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Coaches get ready for brotherly bowl
Source: Agencies |
January 23, 2013, Wednesday
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JIM and John Harbaugh have exchanged a handful of text messages, and that will be it until they stare at each other from across the field as opposing coaches in the Super Bowl.
There are no phone conversations necessary while the season's still going. No time for pleasantries, even for the friendly siblings.
There is work to be done to prepare for the Super Bowl, prepare for each other, prepare for a history-making day already being tagged 'Harbowl' or 'Superbaugh'.
"It doesn't matter who the coach is, what relationship you have with the person on the other side," 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said so matter-of-factly on Monday afternoon.
Their parents sure aren't picking sides for the February 3 matchup in New Orleans.
These days, the Harbaughs' longtime coaching father, Jack, stays away from game-planning chatter or strategy sessions with his Super Bowl-bound coaching sons. Baltimore's John Harbaugh and little brother Jim have been doing this long enough now to no longer need dad's input.
Yet, they still regularly seek it. And, their father does offer one basic mantra.
"The coaching advice is, 'Get ahead, stay ahead'," said Jack Harbaugh, who was a college head coach for 20 years and won the second-tier collegiate national championship with Western Kentucky.
"If I'm called upon, I'll repeat that same message."
His boys still call home regularly to check in with the man who turned both on to the coaching profession years ago, and the mother who has handled everything behind the scenes for decades in a highly competitive, sporting family.
The Harbaugh brothers will become the first siblings to square off from opposite sidelines when their teams play for the National Football League championship at the Superdome. Not that they're too keen on playing up the storyline that has no chance of going away as hard as they try.
"It's a blessing and a curse," Jim Harbaugh said. "A blessing because that is my brother's team. And, also, personally I played for the Ravens.
"The curse part would be the talk of two brothers playing in the Super Bowl and what that takes away from the players that are in the game. Every moment that you're talking about myself or John, that's less time that the players are going to be talked about."
There are no phone conversations necessary while the season's still going. No time for pleasantries, even for the friendly siblings.
There is work to be done to prepare for the Super Bowl, prepare for each other, prepare for a history-making day already being tagged 'Harbowl' or 'Superbaugh'.
"It doesn't matter who the coach is, what relationship you have with the person on the other side," 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said so matter-of-factly on Monday afternoon.
Their parents sure aren't picking sides for the February 3 matchup in New Orleans.
These days, the Harbaughs' longtime coaching father, Jack, stays away from game-planning chatter or strategy sessions with his Super Bowl-bound coaching sons. Baltimore's John Harbaugh and little brother Jim have been doing this long enough now to no longer need dad's input.
Yet, they still regularly seek it. And, their father does offer one basic mantra.
"The coaching advice is, 'Get ahead, stay ahead'," said Jack Harbaugh, who was a college head coach for 20 years and won the second-tier collegiate national championship with Western Kentucky.
"If I'm called upon, I'll repeat that same message."
His boys still call home regularly to check in with the man who turned both on to the coaching profession years ago, and the mother who has handled everything behind the scenes for decades in a highly competitive, sporting family.
The Harbaugh brothers will become the first siblings to square off from opposite sidelines when their teams play for the National Football League championship at the Superdome. Not that they're too keen on playing up the storyline that has no chance of going away as hard as they try.
"It's a blessing and a curse," Jim Harbaugh said. "A blessing because that is my brother's team. And, also, personally I played for the Ravens.
"The curse part would be the talk of two brothers playing in the Super Bowl and what that takes away from the players that are in the game. Every moment that you're talking about myself or John, that's less time that the players are going to be talked about."
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