Former Players Discuss Why John Harbaugh Is So Special
Building relationships with his players is one of the keys to Head Coach John Harbaugh’s success and longevity with the Ravens.
Former Ravens Brendon Ayanbadejo (2008-2012), Ray Rice (2008-2013), Sam Koch (2006-2021), Anthony Levine Sr. (2012-2021) and Zach Orr (2014-2016) talked with PressBox about what it was like to play for Harbaugh. Koch, Levine and Orr are now members of his coaching staff.
What makes Harbaugh so special? Why has he been so successful in Baltimore?
Ayanbadejo: “I just think he knows how to make things work. He knows how to grind you hard enough where you turn into a diamond and you’re not so fragile that you crack or you break. The people around him have changed, but in defining ‘Play Like A Raven’ and what it means to be a Raven, I think he’s really taken that to the next level. … Not everybody can be a Raven. If you want to be a guy that’s not accountable and you’re not going to show up to practice every day and practice hard and mentor guys to a certain extent and give input and feedback, these are the things that great businesses do and these are the things that the Ravens are also looking for from their players. We want feedback. We want to know how we did things right, how we did things wrong. We want to do self-analysis. We want to do case studies. We want to implement what we can. That means you can’t stay the same, and I think he’s done that really well.”
Orr: “I think he’s a genuine person, a loving person and a caring person. He wants to see you be successful as a person. He wants to see you have a family, take care of a family. And as a coach, he’s so competitive. He’s a hard worker. The good thing about it that we got to see as his former players, and now on his coaching staff, is you see both sides of it. As a player, I knew he was a competitive coach. As a coach, I see that he’s a competitive coach. He’s hard-working. He’s loyal from a sense of whoever his staff and his…
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