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Harbaugh visits Senate in support of low-income legal aid

Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Jim Harbaugh is a man of many passions beyond the football field, and one of them happens to be legal assistance for the less fortunate.

The Michigan head coach has supported low-income Americans in need of legal assistance in the past, and appeared at the U.S. Senate on Wednesday with a message as a member of the Legal Services Corporation's Leaders Council, according to Heather Dinich of ESPN.

"As an American, I challenge our lawmakers to take meaningful action towards narrowing the justice gap between those that can afford it and those that cannot," Harbaugh said.

"I feel like an American first," he added, "and this should be important to all Americans. Equal access to justice is something that should be important to all of us."

According to Dinich, a study released Wednesday shows 86 percent of civil legal problems reported by those who qualify as low-income Americans received "inadequate or no legal help."

Jay Harbaugh, son of Jim, explained that his father's interest in social justice is not sudden or fleeting, but rather something he has always taken an interest in.

"He's not a football robot," said Jay. "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."

That doesn't mean the veteran of 10 seasons as a head college football coach and four seasons as an NFL head coach can't draw a comparisons from one passion to another, though.

"You don't always treat everyone exactly the same, but you want to be fair to everybody on the team," Jim 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."

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