Jim Harbaugh Uses Cold Tub in ‘Full Outfit,’ Chargers’ Joey Bosa Says

The most ardent University of Michigan or Los Angeles Chargers fans might think of whatever’s happening on the football field when they think of Jim Harbaugh. Others, however, think of his famous khaki pants.

The first-year Chargers coach is known for wearing them on game day and in practice. Los Angeles linebacker Joey Bosa added that Harbaugh, 60, also wears his khakis in the Chargers’ cold tub.

Bosa, 29, appeared on the “Green Light with Chris Long” podcast in an episode that aired on Friday, September 20. In it, he revealed that his head coach likes to take cold plunges fully clothed.

“He’s been hitting the cold tub and he just gets in full outfit,” Bosa said. “Shirt still tucked in and he’s just sitting there. Belt, khakis. I’m like, ‘Coach do those khakis keep a little warmth in there?’”

Harbaugh revealed how he became known for his khakis in a 2020 appearance on the “Jed Hughes Podcast.”

“[Former coach] Dave [Adolph] would wear khaki pants every day to practice, and most coaches that I had, I’d see them and they wore sweatpants and they wore shorts,” he recalled. “And I go, ‘Dave, why do you wear the pants every day?’ ‘Pockets, put my script in the pockets, place for my pens. place for my whistle.’ It just made so much sense, it just made perfect sense.”

As successful a coach as Harbaugh is — with a national championship and three Big Ten titles at Michigan to his name — he’s also known as one of the quirkier characters in football coaching.

Take for example this past offseason. Shortly after signing a deal with the Chargers that will pay him $16 million a year through 2029, he decided to spend the spring living in an RV.

“It’s been great,” Harbaugh told reporters in March. “Just being myself. I always wanted to do that [live in an RV]. It worked out great. I’m 100 feet from [Chargers offensive coordinator] Greg Roman, who has a really, really good RV.”

Harbaugh is also an unabashed fan of Judge Judy and Darth Vader. And he loves milk — a lot.

“I truly believe the No. 1 natural steroid is sleep and the No. 2 natural steroid is milk, whole milk, and three would be water,” he said on his radio show in 2015. “Four would be steak.”

He expanded in a 2016 appearance on the Dan Patrick Show.

“We’ve got a big milk dispenser,” Harbaugh said of Michigan’s football training center. “We have chocolate milk, we have whole milk, and the fellas even talked me into 2%. It’s better than nothing, the 2%.”

Suddenly, jumping in the cold tub fully clothed doesn’t seem that strange.