Greg Harden has worked with Michigan football for more than 35 years, helping stars like Desmond Howard, Tom Brady and J.J. McCarthy live up to their potential.
Legendary Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler was the kind of guy that people were afraid to tell “no.” When he asked someone to do something, it was more of a statement than it was a question.
But when Schembechler called Greg Harden and requested he give the Michigan football team a lecture, Harden’s answer defied the status quo.
“I was working in a hospital doing clinical therapy,” Harden told Maize n Brew. “I got a call from Michigan asking me to do a lecture on alcohol and drugs to the football team, and I rejected the idea. And (Bo) Schembechler wanted to know who the hell rejected the idea because everyone else would be going nuts.”
Harden wasn’t like everyone else. His priority was providing useful information to student-athletes. He knew the lecture Schembechler asked for wouldn’t be effective, so he didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. Still, Schembechler wasn’t satisfied with the denial.
“I told (Schembechler) what I would do,” Harden said. “So that turned into quite a great relationship and my first job was as a consultant to Michigan football, and over time as a consultant to the department and introduced the idea of trying to do more like a student assistance program.”
Harden’s impact extends far beyond what a lecture could give. For more than 35 years, he has assisted Michigan’s student-athletes to truly be the leaders and best.
Harden may be labeled a sports psychologist by the masses, but in his mind, he’s simply a social worker who happens to work within sports. Before becoming involved with Michigan, he worked as a clinical therapist, supporting people dealing with everyday life challenges. His original work had nothing to do with sports.
Nonetheless, Schembechler saw Harden’s work and the positive impact it facilitated, so he naturally wanted that for his team. Harden was brought in and had a vision to bring the student-athletes an outlet for them to unpack their problems and better themselves. He convinced the athletic department that a structured, organized system was needed so the players had a space to talk about not being athletes, but young people who happen to be involved in athletics.
“They’re still 17 to 24 years old, and they are going to go through the same things that everybody else is going through,” Harden said. “They just happen to be in a pressure cooker. That’s the social work model, that’s not the psychology model.”
Thinking outside the box and using the social work model differentiated Harden from others, and it proved effective for athletics across the board at Michigan.
During his nearly four-decade career at U-M, Harden has worked with thousands of athletes across a variety of sports. Among those players, some have shined through as savants of the mental game. A few have adopted Harden’s approach in a way that most people aren’t capable of doing and, in turn, have thrived at a level few are capable of.
“If I can convince you you’re more than a bloody athlete, I got an even better shot at getting you to the next level,” Harden said. “Because the game is mental. It’s a game, and each level gets more and more critical that your mind is right, that self-mastery is what you’re pursuing.”
No one has perhaps mastered that game better than Desmond Howard. He had an incredible 1991 season, leading the Wolverines to a 10-1 record, a Big Ten championship and a No. 4 ranking in the polls. Near the end of the season, Howard’s name started to be frequently mentioned in Heisman conversations. At the end of the day, Howard was just a 21-year-old, and the entire country was watching him, anxiously awaiting each move he made. Not sure how to handle the onslaught of acclaim, he turned to Harden for help.
“I said, ‘I think you might want to stay Desmond Howard’, ” Harden said. “ ‘You have no control over the Heisman. … It seems to me the best thing you can do is demonstrate to the community of writers and all the pundits and all the experts that you’re focused like a laser beam on your team, your education and your family.’”
Howard could have talked about his skills, highlights and accomplishments all day; he certainly had the body of work for that. But he didn’t. He took Harden’s advice and ran with it. Howard wanted to be the best and he understood Harden’s method could help him achieve that.
“Desmond is one of the best examples I have in terms of somebody taking a lesson and taking it to another level,” Harden said. “I learned from Desmond. I told him he’s teaching me, because the boy’s that good. He’s no boy, he’s a grown man, and everything he touches turns to gold.”
Howard isn’t the only athlete Harden has mentored who went on to have a lot of success. Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, just like Howard, bought into Harden’s approach. Even after Brady left Michigan and went to the NFL, that remained true. Brady understood Harden’s methods weren’t simply about how you can be better on the field, but rather how you can be better off the field, which translates to being the best player you can be.
So back in 2004, after Brady had just won his second Super Bowl, he gave Harden a call.
“He calls me and says, ‘Can I talk to you, I’m miserable’, ” Harden said. “I said, ‘Talk to me.’ He said, ‘I can’t go out the house, I can’t even go to the store anymore. I wanted to be the best, I’ve never wanted to be a star, I just wanted to be the best, and the star stuff, it’s disrupting my whole outlook on life.’”
It’s hard to have sympathy for someone in Brady’s position, and Harden bluntly admitted that to him. Regardless, he was there to help. He once again employed his social work model in hopes of helping Brady overcome his challenges at the time. Harden pointed out the positives of Brady’s newfound fame and the impact he can have on others.
Brady was among the best quarterbacks at that time, but as long as he felt miserable, he couldn’t be his best. From the lessons Harden instilled in him, he understood that and was able to reach out for help.
Fast forward 20 years, and Harden’s approach has remained steadfast. With that, the players and teams that have stood out among the rest are the ones who completely adopt the social work model. Led by J.J. McCarthy, the 2024 Michigan football team is a prime example of that.
“J.J. McCarthy was obsessed with learning and training his mind to be the best possible version of himself that he could create,” Harden said. “That’s a very unique characteristic. And there’s only a handful of people I can talk about who walks in talking about, ‘School me, teach me, train me.’”
To be the best player on the field, you have to be the best version of yourself off it. Just like how Howard and Brady grasped that concept, McCarthy took it and ran with it. Prioritizing the mental element of his game just as much as the physical part allowed him to thrive and lead the Wolverines to a national championship.
The social work model Harden employs relies heavily on failure and shortcomings. No matter how great someone is, failure is inevitably a part of life and nobody is immune to it. When Georgia crushed Michigan in the College Football Playoff, that collapse could have been fatal for the Wolverines’ future. One year later when TCU shocked Michigan in the semifinals, the defeat could have incapacitated the Wolverines.
But it didn’t.
“When you understand that a loss is data and lessons, you can either go through it or you can grow through it,” Harden said. “And I have watched this team continuously improve. I watched this staff continuously improve. I saw (Jim) Harbaugh surrender his ego and say, ‘I can do better.’”
Harden instills that mindset — that you can always do better and be better. It’s what helped the Wolverines become national champions last season, and it’s why he said “no” when Schembechler asked him to give a lecture to his team.
Because he knew they could do better.