Amid Michigan sign-stealing row, Jim Harbaugh's fight with Jim Kelly resurfaces that nearly sidelined him for over a month

Jim Harbaugh is a big name in the college football world now. His stint with the Michigan Wolverines has made the team capable of winning it all and they might just fulfill that this year. The other thing that everyone knows about Harbaugh is that he takes a stand for himself and can go to any length after that.

Former Buffalo Bills QB Jim Kelly learned about it the hard way. Years ago, before the Michigan sign-stealing row was even a thing, Kelly and Harbaugh were involved in a fistfight. It came after comments that Kelly made about the then-Indianapolis Colts quarterback.

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When Jim Harbaugh fought with Jim Kelly, years before Michigan sign-stealing row

The year was 1997, and Jim Harbaugh was playing for the Indianapolis Colts in the NFL. During that season, former Buffalo Bills QB Jim Kelly called him 'a baby' during a pregame show. Naturally, Harbaugh didn't like it. But what happened next was in nobody's imagination, probably not even Harbaugh's.

"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."

The quarterback confronted Kelly in an NBC production meeting before a game just a week after the comments.

"We went into a room and started talking about it," Jim Harbaugh said in an interview the same year. "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."

But it didn't end well for Harbaugh himself, as he missed the next three games due to an injury due to the punching. He didn't get paid for those weeks as the Colts put him on the non-football injury list.

"I broke the bone while hitting him," he revealed.

Jim Kelly attends the 12th annual NFL Honors at Symphony Hall on February 09, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

So a couple of punches caused the now Michigan Wolverines head coach a total of $420,000 in lost paychecks. He regrets throwing those punches but said that he had to do something as the question was about his toughness.

Jim Harbaugh is tough as a nut till date. If anyone doesn't believe that, ask Jim Kelly or the Michigan players of today. Imagine what would happen now that he has been accused of stealing signs of opposition teams.