong. There doesn\u2019t have to be some salacious reason. There doesn\u2019t have to be some fight or something like that. Sometimes, it could just be [that] they fell short the past few years.\u201d<\/p>\n The Athletic\u2019s Ravens reporter Jeff Zrebiec<\/a> echoed a similar sentiment to Rapoport, writing that it \u201cfelt like things had gone stale\u201d around the team and that \u201cthere was more locker grumbling about Harbaugh and his staff than there had been in past seasons.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter is seen on set before an NFL football game on \u201cMonday Night Football.\u201d AP<\/p>\n According to fellow Athletic reporter, Dianna Russini, the future of the coaching staff under Harbaugh was a big reason the franchise decided to move on.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA key pressure point in the John Harbaugh dismissal, according to those familiar with today\u2019s discussions, was his refusal to entertain any conversations about potentially moving on from offensive coordinator Todd Monken,\u201d Russini reported on X<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wherever the full truth is, Harbaugh will still be looking for another job and the Ravens will have to find a new coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What really was behind the Ravens\u2019 firing of John Harbaugh depends on which NFL insider you believe.\u00a0 Hours…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[24724,64,63,631,794,142536,593,85,9274,5999],"class_list":{"0":"post-399012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-adam-schefter","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-baltimore-ravens","12":"tag-espn","13":"tag-john-harbaugh","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-sports-entertainment","17":"tag-sports-media"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}