Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh loves a good T-shirt. So much so that he’s got a guy on staff making custom designs for him.

At training camp last year, Harbaugh showed up with three words printed on a T-shirt.

Trying to set the tone after the 2017 season ended with a last-minute loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Harbaugh wanted to move past one of the most gut-wrenching moments in team history and put his players in the right mindset.china nike nfl jerseys cheap

At a team meeting, Harbaugh told the story of the biblical figure Benaiah chasing a lion into a snowy pit and killing it.

“If you want to do great things, you have to have courage,” said Harbaugh. “You got to know your moment.”

And boom … not long after that, Harbaugh later appeared at practice wearing a shirt reading, “Chase the Lion.”

One of the reasons Harbaugh is the fourth-longest-tenured coach in the NFL is his ability to find the pulse of the team and tailor his message to the circumstances. Harbaugh’s success — a Super Bowl title and 114 victories — comes from his ability to reinforce those messages to his players.

And T-shirts are one of his favorite methods.

“If I wear it out there, I’m trying to say something to them that day,” Harbaugh said. “It’s all part of culture-building. It’s our world view. It’s what we believe. It’s what we’re based on. It’s our principles that we’re anchored to, and that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Harbaugh loves reading. If he comes across a meaningful life lesson, he picks up his phone and types it into his notes. There are easily a thousand talking points on his phone right now.cheap nfl jerseys china nike

Many of those get made into shirts. Harbaugh doesn’t know the number of T-shirts he has made in his 12 seasons in Baltimore. The older ones are stored in a couple of drawers in his office.

If he wants a new message placed on a shirt, he informs Ravens equipment manager William Sheridan, who promptly gets it done.

“I’m going to make all of them into a quilt some day,” Harbaugh said with a smile. “I just have to find time to learn how to sew.”