NFL’s John Harbaugh Calls Foul on Political Partisanship, Immigration Standoff

By Warren Rojas

Posted August 17, 2015 at 12:12pm

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh was nowhere near the Iowa State Fair this weekend, but he still managed to crowbar some political commentary into a preseason presser.

A line of questioning from reporters on Aug. 15 about Harbaugh’s pitch to have professional referees spend more than just three weekends in August preparing for the regular season veered into the political arena as the NFL play caller took to his soapbox to call out Congress for routinely dropping the ball.

“Maybe talk to one another, solve a problem once in a while instead of creating a problem. Be more concerned about the country than you are your party. How about we do that?” Harbaugh chided elected officials. “Let’s try to fix things around here. … That’s what made us great.” His tongue loosened, Harbaugh then declared he was “going Trump here,” before launching into a tirade about immigration.   “Build a wall. It’s not that hard,” he declared. “You’re not a country without a border, right?”  <script id="5e2bd50d2be64735bd9c6970a280aeab">(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=9484058d-cb86-4c6b-b476-f5e62bd11798&cid=69ef7590-f88b-4a7b-b1ad-bbee64894f4f'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "9484058d-cb86-4c6b-b476-f5e62bd11798" }).render("5e2bd50d2be64735bd9c6970a280aeab"); });</script> Harbaugh did, however, conceded that merely barring newcomers would not resolve the issue for those already here. “At the same time, you’ve got 12 [million] to 15 million hard working people here — give ’em a shot. Give ’em a chance, right, to become a citizen so they’re paying taxes. All of us know that it’s not that complicated.”   His advice to poll-weary pols: “Solve the problem; it’d be done that fast.”   <a href="https://video.rollcall.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> See photos, follies, HOH Hits and Misses and more at Roll Call’s new video site. </a> Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/register/main.html?pos=rr" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in your inbox</a> or <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/roll-call-news/id433753469?mt=8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">on your iPhone</a>. </body>

NFL’s John Harbaugh Calls Foul on Political Partisanship, Immigration Standoff

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