July 24, 2017 • 48 mins
John and Jim Harbaugh make NFL history by becoming the first – and only – brothers to face off as head coaches in the Super Bowl. But the competition didn’t start there.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
From the Baltimore Ravens. This is Man of the Crowd,
a multi episode podcast that pulls back the curtain on
Ravens figures personal lives this season the Horrorbaugh family. I'm
Sarah Ellison. We're going to attack this day with an
(00:25):
enthusiasm unknown. Go by and bye, because you are fighters,
and that's what you are going to be today. Tomorrow
you are going to fight. Wouldn't you think that a
controversial ending in the first ever Super Bowl that featured
two brothers facing off his head coaches would constitute as
(00:49):
a topic that's off limits at the family dinner table.
Well not if you're John and Jim Harbaugh. They've never
shot away from conflict. Jim told me. I was very
curious about this. He said that when you two get together,
conversations about the Super Bowl are not off limits. I'm wondering,
four years later, what are those conversations. What do they
(01:11):
look like? The thing about the officiating in the game
has never been resolved. I mean, he's never gonna We're
gonna have to agree to disagree on that one, for sure.
You know, he forgets the calls that went his way
down the stretch, and he and I think he overexaggerates
the calls that didn't get called against him, especially in
the last series and all that. But you know he's
never gonna agree with that. I mean, he's never going
to take that position. So it's just we're basically at
a hard there's a lion to sand on that. I
(01:33):
think we're both amazed by that that had even happened.
For the past twelve years, I've been working for the
Baltimore Ravens, and I've always wished that I could give
fans the same inside personal view that I enjoy, and
dinner conversations between two of the top head coaches in
the country are exactly the kind of details that I
(01:54):
want to get into. So more than a year ago,
I came up with this Man of the Crowd podcast
past idea. It's designed to dive much deeper into the
lives of key Ravens figures. And when I say deeper,
I mean way deeper, like eight episodes about forty five
minutes each in length, deeper, all on one main story.
(02:16):
Lots of people ask me where I came up with
the name Man of the Crowd, and it's not original.
It's the name of a short story written by Edgar
Allan Poe in eighteen forty, in which a nameless narrator
is watching a crowd of people in London and suddenly
becomes fascinated with one intriguing man in that crowd. So
(02:36):
the narrator starts to follow him around London all night,
telling of the twists and turns that continued into the morning.
Hopefully I'm not giving off a Stoker vibe here, but
I identified with the nameless narrator who really isn't recognized
by the crowd or the fascinating man, but has stories
to tell of them that feels like me, So I
(02:59):
thought the title was fitting anyway. The man of the
Ravens Crowd I chose to focus on for this season
of the podcast is head coach John Harbaugh, although it's
not just about him. You could even call this season's
podcast Family of the Crowd, because I've set out to
take you inside the entire Harbaugh family, and to do that,
(03:20):
for the past year, I've interviewed multiple members of the
first Family of football, former teammates, players, journalists, and the
men who hired both John and his brother Jim for
their current jobs. Upwards of twenty five interviews were conducted,
and I have to thank the Harbaughs upfront for giving
me incredible access. I think I've had you for almost
(03:43):
two hours. I appreciate I needed you know. It was
very therapeutic for me. Oh good stuff. So thanks good Yeah, no,
thank you for giving me the time. It's some perspective.
My wheels are turning, and I just, oh, my gosh,
I want to do this thing justice. Yeah, you know
you will. You'll do great with it. You'll do great
with I think I think you got something almost iconic here.
I mean, I'm glad, I'm glad. I just think this
(04:04):
is something that really could be something that could last, yeah,
for really a long time. Honestly, we're like, I want
your grandkids to listen to it and be like, oh,
I get my Grandpa John now, or you know, or
my uncle John or whoever. Like this is the family
I come from. Yeah, this is this is what the
name stands for. This is what I want to live
(04:24):
up to. This is who makes me me. Yeah, you
got it. The best place to start with the Harbaugh
family is probably the Super Bowl. I could argue that
Super Bowl forty seven is one of the best championship
games in NFL history, although it's mostly famous for what
went wrong as opposed to what went right after Beyonce's
halftime performance. After that, the lights in New Orleans literally
(04:49):
shut down, and there was a bizarre blackout in the
Superdome that caused the thirty four minute delay in the game.
