Raven coach John Harbaugh was suspended after making…

Ravens coach John Harbaugh on Tuesday provided an impassioned defense of his brother, Jim Harbaugh, amid Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal.

When asked for his opinion on Jim Harbaugh’s suspension by the Big Ten Conference, John Harbaugh said four times he was “proud” of his brother for how he’s “handled himself through all this.”

Jim Harbaugh was suspended three games Friday — the rest of the No. 3-ranked Wolverines’ regular season — for a sign-stealing scheme that is also under investigation by the NCAA. In his ninth season at Michigan, Jim Harbaugh has denied any knowledge of illegal scouting within his program.

John Harbaugh, 15 months Jim Harbaugh’s senior, said his brother has “come through this thing with flying colors” and that the Big Ten and NCAA “don’t have anything of substance.”

“I’m proud as heck of him,” John Harbaugh said. “I’m really impressed with the way he’s handled himself through all this. I mean, it’s been a long run and everything can be done — you know, his phones and his computers and all this stuff has been looked at, and he’s come through this thing with flying colors.”

The Big Ten said the Wolverines violated the conference’s sportsmanship policy through the program’s “impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years” that gave Michigan “an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.” In a letter sent to Michigan, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti said the conference did not have evidence that Jim Harbaugh was aware of the scheme and that the sanction was of the university, not its football coach.