PARENTAL GUIDANCE: Jackie and Jack Harbaugh (above), parents of Super Bowl XLVII coaches Jim (of the 49ers) and John (of the Ravens) said they don’t want either son to lose — though maybe they’ll change their minds after being pranked on a conference call by John (inset), who asked anonymously if they liked Jim better. (AP; UPI (inset))
Jack and Jackie Harbaugh have watched the NFL teams coached by their sons, John and Jim, face each other — but never with so much at stake. It created such a stir of emotions the parents are bracing for a rough night Feb. 3 during and after Super Bowl XLVII between John’s Ravens and Jim’s 49ers.
“It’s something I’m not looking forward to,’’ Jack Harbaugh said yesterday.
No brothers ever have squared off as head coaches in a Super Bowl, but on Thanksgiving Day in 2011, Jim and John Harbaugh became the first brothers to meet as head coaches in an NFL game. It was enough of an appetizer for the parents to understand the upcoming main course is going to be difficult to digest.
“The thing I remember most about the game is Jackie and I were in a little office with a TV and we watched the game,’’ Jack Harbaugh said on a national conference call. “I’ve never seen Jackie experience that in a ball game. She was nearly comatose. She was staring at the screen, there was no facial emotion whatsoever, just a blank stare into the screen, not a word was spoken and at the end of the game, it was over, we took the elevator downstairs.’’
What transpired that night in Baltimore as John’s Ravens defeated Jim’s 49ers 16-6 convinced Jack Harbaugh — a longtime college coach — that when Super Bowl XLVII is over and done with in New Orleans, he knows where he will head first when he seeks out his sons inside the Superdome.
“I do recall coming out down in the locker room and I peeked into the Ravens locker room and I mean, ecstatic,’’ Jack Harbaugh said of that Thanksgiving game. “Guys jumping up and down, smile on John’s face, the thrill of victory, that type of thing we hear so often and I thought to myself ‘We’re really not needed here, this looks like it’s pretty well taken care of.’
“Walked across the hall to the 49er locker room, quiet and somber and looking into some offices and finally I saw Jim all by himself, no one around him, he still had his coaching thing on and his head in his hands and realized that’s where we were needed. That thrill of victory and the agony of defeat and we know we’re going to experience that next week.’’
Jackie Harbaugh said “We are neutral in the Super Bowl’’ and that she will wear neutral colors for the game. The family was thrilled last Sunday when Jim’s 49ers came back to beat the Falcons in Atlanta and John’s Ravens upset the Patriots in New England.
“After the championship game I felt that was a joyful moment for them and our whole family, our extended families and for my father, who is 97 years old,’’ Jackie Harbaugh said. “Great, great feeling of joy.’’
Now, on to the Super Bowl, where one of the boys has to lose.
“I know one is going to win and one is going to lose but I really would like it to end in a tie,’’ Jackie said. “Can the NFL do that?’’
No matter who comes out on top, it sounds as if this close-knit family will deal with it. Seeing how the boys handled that Thanksgiving game showed the parents their sons will not let a game, even a Super Bowl, get between them.
“After the game we saw Jim and all the hugs and talked about some of our feelings and John came out and ran down to the busses to find Jim and talked to him briefly, it just was the epitome of how everybody in the family feels about each other and always tries to raise one another up,’’ Jackie Harbaugh said. “These are difficult times in football when you’re playing against your own brother. A lot of brothers in the NFL have experienced this, but at the end of the game, it’s still about family and your feelings for one another.’’