The Brothers Harbaugh have perfected their act. John plays the dutiful big brother, once beloved by his schoolteachers, now hitting just the right sentimental notes when discussing the NFL’s unprecedented fraternal coaching matchup on Thanksgiving night. Jim plays the devilishly headstrong younger brother, stubbornly resisting efforts to make a football game about something more than football.
“There’s just not a lot of time to really even think about the warm and fuzzy reunions, or the nostalgia of it all,” Jim said Monday, after listing the flaws that his 49ers must correct between Sunday’s win over Arizona and Thursday’s game in Baltimore.
On a national conference call from the East Coast, John conceded that he couldn’t help thinking beyond the usual football concerns, even in a matchup of two division leaders.
“Kind of underneath everything, it’s an amazing thing. To say that you’re not thinking about it probably wouldn’t be real,” he said. “It’s a historic thing. It’s very special. I couldn’t be more proud for our parents or for Jim. I just think it’s really neat.
The brothers probably would hate that comparison, partly because it’s a simplistic character sketch, but mostly because they hate comparisons. They both avoid making them and use virtually identical language to explain their resistance. Comparisons end up diminishing one party or the other.
They routinely borrow from each other in their jobs. John pioneered the idea of handing out blue work shirts with name patches. The 49ers now wear the same style. Vic Fangio worked on the Ravens’ coaching staff until Jim hired him as Stanford’s defensive coordinator and then brought him to the 49ers. Jim uses the term “armadillo skin” to discuss an athlete’s mental toughness; John also says it and has a plastic armadillo in his office at the Ravens’ headquarters.
Jim has turned the Harbaugh family’s call-and-response motto — “Who’s got it better than us? Nobody” — into the defining slogan of the 49ers’ remarkable revival
“I’m sorry he got to it first,” John said.
During their conference calls, conducted two hours and 2,800 miles apart, the brothers seemed very much in sync. They both recalled an American Legion baseball game in Ann Arbor, Mich., as their only competition against each other. John’s team won 1-0. Despite his allergy to nostalgia, Jim delivered more details about that confrontation, including the observations that his brother’s Baskin-Robbins team was older, had nicer uniforms and did more recruiting.
Only 15 months apart -- John is 49, Jim turns 48 in late December — they also got to play on the same teams. As Jim became a far superior football player, in both college and the pros, John apparently didn’t indulge in jealousy.
“That wasn’t even a consideration,” he said. “If you can’t root for your brother, I don’t know who you can possibly root for in the world. I was always just so proud of what he was doing. I always felt that he was the most underrated quarterback who ever played.
Jim says his brother routinely pushed coaches to bring in his kid brother. “He’s knocked down hurdles for me my whole life,” Jim said. “Still doing it today, the way I look at it.
Despite his success as a college coach, Jim said he believed that John’s work in Baltimore polished his stature.
“Taking his team to the playoffs three straight years in a row. I think in a lot of ways I was looked at as a better coach,” he said. “Look what John has done, here’s his younger brother, etc. Not too different than when we were in high school and every teacher [said,] ‘Oh, you’re John’s brother, John’s such a great youngster, we all love John.
And how did the teachers speak of Jim later? “I was always glad when my dad [Jack, a longtime college coach] would take a job and move somewhere else,” Jim said with a grin, “because by the time I went through there, I’d pretty much worn out my welcome.”
The younger Harbaugh eagerly paints himself as antisocial. The elder wryly told San Francisco reporters: “I don’t know if you guys are buying everything there. ... He’s got lots of friends.”
On Thursday, the two will be rivals in a way that no brothers have experienced. Rex and Rob Ryan have coached against each other, but not with both in the lead role. Peyton and Eli Manning have competed, turning their parents’ nerves raw. The Harbaugh parents, Jack and Jackie, tentatively plan to take pictures before kickoff and then leave the stadium to watch the game in private.
For John, it will be a first in a very personal way. Asked whether there was an element of the matchup he’d find emotionally difficult, he said: “I don’t know if I’ve really thought about it. Maybe there is. ... I’ve never rooted against him, really ever.”
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