Somehow a massive outage of power in New Orleans. The
Superdowl has put this game on the whole all for
the light. Now the forty nine Ers side of the
superdol are out. Does this happen? It's just insane. It
(05:10):
also featured a dramatic twenty two point second half comeback
that fell just five yard short on a controversial play
in the final minute. It's nearly five years later and
the brothers, media and fans still debate that controversial play.
But what I find most compelling, and it's one of
(05:31):
the reasons I've spent the last year working on this podcast,
is super Bowl forty seven featured the ultimate sibling rivalry.
It pitted John Harbaugh against his younger brother of just
fifteen months, Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the San Francisco
forty nine Ers. As I mentioned before, it was the
(05:52):
first ever Super Bowl contested by brothers. As such, the
game affectionately became dubbed Horbowl excited great, Yeah, absolutely, how mean?
All right, I'll see it. Okay, correct figure today, okay,
really crowded. The brotherly fight for the Lombardi Trophy began
(06:15):
favoring the older Harbaugh. John's Ravens seemed like they couldn't
be stopped. Bolted touchdown rab At. The Ravens strike birth
at Super Bowl forty seven, Black of play action rows
pant Zone, touched up Rabbits, Dennis petted on the receiver again.
(06:39):
Raven's quarterback Joe Flacco was putting together a performance that
is still compared to some of the all time greats.
He was absolutely on fire, rowing deep, He's got to
Kobe Jones open at the Ted Jones makes the catch,
He's nottop. It was complete domination as the forty nine
Ers fell behind fifteen points heading into halftime. Then things
(07:01):
only got worse for San Francisco when the Ravens Jacoby
Jones returned a kickoff for a Super Bowl record one
hundred and eight yards record twenty clack hey will go
all the way, Jacoby Joel. There were no signs of
life in the forty nine Ers with a twenty two
point death to sit in the third quarter. It got
(07:22):
to the point where San Francisco needed to craft one
of the biggest comebacks in Super Bowl history if they
were going to win the game. Forty nine Ers linebacker
Patrick Willis was on the sideline trying to motivate his
teammates to hold on to some shred of hope in
the fight. Sometimes, well, take some blues. I might be
a little swollen. Tell't mean you stop fighting. You're gonna
(07:43):
stop fighting too. He down and out. Team did something
big got to happen. That Willis got his wish. Something
big was about to happen. Why's the clock stopped? Whyn't
the clock stopped? We're thirteen twenty eight left in the
(08:05):
third quarter, and somehow a massive outage of power in
New Orleans Superdome has put this game on a hole.
All the lights on the forty nine Ers side of
the Superdome are out, and only imagine the scramble officials
are going through. This has lapsed into the surreal. The
(08:29):
lights go out in the super Bowl, one of the
biggest sporting events on planet Earth. How in the world
does that happen? Well, I was actually there when it
all went down. I was sitting in my Superdome seat
next to my husband, and initially my heart started to
race because I thought all the lights were going to
shut down, and I thought we'd be in pitch black.
(08:52):
At first, I imagine mass hysteria with the stadium full
of seventy two thousand fans and a potential emergency evacuation,
so I grabbed my personal belongings just in case. But
it turned out that only the West side lost all
its power, and in hindsight, everyone remained remarkably calm given
the circumstances. Nobody bolted for the exits. There was no commotion,
(09:15):
There was just confusion. Still no official word. All they
have on the video scoreboards sign of the Obvious. We
have experienced partial interruption and lucky your service. Thank you,
Captain Obvious. Please remain in your seat. Service will be
restored momentarily. The keyword is what does momentarily. It didn't
take long for the conspiracy theories to set in. I'm
(09:37):
not going to accuse nobody of nothing because I don't
know facts. But you are zillion dollar company and your
lights go out? No, no, if you grew up like
I grew up, and you grew up in a household
like I grew up, then sometimes your lights might go
out because times get hard. Ravens, laying back of Lewis,
(10:00):
joked that maybe the NFL intended for it to happen
so the game would be close. Some thought it was
Beyonce's fault after her electric halftime performance, or maybe it
was a terrorist attack, but NFL officials quickly ruled out
those possibilities. Here's an incredibly nerdy nutshell of what actually happened.
