Jim Harbaugh Personally Presents Rose Bowl Game Ball To Family Of Baby Battling Cancer

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Jim Harbaugh and Michigan attracted plenty of criticism during a season that ended with the team walking away with a national championship, but it’s impossible to hate the move the coach pulled with a game ball he and the team secured at the Rose Bowl en route to the title.

At this point, everyone is aware of the controversy that surrounded the Michigan Wolverines over the course of a campaign that ended with the team finishing with an undefeated record and securing its first national championship since 1997.

There are obviously plenty of haters who continue to argue that achievement deserves to be marked with an asterisk and will always villainize Jim Harbaugh for the role he may or may not have played in the sign-stealing scandal that took the college football world by storm, but there are bigger issues to worry about in the grand scheme of things.

In order to earn the right to face off against Washington in the championship game, Michigan needed to top Alabama in the first round of the College Football Playoff, and the Wolverines were able to take care of business by beating the Crimson Tide by the score of 27-20 in the Rose Bowl.

Prior to the game, Harbaugh pledged to play the game in honor of a neuroblastoma cancer patient named Knox Anson, who is the son of a Michigan graduate whose father also attended the university.

On Tuesday, Knox’s grandfather Todd revealed the family had gotten an unexpected visit from Harbaugh and his wife Sarah, who popped in to present them with a Rose Bowl game ball that was signed by Jim as well as his brother (and Batimore Ravens head coach) John.

Anson also showed off a poster covered with the text messages the family received from members of the Harbaugh family (as well as QB J.J. McCarthy) before the Rose Bowl, and while Knox may be a bit too young to know he has plenty of people in his corner, it’s awesome to see the team rally around him.