Culture

Popper: Jim Harbaugh was the hire the Chargers couldn't afford to miss out on

Published

2 years ago

January 26, 2024

Popper: Jim Harbaugh was the hire the Chargers couldn't afford to miss out on

Jim Harbaugh is the new head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, and to understand what this means and why it happened, you have to understand where the organization has been.

Owner Dean Spanos announced the relocation from San Diego to L.A. in an open letter to fans on Jan. 11, 2017. In the seven years and 14 days since, the Chargers have faced an uphill battle to find their place in one of the most competitive sports marketplaces in the world. A battle of their own creation, but a battle nonetheless.

The organization knew it was going to take time — to till this new land, to plant the seeds, to groom and cultivate those seedlings until they one day blossomed into a ripened fan base. So the Chargers took their lumps, some deserved and some not. Through a 27,000-seat soccer stadium overrun by opposing fans every Sunday. Through a paradigm shift at franchise quarterback from Philip Rivers to Justin Herbert. Through a temporary practice facility and two head coaches and a uniform redesign.

What has been missing is what is most important: winning in January and February. They have the exciting star quarterback. They have the attractive brand, from the dashing powder blue jerseys to the cutting-edge content. In sports, though, that means nothing without trophies and banners and parades. Especially in this town. The business, in the end, is winning.

Each time the Chargers had a chance over the past seven years and 14 days, they floundered.

The blowout loss to the New England Patriots in the divisional round in 2018.

The Week 18 overtime loss in Las Vegas in 2021 that wasted one of the great comebacks in recent league history.

Jacksonville.

For the Chargers, the hump separating them from Los Angeles relevance has proven to be a mountain. They brought it on themselves, and they have not delivered that most vital ingredient, sustainable winning.

And so as the team moved on from head coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco in December after a calamitous loss to the Raiders, the search for winning and winning alone became the driving motivation.

Players and coaches often get asked about a sense of urgency when a season is spiraling.

Over the last month, it has been the Spanos family grappling with the urgency of this moment.

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The shelf life for staking a claim in L.A. is finite, and the edge is in view.

The Chargers had no choice but to push their boundaries, their approaches, their very identity to find that missing ingredient. To find the person who could deliver them the winning they so desperately need. To do that, they had to go shopping at the pinnacle of the sport. No up-and-comers or rising stars. No, they needed proof of concept. A winner through and through, with the skins on the wall to show for it.

Enter Jim Harbaugh.

He agreed to terms with the Chargers on Wednesday, the team announced. It is a five-year deal, according to The Athletic’s Jeff Howe.

“Jim Harbaugh is football personified,” Dean Spanos said in a statement.

the guy we wanted, the guy we got. pic.twitter.com/BIRjDWbUBy
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) January 25, 2024

The results speak for themselves.

In 2007, Harbaugh took over a Stanford program that had finished 1-11 the previous season. In 2009, the Cardinal finished 8-5. The next season, the team went 12-1, including a win in the Orange Bowl.

In 2011, Harbaugh made the move to the NFL and took over a San Francisco 49ers team that went 6-10 the previous season. That first year, they went 13-3 and made it to the NFC Championship Game. The next season, in 2012, they made the Super Bowl. They won 12 games and made it to a third consecutive conference championship in 2013. They went 8-8 in 2014 before Harbaugh left for Michigan. Harbaugh finished with a 44-19-1 record. He’s never had a losing record as an NFL head coach.

When Harbaugh arrived in Ann Arbor in 2015 to lead his alma mater, the Wolverines had won more than eight games just once in the previous seven seasons, through two head coaches. They won 10 games in 2015. They won 10 games again in 2016. They went 40-3 over the last three seasons, a run that ended with a national championship in January. It was the university’s first national title since 1997.

GO DEEPER

Meek: Jim Harbaugh at Michigan could have ended badly. Instead, he delivered a parade.

“You need a team,” president of football operations John Spanos said in a statement. “And nobody has built a team more successfully, and repeatedly, in recent history than Jim Harbaugh.”

What the Harbaugh hire represents is the organization’s commitment, financially and ideologically, to winning.

“This organization is putting in the work — investing capital, building infrastructure and doing everything within its power to win,” Harbaugh said in a statement.

That does not feel like lip service. Not this time.

The Chargers’ new practice facility in El Segundo, Calif., is set to open in the spring. They signed Herbert to a top-of-the-market extension. They went into a deep and hyper-qualified pool of head coach candidates and came away with arguably the best of the bunch.

Will it all work?

That remains to be seen.

But the commitment means something.

Because of where the Chargers have been and where they are hoping to go.

(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

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Culture

Video: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

Published

2 days ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Video: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

new video loaded: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

To capture Jane Austen’s brief life and enormous impact, editors at The New York Times Book Review assembled a sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness she has brought to our lives.

By Jennifer Harlan, Sadie Stein, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Edward Vega

December 18, 2025

Culture

Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

Published

4 days ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.

Culture

Revisiting Jane Austen’s Cultural Impact for Her 250th Birthday

Published

4 days ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Revisiting Jane Austen’s Cultural Impact for Her 250th Birthday

On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.

Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”

With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”

How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.

By ‘A Lady’

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)

Where the Magic Happened

Janice Chung for The New York Times

Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.

An Iconic Accessory

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.

Austen Onscreen

Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.

Jane Goes X-Rated

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.

A Lady Unmasked

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”

Wearable Tributes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.

The Austen Literary Universe

Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times

On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)

A Botanical Homage

Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.

Aunt Jane

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.

Cultural Currency

Steve Parsons/Associated Press

In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.

In the Trenches

During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”

Baby Janes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.

The Austen Industrial Complex

Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times

Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.

Around the Globe

Goucher College Special Collections & Archives, Alberta H. and Henry G. Burke Collection; via The Morgan Library & Museum

Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.

Playable Persuasions

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.

#SoJaneAusten

The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.

Bonnets Fit for a Bennett

Peter Flude for The New York Times

For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.

Most Ardently, Jane

The Morgan Library & Museum

Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”

Stage and Sensibility

Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.

Austen 101

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”