(10:25):
It was later reported that the problem was in a
switch gear in one of two brand new cable feeds
that supplied power to the stadium from a half mile away. Ironically,
all of this new equipment was installed to avoid a
power outage, but it turned out to be the cause.
To fix the problem, all that was needed was a
simple reboot of the system, but that was going to
(10:47):
take some time. So both teams were on the field
stretching and trying to keep warm and hydrated. On the
forty nine er sideline, they talked about using this unexpected
twist as a way to reboot their own systems and
use it as a fresh start. They knew the delay
could hurt the Ravens momentum and then they could get
(11:08):
back in the game. Meanwhile, John Harbaugh rounded up his
team to try to make sure that that wouldn't happen. Hey,
bringall might get everybody up here. Let's get everybody up. Hey.
There ain't no mountain high enough, and there ain't no
valley low enough. And there is nothing that's gonna keep
us for winning this championships, not this and not nothing.
(11:30):
We're gonna win this game no matter how long it takes.
No question, this is going to affect the momentum of
this game. Who's gonna go down to history? The gonnare
gonna come back and then they're gonna be tellingbout did
the lights he tho, guys come back, but they make
it progress, they're starting to come up. Yeah, they've got
the great coming back guys. Yeah, we're now win it.
(11:51):
To resume action, let's go val the super Bowl. In total,
it's took thirty four minutes for the lights to come
back on, and with it came a huge power surge
to the San Francisco offense. Kaepernicks play action Fire's near
(12:13):
side completed a fifteen Practrick breaks a couple of tackles
and strives in for a forty nine Ers touchdown. Yeah,
I come back, great job. This is what the Ravens
feared coming out of that half hour out. The brotherly
rivalry was back on Suddenly. John's Ravens, who once seemed
(12:34):
like they could do no wrong before the blackout, looked
like a JV squad against the re energized forty nine ers.
But he always knew that his younger brother wouldn't quit
his side. Hand on Frank Gore running to the right.
He's got plenty of room and he's got a touchdown,
and we've got a ball game. Now. Look out. It
was first year starting quarterback Colin Kaepernick's turned a show off,
(12:56):
doing so with both his arm and his legs. Was
left Kaepernick what the rope let's pressure coming. Kaepernick sprints
around the left end rupe, but Randy hit the ten
the five, and he did for the touchdown. Jim's forty
nine Ers scored three touchdowns in a little over twelve minutes.
Now their teams were separated by just five points. Horrible
(13:16):
would be decided by three San Francisco offensive tries from
the five yard line with less than two minutes remaining,
xx to snap. The roll was right rolling. Look at
the back of the ends. Don't ask boss, doesn't throw
a doll vers it didn't complete? What the five? Yea
gonna let them tackle me like that? Crazy man head
(13:38):
back goes the ball in the quick of the flatcot
My grand tree charm didn't compline. And now the forty
Niners Super Bowl will come down to fourth down. But kid,
now we went day. Let's go. Let's go bigger. You
stand up right here. Less than two minutes remained in
the Hall of Fame career of Ray Lewis. After letting
the forty nine ers storm back, his defense was on
the field and backed into a cooler. If ever there
(14:01):
was a time for a legend to make a legendary play,
this was it. All right, let's go. People want it?
We were who pick what play? Yeah, let's go, Gray
little stairs across the line of Colin Kaprick, he's in
the pistol, Frank Gore behind him. Lewis comes on a
(14:22):
Liz Kaepernick glow to the end zone incomplete. No flights
on the play incomplete. Ray Lewis and the defense deliver
that stop. The forty nine Ers at the five. While
John's Ravens were celebrating one of the biggest defensive stops
(14:44):
in Super Bowl history, his brother Jim was livid and
screaming at the referees for a holding penalty against his
wide receiver Michael Crabtree. Crabtree and Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith
were both engaged in hand fighting on the play. Smith
had a quick grab and Crabtree had a quick push off.
Smith fell down in the end zone, and then the
(15:06):
pass fell incomplete just a few inches away from Crabtree's
outstretched hands. What then is the referee going to throw
that when the Super bowls on the line. No, he's
not going to the flag. The gym so desperately wanted
(15:30):
would never come. The Ravens got the ball back with
their protected five point lead and managed to drain the
clock to just four seconds remaining. After a few rushing
attempts and an intentional safety. To seal the win, they'd
have to tackle forty nine ers dangerous returner Ted gin Jr.
