Jim Harbaugh Used Black Eyed Peas To Change Chargers Culture

Jim Harbaugh is a highly effective head football coach, and an unusual guy, to say the least. 

Harbaugh took over as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers ahead of the 2024 season, and immediately got to work turning the culture around. How did he do it? In the most Jim Harbaugh-esque way, of course.

A few weeks into the regular season, Harbaugh had a scare with his heart, something that's happened a few times in his career. The atrial flutter required him to wear a heart monitor, and the 61-year-old coach told his team about it at their next meeting. Per The Athletic, he showed everyone the monitor, before immediately doing an up-down and getting into a plank position. 

"I’m good!" he said. 

Offensive lineman Trey Pipkins III told The Athletic, "That was the start of the meeting. We were like, ‘This is gonna be a wild ride. We’re here.’"

Then Harbaugh burst into Black Eyed Peas lyrics. Seriously. 

According to the story, he straight up went through every single lyric, reading them out loud, "Tonight's gonna be a good night," etc., until the team eventually realized what song it was.

"It was like slam poetry," Pipkins said. "He was dead-ass serious up there," left tackle Rashawn Slater added.

"He went through all the days," Pipkins continued, "straight-faced." 

"We all started hyping him up," safety Alohi Gilman said. "Then he starts going. He starts singing it. His foot starts tapping. He starts swaying." 

Sure enough, the whole room joined in, singing along with a Black Eyed Peas song from 2009. And he told them why he chose it:

"This is one of my favorite songs. And the game tomorrow is going to be like this song."

COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA - MAY 20: Head coach Jim Harbaugh and quarterback Justin Herbert during a Los Angeles Chargers OTA offseason workout on May 20, 2024 in Costa Mesa, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Jim Harbaugh's Experience, Enthusiasm, Helping Chargers

The Chargers wound up losing that game 17-15 to the Arizona Cardinals. But the enthusiasm and commitment he built up around the team helped turn Los Angeles from a 5-12 team in 2023 to the fifth seed in the AFC playoffs thanks to an 11-6 record.

Obviously there's much more to coaching than reciting Black Eyed Peas lyrics to a group of adult men, many of whom were under 10 years old when that song came out. But it is important to get buy-in from the players in order to achieve your goals.

Harbaugh clearly got his players to buy in, and the results were immediate.

The Chargers organization in recent years has been known for their spectacular ability to lose close games in the most mind-numbing possible ways. And they did have some frustrating, avoidable losses in 2024; that 17-15 game against Arizona, and a 19-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. But they also had some impressive comeback wins and beat the teams they were supposed to beat. And now they're back in the playoffs. 

With a road game against the Houston Texans looming on Saturday, maybe Harbaugh will break out the big Black Eyed Peas guns again.