Don’t even mention it right now. The two coaches
won’t hear of it because they’ve had little else on their minds
this week but Sunday’s NFC and AFC championship games. But headline
writers and punsters can’t wait to wrap their keyboards around this
one. Imagine if the San Francisco 49ers, coached by Jim Harbaugh,
beat the New York Giants in Sunday’s NFC game. And if the Baltimore
Ravens, coached by his older brother, John Harbaugh, defeat the New
England Patriots for the AFC title.
Don’t even mention it right now. The two coaches
won’t hear of it because they’ve had little else on their minds
this week but Sunday’s NFC and AFC championship games.
But headline writers and punsters can’t wait to
wrap their keyboards around this one.
Imagine if the San Francisco 49ers, coached by
Jim Harbaugh, beat the New York Giants in Sunday’s NFC game. And if
the Baltimore Ravens, coached by his older brother, John Harbaugh,
defeat the New England Patriots for the AFC title.
That would mean two brothers would face each
other for the first time in a Super Bowl on Feb. 5 in
Indianapolis.
Or will it be known as the Harbaugh Bowl? The
Brothers Bowl?
Or how about the Superbaugh?
“It’s pretty neat. I’m proud of him,” John
Harbaugh said the day after both teams advanced to the conference
championship games, and the last time the subject was addressed.
“He’s proud of what we’re doing.”
Because San Francisco and Baltimore played on
different days last weekend, the Harbaugh brothers were able to
watch each other’s games.
“I found myself, as always, pulling very hard
for him and his team,” Jim Harbaugh said. “Very happy for his
success. I (watch) as a brother, as a fan of his team, and also as
a possible opponent, yes.”
Throughout the regular season, the Harbaughs
talked regularly and shared ideas. All except one week last
November.
On Thanksgiving night, they became the first
brothers to face each other as NFL head coaches in the Ravens’ 16-6
victory as their parents looked on, celebrating their 50th wedding
anniversary.
John, 49, and Jim, 47, grew up in a football
family. Their father, Jack, coached on the college level 43 years
and won a Division I-AA national championship at Western
Kentucky.
The brothers call each other best friends, but
there was plenty of sibling rivalry in the house.
“We had some knockdown drag-outs when we were
younger,” John Harbaugh said during the week of the Thanksgiving
game. “I can remember my mom screaming, wailing and crying, ‘You’re
brothers! You are not supposed to act like this! You’re supposed to
get along better!’ There are probably a lot of mothers out there
that can relate to that.”
The Harbaughs (whose sister, Joani, is married
to Indiana University basketball coach Tom Crean) competed at
everything, ranging from playing tennis-ball basketball on a
coat-hanger rim to throwing balls between tree branches and
snowballs against trees. That competitiveness may explain their
success today.
“I don’t think it was any different than most
other childhoods or brothers or different people you talk to,” John
Harbaugh said. “It definitely impacts who you are as a person. We
both competed with each other and against each other. I know one
thing: (I) couldn’t have anybody tougher to compete against or
anybody more challenging to compete against every single day, so
from that standpoint, if you go against the best, that had to help
a little bit maybe.”
Jim Harbaugh turned out to be the more
successful athlete. He starred at quarterback at Michigan, was a
first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears, played 15 years in the
NFL and came within a Hail Mary of leading Indianapolis to a Super
Bowl after the Colts upset the Chiefs in the 1995 playoffs.
John was a walk-on defensive back at Miami
(Ohio) and worked his way up the ladder as a college football
assistant and Philadelphia Eagles assistant, leading to his first
head coaching job with the Ravens in 2008.
When their father attended the 49ers’ training
camp last summer, he told reporters: “Everybody tries to say John
is cerebral and Jim is, I guess, ‘competitive’ is the word. They’re
very much alike.
“John has as much competitiveness about him that
Jim has, and Jim has every bit of the depth in seeing things and
working things through that John has. They’re much more alike in
their love for the game, the passion they have, the work
ethic.”