On the ensuing kickoff. Yeah, game's over. If we cover
(15:51):
this kick. We don't make it easy, do we. No,
we don't that was Flacco and John Harbaugh contemplating the
dramatic situation they found them selves in. John also turned
to head referee Jerome Boger to comment on the craziness
of the championship game. It's wild, isn't it. It's wild,
isn't it? It is? John? You quick? This job to do?
(16:15):
What is in your blood? Yeah, we're all guilty, all right,
Yeah I did, But it's in your blood. You were destined.
I chose to be here, but it's in your blood.
You were destined to be here. Interestingly, Boger said that
(16:35):
to himself after he walked away from John Harbaugh. The
final play of the game was then underway. Gin awaits
Cook gets a high spiral field by gain at the
eighteen block. Begins three seconds left, two get to the forty.
Time is expired. Dennis cockled, how about her? The raven
(17:02):
are super Bowl? Trammel, who let us not the brodcake
last feast. John had just earned the victory of his life,
while Jim had just endured a heartbreaking defeat at the
hand of his lifelong best friend and toughest competitor dating
(17:24):
back to childhood. Now they had to face each other
at midfield for the traditional and much anticipated postgame handshake.
As the confetti fell, the brothers worked their way toward
the middle of the field, surrounded by a pack of
photographers trying to capture the historic moment. There were no hugs,
(17:51):
just a handshake and a couple of pats on each
other's chest and back of the neck, and in a flash,
Jim disappeared from the field. Their parents, Jack and Jackie
made their way down from their seats to congratulate John,
who knew it must have been a bittersweet day for them.
We made this all happen for both of us. There
(18:13):
are no losers. Then, how about Jack Harmon, Who's got
a bag? Jaddy? We've seen it all tonight in New Orleans.
A spectacular starts, a blackout in the third quarter, a
(18:33):
game that came down to nail by their plays, and
the career of ray Lewis ends with the defensive stand
for the Ages. It's John Harball over Jim Harball, the
Ravens over the forty nine ers, and for a second time,
the fault of our Ravens are super Bowl Champions of
the World. I can give you more, but I'm just
(19:00):
going to give you four reasons why I believe Super
Bowl forty seven deserves to be in the top ten
of the game's fifty one year history. Number One, the blackout.
The lights going out in and of itself makes this
game stand out, and with all the technological advancements in
the year twenty thirteen, it seems crazy that it could
(19:20):
even happen. But it did, and more importantly than simply happening,
it had a tangible effect on the game. Number two
the epic goal line stand in the final minutes. I'll
put this one in perspective by pointing to Super Bowl
fifty one, which we just witnessed a few months ago.
It featured quarterback Tom Brady and the New England Patriots
(19:44):
rallying from a twenty eight to three deficit in the
third quarter to beat the Atlanta Falcons. The Patriots were
downed by twenty five points, and they still wound up
lifting the Lombardi Trophy by completing the largest comeback in
Super Bowl history. Well, here's the point of bringing this up.
Once you're on the ropes like the Falcons and Ravens were,
(20:04):
it's extremely difficult to put your foot in the ground
and make a stand. The Falcons and ability to stop
the bleeding against the Patriots puts into perspective just how
epic the Ravens defensive goal line stand was against the
surging forty nine ers. San Francisco had three tries from
the five yard line, three, but Baltimore dug deep and
(20:27):
found what it took to put the game away. Number
three the emotional and controversial down to the wire ending.
Just as expected, the Harbaugh Battle turned out to be
a close, physical clash with a tight thirty four to
thirty one final score. Any Super Bowl that comes down
to the final minute of the game just five yards
(20:48):
short of a completely different outcome in winner, deserves to
be in the top ten. And finally number four. It's
very unlikely that we will ever see two other Space
Office head coaches and the Super Bowl again. How unique
was the Super Bowl having those two brothers theresh No,
(21:08):
it will never happen again. That's John Eisenberg, my colleague
and columnist for the Baltimore Ravens. He's been writing about
sports for nearly three decades. The Super Bowl was like
winning the lottery on back to back day. That will
never happen again. I mean to have well, first off,
(21:32):
I mean, how many you know of these brothers have
ever just going to coaching at all. You know, there's
plenty we don't hear about. I mean, Robin, Rex Ryan
have gone into it, you know, gotten pretty far. Now.
