NEW ORLEANS -- Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said this morning that he hadn't talked with his brother Jim since their brief handshake on the field following the Ravens' 34-31 win over the 49ers in the Super Bowl. But knowing the 49ers' head coach, he had a pretty good idea of what Jim Harbaugh is going through right now.
"Jim is a great competitor, and Jim will go do what he's always done," John said. "He will come out swinging. He'll go back to work.
"Everybody in this room that's ever competed understands what we all go through when you lose a tough game or a big game. It's tough because you put so much into it, your heart, your soul. You feel for everybody. But no one will handle it better than Jim Harbaugh. Like I said, he's the best coach in football. And he'll have that team roaring back very soon."
John's Ravens have beaten Jim's 49ers in both of their head-to-head match-ups. Neither has been easy for the rest of the family -- parents Jack and Jackie Harbaugh, sister Joani Crean and Joani's husband Tom Crean, who coaches the Indiana basketball team -- to watch. The family watched Sunday's game from the box of Commissioner Roger Goodell, and John said Goodell told him they "didn't say really a word throughout the course of the whole game." Afterward, they found John in the Ravens' locker room.
"They were elated on the one hand and they were devastated on the other hand," John said. "I could see it behind their eyes. I could see it kind of stuck right up in there. It was both things. The emotions were incredible."
They mirrored John's own as he crossed the field to locate his brother for the post-game handshake. He called that the "toughest moment of all." Asked if he thinks the brothers will ever sit down together and re-watch the game, John said: "Absolutely not."
-- Matt Kawahara
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