NFL insider at center of wild Jim Harbaugh-to-the-Rams rumor says he never called it 'a very real thing'

On Monday, the Los Angeles Rams fired head coach Jeff Fisher after his team's embarrassing 42-14 loss at home to the Atlanta Falcons.

Fisher's future with the team was in doubt even before Sunday's game, and one bombastic rumor popped up speculating that the Rams would replace Fisher with Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh.

That rumor quickly caught fire and at the same time it raised a lot of eyebrows and suspicions. Now, the NFL insider linked to the rumor, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, says he never said the key phrase that started the rumor in the first place.

"My name got attached to a lot of things I didn't say," Breer told Dan Patrick Wednesday on "The Dan Patrick Show."

The rumor originated when Breer was a guest on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" on Friday, before Fisher had been fired. According to Breer, before the show, he and Cowherd discussed the idea of the Rams pursuing Harbaugh if Fisher were to be let go. Breer would later tell Patrick that the conversation was "more logic than anything else, where I said, 'if I am the Rams, the first call I make is Jim Harbaugh.'"

The topic never came up when Breer was on air. However, after Breer's segment on "The Herd" was over, Cowherd then sparked the Harbaugh-to-the-Rams rumor (you can here the comments at the 15:10 mark at this link).

"By the way, Albert Breer, on the way out, said the Jim Harbaugh-to-the-Rams rumor is a very real thing," Cowherd said.

When Patrick asked Breer if he said this, Breer was unequivocal, saying he had never said that and maybe something "got lost in translation."

"I didn't say that, no," Breer told Patrick. "Look, those things can get lost in translation sometimes, but I never said that."

After the rumor flared up, Harbaugh met with his players and told them that the rumors were "lies made up by our enemies," according to Dan Murphy of ESPN.

Breer is an alumnus of Ohio State and some felt the rumor was started to hurt Michigan in the middle of the recruiting season.

"I have no idea what the recruiting calendar looks like," Breer told Patrick. "I had no idea this was a big recruiting week. I am just completely unaware of all that stuff. It's the middle of the NFL season. I mean, I don't know where my family is half the time."