The Chargers have signed Jim Harbaugh as their next head coach, the team announced Wednesday. And the hiring has delighted fans in more ways than one.
Los Angeles needs an offensive-minded leader who can help franchise quarterback Justin Herbert get to the next level. Harbaugh has NFL experience and turned Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick into solid starters.
The former Michigan coach also played for the Chargers at the end of his NFL career, so he is familiar with the franchise. Additionally, he has spent a lot of time training in California at San Diego, Stanford and later with the 49ers, so his ties to the state should make his transition to Los Angeles easier.
If those points weren’t enough to convince Chargers fans that Harbaugh is a good fit for the team, maybe this will be.
BENDER: What to expect from Jim Harbaugh’s return to the NFL
Like the Chargers, Harbaugh has a unique connection to the Asian fusion restaurant chain PF Chang’s.
Jim Harbaugh met his wife at PF Chang’s house
Harbaugh met his wife Sarah Feuerborn Harbaugh in 2006 and their love story began in an unexpected place. as Bleacher Report describes in a 2013 article.
Then, University of San Diego coach Harbaugh was in Las Vegas for a coaches convention, while Sarah was selling real estate in the area. They met in the parking lot of a PF Chang and the rest is history.
The couple married in January 2008 and have four children together.
As heartwarming as the Harbaughs’ meet-and-greet was, it immediately became a point of humor among social media-savvy NFL fans.
Because? It all goes back to a social media post from the Chargers account in 2007 about PF Chang.
Chargers PF Chang’s tweet
In the early days of Twitter (now X), users were still exploring the new platform, and some handles that now belong to teams and companies did not yet belong to them.
That was most likely the case for the Chargers. In February 2007, the @Chargers account posted an infamous tweet that brought joy to many NFL fans.
I’m really hungry, I need to find my wife and head to PF Changs.
– Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) February 20, 2007
That post surfaced more than a decade after it was first posted and has become part of Chargers social media lore.
The Chargers have one of the best social media teams in the NFL, and perhaps all of sports, so it wasn’t a surprise to see them embrace that post after it appeared. They’ve dropped it and made occasional jokes about it since their rise to prominence.
That included sending him a shout-out after Harbaugh’s PF Chang connection was revealed.
“PF Chang’s is so good,” the team wrote, without using capital letters or punctuation.
pf changs is very good pic.twitter.com/FSic3Oup3Q
– Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) January 25, 2024
So, it looks like the Chargers’ ties with PF Chang will only get stronger with Harbaugh on board.
Now, the only question is whether Harbaugh and the Chargers brass will be eating at PF Chang’s anytime soon. The restaurant is located just 4.1 miles from SoFi Stadium and less than 2 miles from the Chargers’ practice facility in El Segundo.
Maybe if the parties attend the restaurant, Coach will bring Sarah to reminisce about old times.
