WASHINGTON -- Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh walked with a purpose down the white marble hallway of the Russell Building in the U.S. Senate, wearing his trademark glasses and an uncharacteristic dark grey suit with a gold tie and purple button-down shirt.
He almost blended in with the senators and staffers who were busily going about their day.
Almost.
"Good luck this season!" one senate intern said.
"I've been a Michigan fan my whole life," gushed Ches Garrison, a counsel on the Senate's Judiciary Committee, who waited in line to meet Harbaugh.
Happy Birthday @JayHarbaugh! Many thanks to you & your father for stopping by. @CoachJim4UM - one of America's greatest coaches of all time. pic.twitter.com/KUox1kosky
— Senator Bob Dole (@SenatorDole) June 14, 2017
One woman brought a jersey for him to sign. Another a T-shirt.
Harbaugh brought a blue Michigan folder with a political message inside.
Harbaugh was in D.C to voice his support for low-income Americans in need of legal assistance -- an issue he has been an advocate of for about two years as a member of the Legal Services Corporation's Leaders Council. It was more than just a celebrity appearance. It's something he has invested time and research into.
"I feel like an American first, and this should be important to all Americans," he said. "Equal access to justice is something that should be important to all of us."
Harbaugh was one of nine prestigious speakers in a quaint reception room Wednesday, including Linda Klein, the president of the American Bar Association, and former White House counsel Harriet Miers. But it was clear who the celebrity was -- and it was welcomed.
"He causes people in the country who may not focus on this issue -- maybe they're sports fans -- to take a moment and think about it," said Kenneth C. Frazier, LSC Leaders Council co-chair and CEO of Merck & Co. "If a person like him can take time out of his busy schedule and say equal representation of all Americans is important, that's important. He helps crash through all of the noise in the background. People will pay attention just because of who he is."
A new study released Wednesday shows that 86 percent of the civil legal problems reported by low-income Americans in the past year received inadequate or no legal help. Harbaugh used a football analogy to illustrate the point, saying he thinks of "our country as a team."
"You don't always treat everyone exactly the same, but you want to be fair to everybody on the team," he said. "It would be like only giving 20 percent of the team a helmet. The rest of the team doesn't need a helmet. You don't get protection. Run out there and play the game without a helmet and then we'll see what happens.
"As an American," Harbaugh said, "I challenge our lawmakers to take meaningful action towards narrowing the justice gap between those that can afford it and those that cannot."
Harbaugh's interest in the legal system can be traced back 30 years, when he met John Levi while playing for the Chicago Bears. Levi's father, Edward Levi, was a U.S. Attorney General in the Ford Administration. Harbaugh and John Levi have remained good friends, so Levi, now the chairman of the LSC Board of Directors, helped Harbaugh get involved.
Harbaugh flew to Washington on Tuesday with his son Jay, who coaches the team's running backs, and they went to the Nationals game that night. Meanwhile, the Wolverines are in Ann Arbor in the midst of their summer conditioning and weightlifting program.
Jay Harbaugh said he has heard his father talk about justice for the poor regularly.
"He's not a football robot," Jay Harbaugh said. "It's the truth. There's a time and place to be a football robot, but he has a breadth of interests and fascinations that probably would surprise people."
Jim Harbaugh met with baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, who is also on the Leaders Council, last summer in Atlanta, and called it a "very powerful" meeting.
"Here's the thing we all could agree on: If you're represented by a lawyer, you have a much better chance of winning a case than if you don't have representation," Harbaugh said. "... There are millions of people who are not protected by the legal system, don't have full access to the legal system. They're poor, or they're disabled, or veterans, or single mothers. It could be domestic violence cases. Rent, housing disputes. Just about every landlord is represented by a lawyer and very few of the tenants are able to. Who's going to win that dispute?"
Harbaugh said he understands why some people would wonder what a football coach is doing on the Hill.
"We all are more than just one thing," he said. "Definitely I feel Go Blue, but also, Go Red, White and Blue."