That was one where it could have happened if the
dominoes had fallen right for the right people. But just
to have first off, two coaches at all in the
(21:55):
family have some success, the odds of that are really slim.
To have two coaches brothers make it into the NFL.
We're talking thousands to one there, I think. And then
to have them both be winning in the same year,
and then to play each other in the Super Bowl,
I think. I mean, honestly, you know, I think it's
(22:16):
the sun rising in the west, right. I don't think
it's you know, I think you know, it happened, so
we all saw it. But I just thought, and we
watched their careers in fold and it sort of came together.
But I just think it was just the craziest, most
outlandious thing that will ever happen, that two coaches coached
(22:36):
against each other, two brothers in the Super Bowl. I
also called up and asked Rich Eisen, who was one
of the most respected NFL journalists in the country about
this exact point. We'll never see it again. That's a specialist.
We'll never see it again. It's never gonna happen again.
The odds of that happening that just having the brothers
coaching in the NFL at the same time are infantestimal,
(22:57):
and then having them being separate conferences where they could
set up to be playing in the biggest game of
them all and it happens. You know, it's just it's
never gonna happen again. You got to come from good stock,
you got to come from a good football family, and
you got to be very, very very good at what
you do. And again, it's like a lightning strike, maybe
(23:17):
even more of a worse odds than a lightning strike.
But I'm glad that I was able to see it.
I'm glad that hardballs were too, And it was really
special to cover and it was special to be there,
and you know, it was it was terrific. It was
a hardball pellusive that I will never forget. And we'll
(23:38):
never see anything like that again. Okay, I've laid out
my arguments about why I think Super Bowl forty seven
is one of the best in history. But here's the thing.
As good as Horball was with the blackout, the near comeback,
the epic goal line stand, and memorable finish, as exciting
as all of that was, my feeling is you cannot
(24:01):
fully appreciate this game until you get to know the
Harbaws on a personal level. And that's what I've set
out to do with this podcast, to take you inside
the Harbaugh family. Here's my analogy of what I think
this will do. It's like the vision seen from two eyes.
For example, try closing your left eye and take a
(24:23):
look around with only your right, then switch by opening
your left eye and closing your right. Alternate back and
forth a couple of times. You don't see the same
thing with two eyes separately, but it is the combination
of those two views that gives you three dimensional perception
and shows you a lot more than either eye by
(24:43):
itself sees. My theory is that a new perspective will
be gained for the Super Bowl when you combine both
the game itself with the Harbaugh family background. You will
better appreciate both together. As I mentioned before, I was
at the game and as a Ravens employee, I'll be
(25:03):
honest about the fact that I was happy that Baltimore won.
I got to enjoy the postgame celebration with all the
players where Mary J. Blige performed, I got a Super
Bowl ring, and I was part of the White House
visit with President Barack Obama. It is definitely a time
in my life that I will never forget. Having said
(25:23):
all that, I hope you'll believe me when I say that.
As happy as I was almost immediately after the game ended,
my heart went out to Jim and his parents and
really the entire Harbaugh family because I was wondering how
they were dealing with what I imagined was a bittersweet moment,
and questions flooded my mind that I'm sure many of
(25:44):
you have. Two. For example, is the thrill of victory
for John diminished knowing that it was accomplished by robbing
his brother of his lifelong dream to win a Super
Bowl too? Can John truly feel happy knowing that his
flesh and blood was hurting? And could Jim find pleasure
for John's life achievement despite the heartache of losing. And
(26:07):
how did their parents and sister Joni handle the moment?
These are dilemmas that even young, innocent minds can comprehend.
I'll get into this later, but if I've learned anything
from the Harbaughs is that you include your children in
your work wherever you can. So I asked my two
sons how they would feel if they were faced with
(26:27):
these family dynamics. I may and am my fife. My
name is Gunner Elsen. I'm of course you're sending you know,
I'm sen years old. All right, Well, this is what
I want to know. If you were like John Harbaugh
because you're the oldest, and was like Jim Harbaugh, and
Aiden was like Jim Harbaugh because he's your younger brother. Yeah,
(26:49):
how would you feel about having to play against him
in the super Bowl? You too? Aiden? Scare it? Why?
