Jim Harbaugh on George Floyd: Justice must be ‘equal and fair for all’

From coast to coast in America, the death of George Floyd has brought the country into a time of sorrow and conversation.

Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man from Minneapolis, died last week after a police officer kept his knee on the right side of Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the last 2 minutes and 53 seconds occurred after Floyd became unresponsive. The officer responsible, Derek Chauvin, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the death of Floyd.

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh expressed his views on Floyd’s tragic death on Sunday via Twitter with a statement praising his children for their activism on the topic.

"All injustice should be confronted and punished. It has to be equal and fair for all, and no one can be above the law,” Harbaugh said. I pray we can get there!"

In Harbaugh’s tweet he shared what his son Jay Harbaugh, who’s Michigan’s running backs coach and special teams coordinator expressed on the topic. “We have a system of schools, banks, employment & law enforcement practices (etc) that have put blacks & other minorities at a massive compounded disadvantage,” Harbaugh said. “Tragedies like this are painful symptoms of our countries’ greater chronic illness.”

The elder Harbaugh initially made comments about Floyd’s death earlier this week on Rich Eisen’s podcast, and was disturbed by what happened. “Well, today I’m very upset about the George Floyd death,” Harbaugh said Thursday. “That’s kind of got me preoccupied today. I’m just very (upset). Horrendous.”