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FLASHBACK: Jim Harbaugh once broke his hand punching Jim Kelly
You should never question Jim Harbaugh's toughness.
www.cbssports.com
In 1997, Jim Harbaugh was involved in a tussle that ended up sidelining him for almost a month.
Harbaugh's situation was slightly different than Smith's though because Harbaugh wasn't the one being punched, he was the one doing the punching.
The whole situation started in October 1997 when former Bills quarterback Jim Kelly -- in his first year out of football -- called Harbaugh a "baby" during a local pregame show in Buffalo, according to the Los Angeles Times.
As you can imagine, Harbaugh was not amused with the comments.
"Jim Kelly made some comments about me on a TV show in Buffalo. He basically said I was a baby, that I fake injuries," Harbaugh told Mitch Albom in 1997. "He said if he were still playing, he'd tell Buffalo players to hit me in the mouth and I'd get rattled."
As fate would have it, Kelly was scheduled to announce Harbaugh's game the first Sunday after he made the "baby" comment. At the time, Harbaugh was playing for the Colts.
The day before the game, Harbaugh decided to "crash an NBC production meeting" and that's when things escalated.
"Well, [Kelly] was doing a game in San Diego, and I wanted to ask him where he was coming from with those comments," Harbaugh explained. "We went into a room and started talking about it. He said, 'I call it the way I see it.' One thing led to another. I hit him. I threw a couple of punches. Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in."
After the punch, Harbaugh knew right away that something didn't feel right.
"I broke the bone while hitting him," Harbaugh said in 1997.
Harbaugh would miss the Colts' next three games after the injury and because the team placed him on the Non-Football Injury list, he missed out on three paychecks, which were estimated to be $140,000 each.
The moral of the story: Never question Harbaugh's toughness.
"I regret throwing the punch, but I felt I had to do something since my toughness was being questioned," Harbaugh said. "I regret that I have a crack in one of my bones in my hand."
After the Colts finished 3-13 in 1997, the Colts let Harbaugh go and drafted his replacement with the No. 1 overall pick the next year.
That draft pick's name? Peyton Manning
and trade his career away because he liked weed over football. Jim was captain comeback and the fans loved him even tho he rubbed the coaching staff and then the front office the wrong way for being himself. he probably toned it down a lot but he forever has a chip on his shoulder to get even as the youngest son of the family. people were complaining that Jim was on his last leg when he was playing for the chargers and didn't know when to retire just to start coaching