Chargers Get Their Man In Jim Harbaugh With An Eye-Popping Hire

Head coach Jim Harbaugh celebrates after leading the Michigan Wolverines over the Washington Huskies ... [+] in the NCAA national championship game. The Chargers announced that Harbaugh was being hired as their new coach on Wednesday. (Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images)

The Chargers, in Los Angeles since 2017, finally arrived on Wednesday with Jim Harbaugh being selected as their new head coach.

It’s the biggest splash the Chargers have produced since ditching San Diego seven years ago. It’s among the boldest moves in franchise history that it obtained Harbaugh, fresh from him leading the Michigan Wolverines to the national title.

It’s well, amazing, for an outfit that regularly goes for inexpensive hires and underwhelming personalities at one of its most critical positions.

“This organization is putting in the work,’’ Harbaugh said in a team statement announcing the blockbuster move. “Investing capital, building infrastructure and doing everything within its power to win. Great effort equals great results, and we’re just getting started.”

The pursuit of Harbaugh was necessitated by the Chargers being at a crossroad in L.A. as they try build their fan base.

After going 5-12, finishing in the AFC West cellar and seeing gifted quarterback Justin Herbert’s career being squandered, the Chargers stiff-armed cheap and status quo when it came to anointing a new commander.

They needed a new vision, a new vibe, a new something and they get all of that and more with the hyped and hyper Harbaugh.

“Jim Harbaugh is football personified, and I can think of no one better to lead the Chargers forward,’’ owner Dean Spanos said in the statement.

Realizing they were also slipping from relevance in the L.A. sports market, the Chargers didn’t charger late in this game. Whatever concessions that had to be made at whatever the cost, the Chargers were determined not to follow the Chargers Way of repeatedly having good results slip through their fingers.

Harbaugh, 60, who played his last two seasons of a 14-year NFL career as a quarterback with the Chargers, signed a five-year deal according to ESPN.

It’s possible that Harbaugh’s pact is worth at least $100 million.

Before last season then-New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick ($20 million annually) and the Denver Broncos’ Sean Payton ($18 million) were believed to be the NFL’s highest-paid coaches.

Don Yee represented Harbaugh on his deal, as he did for Payton.

Harbaugh comes with the credentials of a team-builder and winner after rekindling struggling programs at the University of San Diego, Stanford and Michigan.

He led the San Francisco 49ers to three NFC championship games, Super Bowl XLVII and was named the NFL coach of the year in his first three seasons. He lasted one more year before disputes with the 49ers’ front office pointed him back to college.

Now he’s back in the NFL to flip a muddled franchise that is in serious need of a do-over after dismissing coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco late last season.

The Chargers, who haven’t won the AFC West title since 2009 and have but three playoff seasons since then, produced a losing record for the third time in five years.

Harbaugh’s task of resurrecting the Chargers will be a challenge, despite having a standout quarterback in Herbert.

L.A. is some $44 million over next year’s salary cap, with four key players costing at least $30 million, according to spotrac.com.

There’s also the matter of hiring a general manager, but it’s clear it’ll be someone in alignment with the hands-on Harbaugh.

Then there is the role that John Spanos, the team’s director of football operations, played in convincing Harbaugh to rebuff Michigan and a second interview with the Atlanta Falcons regarding their opening.

One could speculate that Spanos, the son of the Chargers’ owner, had to relinquish ground in future organizational decisions in deference to Harbaugh’s beliefs.

“Jim is one of one and we couldn’t be more excited to have him back in the Chargers organization as our head coach,’’ John Spanos said in the statement.

The excitement that the Chargers’ startling announcement generated will settle at some point and these other unsettled pieces of L.A.’s suddenly optimistic puzzle can be jammed together on another day.

Because on Wednesday, while the Chargers weren’t the world champions, they won over L.A. with an eye-popping hire that was equal parts wow and wild.

Welcome to L.A., Jim.

It’s a fascinating city where everybody is a somebody, but now that Harbaugh is in town, he’ll preach that nobody has it better.