John Harbaugh says he didn’t take the toys away from his players. The veteran players did it themselves.
The Ravens head coach pushed back against a Baltimore Sun report this week that claimed he ordered ping-pong tables, video game consoles, and basketball hoops removed from the locker room after the team’s 1-5 start. According to Harbaugh, he found out about it after the equipment guy told him the stuff was already gone.
“I would say that the report was inaccurate and false,” Harbaugh told reporters. “The stuff was taken out of the locker room. I was informed of it after it was gone by the equipment guy, and that the players, a couple of veteran players, got together and decided they wanted to take that stuff out.”
John Harbaugh on the reported locker room toy purge:
“The report was inaccurate & false. The stuff was taken out of the locker room. I was informed of it after it was gone by the equipment guy, and that it was the veteran players who decided they wanted to take that stuff out.… pic.twitter.com/DDrVpgXDy1
— Bobby Trosset (@bobbybaltim0re) October 22, 2025
The Sun’s story described everything that disappeared following Baltimore’s Week 4 loss to Kansas City. The basketball hoop near Lamar Jackson’s stall. The ping-pong table where rookies battled after practice. The cornhole boards. The video game consoles that drew crowds for Super Smash Bros. tournaments. All of it vanished.
The Sun attributed the decision to Harbaugh and his coaching staff, citing multiple sources inside the organization. The story mentioned an Instagram post from punter Jordan Stout two days before the Chiefs game showing Jackson at one of those consoles with the caption “Hard at work,” which allegedly didn’t sit well with team officials.
NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo backed Harbaugh’s version on Wednesday, saying veteran leaders made the call without coaching involvement.
Speaking of the #Ravens, I’m told the removal of the ping-pong tables and other games from the locker room initiated with veteran leaders on the team, not the coaching staff. Not a punishment. The players wanted them out.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) October 22, 2025
Here’s the thing: coaches pull games from locker rooms during losing streaks all the time. Mike Tomlin did it in Pittsburgh after a 0-4 start in 2013. Tom Coughlin did it with the Giants in 2004 and the Jaguars in 2017. The Dolphins’ ping pong table disappeared in 2022. It’s standard operating procedure when teams are losing, which is why the Sun’s reporting tracked with the pattern before Harbaugh said otherwise.
The Ravens lost their next two games after the purge, 44-10 to Houston and 17-3 to the Rams, both without Jackson. They’re 1-5 and giving up 32.3 points per game. Removing the ping-pong table hasn’t fixed anything.
According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, the Bears trolled Baltimore on social media this week by posting a since-deleted video of their players enjoying all the recreational equipment still in Chicago’s locker room.
If Baltimore turns things around starting Sunday against Chicago, nobody will care who made the call. If they don’t, the ping-pong table is the least of Harbaugh’s problems.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.