Jim Harbaugh’s attempt to defend Derwin James doesn’t pass the smell test

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh is a great coach. There's absolutely no doubt about that. He knows how to win and his track record proves that. That's not up for debate.

But if there's another thing about Harbaugh that has been proven to be true time and time again, it would be the fact that he simply can never accept blame for anything, no matter the circumstances.

For years, Harbaugh would blame just about everything and everybody for why he couldn't beat Ohio State while he was the head coach at Michigan. He was notorious for going to the media to bash the refs rather than accepting that he lost a game.

Harbaugh has also gone with the same approach regarding Michigan's alleged sign stealing scandal. Rather than take any blame, he deflects it and puts it on everybody else before quickly packing up and leaving Michigan before any sort of punishment can come upon him.

Now, Harbaugh has brought that same attitude to the NFL, where he's pointing the finger in the wrong direction amid Derwin James' one game suspension.

Jim Harbaugh defends Derwin James in the worst way possible

For those unfamiliar with the Derwin James situation, let me quickly catch you up. James was suspended for one game without pay for repeated violations of the NFL's safety rules. The final hit that caused this suspension was a hit that he delivered against Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth. Here's the controversial hit:

“The video of the play shows that you lowered your head and made forcible contact. … Your continued disregard for NFL playing rules will not be tolerated," The statement from the NFL read.

The key part here is that this hit alone isn't why he's suspended. It's the continued disregard for the safety rules. The hit alone wasn't nearly bad enough to cause a suspension, but the fact that this is a routine thing for James makes it worse.

James' coach, Jim Harbaugh came to his defense. Rather than blame the speed of the game or say that James simply wasn't trying to injure anybody, Harbaugh found a way to blame Freiermuth for the hit that he suffered.

"There was not a defenseless player, changed his course, and I thought that Derwin’s helmet was stiff-armed by Mr. Freiermuth," Harbaugh said. "I thought that caused his head to make the contact, and I thought the contact was first with the forearm, then the shoulder, then the head."

While Freiermuth was initiating a stiff arm, he doesn't change the course of anything on the hit. James is lowering his helmet and launching at Freiermuth's head and neck area, which is directly against the rules.

Some NFL conspiracy theorists out there have mentioned that James is only being suspended because the Chargers are set to play the Kansas City Chiefs in the one game he will miss, but that's for you to speculate.

Is Freiermuth to blame for the illegal hit he suffered or is Harbaugh completely out of line?