Ravens coach John Harbaugh and his brother, Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, met Thursday with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, a White House official confirmed.
A source close to the situation said the White House had invited the Harbaugh family. Further details on the meeting were unavailable. Jensen Huang, the CEO of technology company Nvidia, also visited the West Wing on Thursday afternoon, according to a White House pool report.
The Ravens did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
John Harbaugh rarely comments on politics, especially in recent years. But in August 2015, over a year before Trump was first elected president, Harbaugh called for the construction of a border wall, a recurring plank in Trump’s immigration platform.
“I’m going Trump here,” Harbaugh said after a preseason practice. “Build the wall. If you don’t have a border, you don’t have a country. You’re not a country without a border, right?
“At the same time, you’ve got 12 [million] to 15 million hardworking people here. Give them a shot. Give them a chance to become a citizen, so they’re paying taxes. All of us know that it’s not that complicated, but this side doesn’t want to solve it. Neither does [the other] side. Neither one of them want to solve the problem. Solve the problem.”
In 2017, during the playing of the national anthem before a game in London, a group of Ravens took a knee one day after Trump suggested that NFL owners fire players who do so.
Before Election Day in 2018, Harbaugh was asked about the Ravens organization’s efforts to help register employees as voters and request absentee ballots. He said they were not his concern.
“My role is to coach the football team,” Harbaugh said. “I want them to vote. Vote, vote, vote! But you know what I’m really concerned with? Win! Win, win, win. I’m sure our fans want our players to vote, but you know what they want them to do more than that? Win, win, win.”
