How John Harbaugh & The Baltimore Ravens Build Winning Traditions Based In Faith Prayer & Leadership

Join Executive Report host Steve Taormino as he sits down with John Harbaugh, the Head Coach for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. In this episode, John discusses building and maintaining a winning tradition based in Faith and Leadership.

Super Bowl-winning head coach John Harbaugh is in his 15th season at the Ravens’ helm. The 2019 NFL Coach of the Year has led Baltimore to a playoff berth in nine of his 14 previous seasons, and in 2012, captured the franchise’s second World Championship.

Though he never wants it to be about him, it’s impossible to ignore Harbaugh’s significant success.

• Since Harbaugh’s 2008 Baltimore arrival, the Ravens have posted the NFL’s fifth-most total victories (148, including playoffs). He has also led the Ravens to 137 regular season wins since 2008, ranking as the NFL’s fifth most.

• The Ravens’ 11 playoff wins since 2008 tie for the NFL’s second most. Of those Baltimore victories, an NFL-best eight have come on the road. • Harbaugh’s 11 playoff victories tie or the fifth most by a head coach in the first 14 seasons of an NFL coaching career.

• The 2012 Ravens won Super Bowl XLVII, 34-31, over the San Francisco 49ers in one of the most dramatic games in NFL history. Baltimore jumped to a 28-6 lead, but needed a critical goal-line stand late in the fourth quarter to help seal the victory. The Ravens overcame a furious second-half comeback and a 34-minute power outage at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans to clinch the franchise’s second World Championship.

• Harbaugh is the only head coach in NFL history (since 1970 merger) to win a playoff game in each of his first four and five seasons. He is also the only head coach in NFL history to win a playoff game in six of the first seven seasons of a coaching career.

Despite his continued success, “Harbs” diffuses accolades: “It’s about us. It’s about the team. It’s about the players, the coaches, Steve [Bisciotti], Ozzie [Newsome], Eric [DeCosta] and the scouts. It’s about Dick [Cass], Sashi [Brown] and the support staff. It’s about all of us pulling together to win – to be the best.”

Unlike other NFL head coaches, “Harbs” took the road less traveled. Most NFL field bosses graduate from pro jobs that include the word “coordinator” after “offensive” or “defensive,” or they emerge from leading big-time college programs. Before becoming the Ravens’ head coach in 2008, John was the Eagles’ secondary coach (2007), and prior to that, Philadelphia’s special teams coordinator (1998-2006) and a 14-year collegiate coach. (Harbaugh grew up learning about the game from his father, Jack, a longtime college coach.)

In 1998, then-Eagles head coach Ray Rhodes hired Harbaugh, who quickly established a reputation as one of the NFL’s top special teams coaches. Subsequently, he was one of four assistants retained by Andy Reid in 1999.

Prior to hiring Harbaugh, the Ravens talked with over 40 people about the energetic coach. “Did we take a chance by hiring John? My belief is that you have to be willing to do things the masses don’t, or you’ll never separate yourself from the masses,” team owner Steve Bisciotti stated. “We obviously picked the right person.”

Simply put, Harbaugh strives to be the best. “We don’t want to just win a championship. We want to be a championship team,” he stated. “We seek the highest levels.”