Jim Harbaugh has a message for the football Pharaohs out there: Let my people throw.

For that matter, let them run, and catch, and block, and tackle, and crush the Spartans, battle past the Badgers and Nittany Lions. Let them go into Columbus and try to take down the Buckeyes, even if not a single 85-year-old OSU grandma is flipping them the double bird.

It’s pretty simple. Harbaugh wants football on the field this fall. His players want it. His coaches want it.

He says everyone will know if it can’t happen. But prepare for when it does, and expect it to come about.

He’s not wrong in the matter. With everyone screaming about science, science is on his side.

A recent Center For Disease Control study determined that for young people 5-17 years of age, four out of every 100,000 gets hospitalized for COVID-19. Among ages 18-29, it’s roughly 35 out of 100,000.

That’s hospitalizations. Deaths are nearly negligible at those ages. Michigan football players face a greater chance of dying from driving back from home to Ann Arbor than they do of losing their lives through COVID-19.

Harbaugh knows it, the players know it, and the head coach talked about it Wednesday on a Zoom call with reporters covering Michigan.

“They want to play,” Harbaugh stressed. “They’ve been training their whole lives for this, for these opportunities. You put the question to them, which I have, and they would rather play than not play.”

Players already risk plenty when pulling on a football helmet. They risk concussion, serious neck and spine injury, damage to knees, hips, feet, hands and countless other body parts. By comparison, they’re not wringing their hands over a scourge that overwhelmingly claims the elderly, rather than their age bracket.

Cue the retort…

But what about fans? What about older coaches? What about the older family members of players? What about all the terrible things that could happen?

What about common sense? Nobody is compelling a single fan to purchase a single ticket or attend a single football game this fall, whether the Wolverines play 12 or two. Nobody is coercing coaches who feel at risk to coach.

And nobody is suggesting that those largely immune from the potentially serious consequences of COVID-19 ought to run home and embrace those most at risk. Quite the opposite. If she doesn’t already know (not likely), teach Grandma to Facetime. Instruct Grandpa in the joys of Zoom, or better yet, write him a letter. He’ll experience a wonderful flashback.

An estimated 36,120 perished in auto accidents in 2019. If cars didn’t exist, those tens of thousands would presumably still be walking around today. That doesn’t warrant a return to the horse and buggy, regardless of what politician or well-intended bubble-wrapper calls for it.

Harbaugh and his players leave no doubt: they’re not in it solely for the 110,000 who love watching them perform in person.

“They would rather play in front of no fans than not play,” he said.

Harbaugh fielded a host of questions regarding the COVID-impact possibilities. He doesn’t necessarily oppose the playing of a regional schedule, taking on all Big Ten opponents, even moving to a spring schedule, if that’s what it takes to put the players back on the field.

He does know that latter would knock some of them out. Anyone looking at the NFL Draft is not likely to perform in a cobbled-together spring schedule. They shouldn’t even have to make that choice.

Ask a former Wolverine if he’d step back on the field at 22 years of age in the present conditions. He’ll regard the question like he would one involving his needlepoint prowess.

TheWolverine.com contributor Doug Skene mentioned dying recently, but it had nothing to do with COVID. That’s the farthest thing from players’ minds — and the science indicates it should be.

“How much is this team going to love each other?” Skene said. “How much is this team going to die for each other out there? If the answers to those two questions are really, really high, and they enjoy being around one another, it just increases your chances of success quite a bit.”

Any other kind of dying? That’s for others to manage, with wisdom and circumspection. Harbaugh’s players are ready to go.

“The scenario that they’re playing is the one you’re hoping and praying for,” he said. “These youngsters have put in a lot of training … they’ve invested a lot, and they’re very excited.”

Let ‘em play and keep ‘em safe. It can be done.

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