Because if feel young, you might be a little weak? Right? Yeah, Okay,
Now who would you want to win? Would you want
(27:11):
to beat Gardner? Or would you want Gardner to win?
M it's kind of hot cheese, yeah yeah. She like
a suff and you like your brother and that's kind
of hot crushed. Yeah. Yeah. But you could say that
you just don't care and say you would be happy
for your brother winning and be sad for you you'd
(27:32):
be happy for you and said for your brother, you
could say that if you wanted. What do you think
of that? M how about you don't know? You don't know? Okay,
well here's my other baby. I can just try your best.
This would be very hard for me. What who should
I root for? Well, you should try twos. This is odd, Kristen,
(27:59):
kind of too hard, I aswered. Maybe you can just
cheer to both of them then tell you know if
they win. You should just don't care who wins, because
they're both your sons. It's really hard to make it
to the super Bowl, so you should probably be proud
of both of us and don't care who wins. Just
(28:20):
be proud of both of us because whoever loses. It's
also really hard to make it to the super Bowl
and beat the other team that made to the super Bowl,
because both of the teams are really tough and made
to the super Bowl. Right, Okay, let's say after the game.
Let's say that you have to go back with the
Ravens and you guys are having a big celebration party,
dancing and music and having fun, and then Aiden goes
(28:43):
with his team and everybody's sad. Who should I go
with should I go with you to the party? Or
should I go with Aiden to cheer him up? To
cheer him up? Which both aid to cheer him up?
Why because if he just sat and you're doing a
party with me, he would probably be more sad, so
you should probably chum up so he could be happy too.
I should I go with go with Gardner and get
(29:09):
him some of his favorite toys of Vault. Yeah, wouldn't
it be great if a toy from the store could
heal all wounds? Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. But here's
the thing. The Harbaws were able to substitute something in
for a toy that actually did simplify things a great deal.
(29:30):
And that thing was the spirit of competition. Anyone who
knows the Harbaws also knows that they might be the
most competitive people on the planet. And I'm not exaggerating.
Winning and being the absolute best is the top priority.
It doesn't matter what the competition is, the Super Bowl
(29:51):
or a friendly pickup basketball game, and it doesn't matter
who is standing in your way, your brother, or even
a complete stranger. I talked with Ravens, Senior vice president
of public Relations, Kevin Byrne how about a time that
he witnessed the brothers coming up with a random competition
as full grown adults, and they genuinely cared about winning.
(30:14):
It occurred in twenty eleven, just before the Ravens and
forty nine Ers were scheduled to face off for the
first time during the regular season with John and Jim
as head coaches. We did a shoot for HBO the
summer before we played the forty nine Ers on Thanksgiving nights,
So the two brothers were going to face each other.
So Andrea Kramer for HBO comes up with a concept.
(30:37):
It's a good one if I can get Jim to Gettysburg,
you know, the big battle of the war between the States,
you know, the family at war, so to speak, Civil war,
brother against brother. Do you think John would do it?
I said, there's no doubt. If Jim's going, he's going,
you know. So Andrea comes back and said that Jim's
(30:59):
gonna go. So we go out to Gettysburg in the summer.
It was maybe late June, early July, and in fact,
my wife Sally went with me because Ingrid was going
out because they're going to tour Gettysburg a little bit
so there's a large stansion at Gettysburg that you can
(31:19):
climb to the top and see the whole battlefield, you know.
So the two of them are talking, and they're filming
the two of them talking as they approached the entrance
to this and Andrea Kramer's kind of standing off the
side along with her producer. And they get to the
first step and John looks over at Jim, and Jim
(31:42):
looks over at John and they just turn. He takes
off and John tries to grab the back of his pants.
Now this is a little dangerous too. These are two adults,
by the way, and they are now racing up these
stairs to see you get to the top of the
stanchion first. And at first I thought that's cute, that's funny.
Then you see, oh, they were serious about it. It
(32:02):
was important. It was important for one to be first.
