Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh was in the middle of conducting a postgame press conference following his team’s win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday when a team employee called him to step aside from the podium.
“I gotta take coach. Zay, come up,” the employee told the assembled media, abruptly cutting into the otherwise standard press conference and placing Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers behind the podium.
A perplexed Harbaugh can be heard muttering “Oh,” before walking off with a concerned look on his face.
A confused Flowers took the podium, offering an awkward wave to the press, unsure exactly why he was called up early. The team employee then quickly chimed back in to clear up the situation for reporters. “Guys, I’m sorry. So just to let you know, Jim Harbaugh just went into the medical tent at his game. So, wanted to get John to let him be able to make a call and find out what’s going on. So I apologize about that.”
It turned out that Jim Harbaugh was dealing with what he described during his own postgame press conference Sunday as an “atrial flutter.” The Los Angeles Chargers head coach has been dealing with the condition for decades now, having had other flareups in 1999 and 2012.
The 2012 incident happened while Harbaugh was coaching the San Francisco 49ers in a Monday Night Football game where quarterback Colin Kaepernick led the team to victory, causing the coach to joke that he was “2-0 with arrhythmias,” after Sunday’s win.
The circumstance certainly led to some unique press conference moments for the Harbaugh brothers on Sunday — something that’s not uncommon for that family. Typically a coach fields questions about their players’ health following a game, not their own. And for John, being pulled from the podium mid-press conference without knowing why has to be concerning.
Luckily, the younger Harbaugh’s flareup wasn’t serious enough to sideline him for the whole game, and he was able to return to coach his team to victory.
[X/@krisrhim1, @AriMeirov]
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.