The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
T'was the witch of November come stealin'
A decent metaphor is catnip to a writer, but how much currency does one hold in the minds of a room of freakish athletes in the prime of their lives?
Coach Jim Harbaugh shared the half-century-old folk song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” by Gordon Lightfoot with the team last Saturday night. The song immortalized the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter that sank during a storm in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975 claiming the lives of all 29 crew members headed for Zug Island near Detroit, Michigan, to unload their cargo of taconite pellets, a sedimentary rock bearing iron.
So what does a fatal shipwreck have to do with facing the Tennessee Titans, you ask?
Harbaugh said after the game that he played the song as a way of “honoring” the date of the anniversary.
Prodded for the deeper meaning of the song, Harbaugh demurred, as is his fashion. It was between him and the team. But that didn't stop reporters from asking the players about it.
"Not relating to the people on the ship but to the storm and, I think, the Chargers and the bolts in the storm,” Joey Bosa explained. “We just kind of want to carry that mindset that we’re the storm.”
Elijah Molden admitted that it was “kind of hard to follow.” Daiyan Henley said he was “lost." Bud Dupree “couldn’t really grasp” what Harbaugh was talking about. Asked about the speech, Bradley Bozeman did not try to feign comprehension. “I don’t know."
In other words, the Chargers should be grateful that this wasn't an essay question on the LSAT. What matters is that they played better than Tennessee did and improved to 6-3 on the season, firmly in contention for a playoff berth with eight games remaining.
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
But, why the Edmond Fitzgerald?
In 1976 you could argue that "Don't Fear the Reaper" by the Blue Öyster Cult lands on some of the same themes: mortality, tragedy, and the transcending power of love that reaches across the icy waters of eternity. And if you argued that the Blue Öyster Cult one slaps harder you wouldn't be wrong.
But the Edmond Fitzgerald tragedy was real, whereas Romeo and Juliet are fictional lovers.
Harbaugh was a 12-year old kid living in Ann Arbor, Michigan when Gordon Lightfoot's song became a surprise hit in 1976. At six-and-a-half minutes long "The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald" was an odd fit to catch on pop radio charts in that bicentennial summer, but the song's earnestness and melancholy portends to its self-importance, and to the mythology it helped create.
So was song a warning to the Chargers players to look out for the shoals (teams with losing records) below them? Or were the Titans the freighter crew and the Chargers the storm? This sounds a bit callous to the crew who died, but it has been 50 years.
Whatever the message was we cannot ever know. Perhaps Harbaugh was offering his players the choice of being the calamity for once instead of incurring one?
Are the Chargers supposed to be the good ship, or the Witch of November come stealing? Was it a coded message to local yacht clubs to brace for choppier waters?
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
Maybe Bosa's interpretation was true; which would make Gardner Minshew, Bryce Young, Bo Nix, Spencer Rattler, Jake Haener, Jameis Winston and Will Levis into what LIghtfoot called "bone to be chewed."
Could it be Harbaugh didn't really land his metaphor with the team because he never had one to start? Maybe he just thinks that the song is super cool and isn't shy about telling other people how highly he thinks of it?
Which, if you think about it, is exactly how he talks about his quarterback.
“It feels like you are around greatness every single day with Justin Herbert,’’ said Harbaugh. “He’s incredible. You run out of adjectives. Just in awe, really, most of the time. All of the time.”
“I’m changing his name to Beast,’’ Harbaugh said in the wake of Sunday’s victory. “He’s Beast Herbert—half man, half beast.’’
Right before the half ended Herbert was able to avoid a fumble—recovered by the Titans and initially ruled a touchdown—by pulling the defenders arm with his own and throw an incompletion, another play in which Harbaugh couldn't help himself from fawning over.
“There’s probably no one else on the planet that could have done that and then he was able to keep it in his hand and finish the throwing motion,’’ Harbaugh said. “He’s just got these huge hands and he is strong.”
“God willing and the creek don’t rise. This will be the only quarterback I coach again”
“If you don’t love Justin Herbert, there’s something wrong with you.”
That sounds like something a Chargers fan has said incessantly since September 20, 2020, to anyone who will listen. Slighting Herbert has become a performative bit for some television personalities to raise their own profile. It doesn't matter if the "take" is misleading, myopic, or just plain wrong. What matters is that it generates clicks .
Defending Herbert against attacks from opposing fans, media blowhards, or internet trolls has become so second-nature to us that Harbaugh's effusive praise for his quarterback—I wouldn't say that it falls on deaf ears—but, much like the Herbert slander, it comes across as performative.
To my ears at least, it sounds strange for the framing of the conversations to be centered around how great the guy is.
We know it doesn't make Herbert comfortable as well. Ever seen the guy try to hide from a Sofi Stadium camera on the Infinity Screen?
So in an effort to make Herbert (and this impassioned writer) feel more comfortable let throw a little bit of mud.
For all of his accomplishments, athleticism, accuracy, acumen, and awe-inspiring throws, sometimes I wish the guy could just make the ball easier for his receivers to catch.
Three of Herbert's four incompletions against the Titans hit his targets in the hands, I know.
Jim Harbaugh should know. Adorned in a pair of receiver's gloves and black Jordan cleats, the coach catches passes for Herbert every game in warm-ups. Last weekend Harbaugh was wearing a mic when he let one of Herbert's passes slip through his fingers.
"Damn it!" he yelled. "Damn it!"
"He makes it his goal to not drop a single pass in warm-ups," Herbert said. "We've been out there for nine games now and I think it's only happened a couple times where he hasn't dropped any.
"He's always seeking perfection," Herbert added. "He's definitely a perfectionist when it comes to catching passes."
"I throw it to him like I would anyone else," Herbert said Wednesday with a smile. "We've got respect for him as a pass catcher and we understand that he's a professional. He gets the same passes as everyone else."
Herbert approached Harbaugh and they slapped hands.
"Balls are coming out good. I sucked today."
As he always does, Herbert let him off the hook.
"No, you're good."
Maybe Justin is the ship, and we're all the taconite pellets weighing him down?
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