Let there be no doubt that Jim Harbaugh issued the biggest compliment possible to Super Bowl quarterback Tom Brady on Wednesday with well-thought timing.
It is, after all, National Signing Day, and Brady's Patriots will play the Falcons in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
The UM coach called the New England Patriots star, a former Wolverine, the greatest player of all time. This on a day when his two-hour celebrity webcast touted UM's newest signees with a flare, as Harbaugh would put it, unknown to mankind.
"When people compare him to other people, he is the greatest football player of all time. He's not getting that (credit). That's his due," Harbaugh said, per the Detroit Free Press. "He doesn't quite get it the way he should. I'm looking forward to watching him play."
Greatness, of course, is a relative term. Brady makes for an awfully good argument on this topic, of course, especially if Harbaugh's definition centers on Super Bowl titles. With a win over the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl on Sunday, he'll become the only player to win five Super Bowls as a starting quarterback.
Not bad for a former sixth-round draft choice who was lightly recruited out of high school.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.