And so the day continued, and so Jim at one
time mentioned he was really gonna be hard for us
to go play on Sunday, go across the country and
have to play you guys on Thanksgiving night, So you're
you're going to have an advantage there, and John says,
(32:25):
we got to deal with stuff like that. We all
deal with schedule headaches. And so I say to Jim,
because I know Jim well enough, I say, you don't
quit whining. And he spends on me, and he goes,
I'm not whining. I'm talking about unfairness. I'm talking about
NFL on fairness. Ozzie's on that competition committee, your owners
(32:45):
loved by the Commissioner's office. And that's why I've got
to take my team all the way across the country
after playing on Sunday, I got to travel on Wednesday morning,
come out and play you guys on Thursday night on
a holiday, and you have an advantage. I am not
whining about it. I'm going Holy cow, you know. And
John kind of looks over at him and goes, it
(33:06):
is kind of whining, and then he leaps into John
about it. And then John leaves back saying, it's not
about my franchise getting extra things. We all have to
do these things. I'm gonna have to do it. Then
Jim goes, you know what, I hope in four years
when we have to play each other again, that you
have to come into my place on Thanksgiving night, you know.
(33:29):
And my wife Sally is standing there and it's like
one hundred degrees and we're in this parking lot and
we're all sweating, and she starts backing away like she goes.
I thought they were going to come to blows, you know.
And then the conversation ends and they kind of put
their armor on each other and walk across and say, hey,
do you want to get some lunch down before we
go back? That's part of it. I went back and
(33:52):
watched that episode on HBO, Andrea Kramer sat down for
an interview with the siblings at a stage dinner table
that you would like please see at a traditional Gettysburg
home from that era. Here's Jim. He's my best friend,
next to my wife, My dad, and my brother are
my best friend. But he will be a guy that
I'm trying to beat. I'm not going to be friends
with him. It will be combative, it will be competitive,
(34:14):
and that's just the way we wanted. Did you hear
that banging? That's Jim pounding the table that had the
eighteen sixty metal dinnerware sitting on top of it. He's
being dead serious about his approach to playing against his brother.
He calls him a guy. He will be a guy
that I'm trying to beat. I'm not going to be
(34:34):
friends with him. It will be combative beat Gilbert w
BLTF how you doing, coach? Two years later, this is
a Super Bowl press conference, just a few days before
the game. Their approach didn't change after their head to
head Thanksgiving battle, which the Ravens also won sixteen to six.
As the older brother, you want to kind of always,
(34:55):
I suspect protect a little bit, that threat you're growing up.
Do you still feel that way with jim him? And
I guess, like on Sunday, the possibility to take away
a dream of his to fulfill your own? Is that
is that hard at all? No, not at all, suspect
he feels the same way. You know. It's it's about
the teams. You know, we we are. We are fiercely loyal.
(35:15):
There's no doubt. I think we'd all we'd all say that,
you know, not just of one another, and we always
have been. You know that's that's definitely not ever going
to change. We will continue to be fiercely loyal and
protective of one another, but also of our teams. And
Jimmy mentioned her earlier in the week he talked about
the brotherhood, the band of brothers, the brothers that will
take the field. And that's true. You know, the band
(35:37):
of brothers will be the brothers on the sideline, be
the Raven sideline. It will be the forty nine er
sideline that'll be the band of brothers in this competition.
To drive home the importance of this competition theme one
last time, listen to John's appearance on the David Letterman
Show on CBS just a few days after his Super
Bowl win over his brother. What did you say to
(36:00):
your brother after the game? What did you say to you?
I told him that I told him I loved him,
you know, good game, and uh, and he said, congratulations,
I'm proud. Have you spoken to him? Since I have not?
We have not had a conversation very well soon. I mean,
I guess unless you're in that position, you don't really
(36:21):
know what it is. But what was it? It's your brother?
Do you are you able to dismiss that? Is it
meaningless once the game starts? Uh? Yeah, it kind of is.
I mean you look, you look across the field and
you see him, and you kind of see what he's
doing over there, and you kind of say, hey, now,
the time I didn't really have a problem with looking
at him on the on the other sideline. That seemed
normal to me when I looked out there and saw
him in the other huddle, in their huddle, when they
(36:42):
were getting ready to run a play, that seemed that
seemed like Jim. Did you ever get a sense growing
up that there was favoritism one to together? Were you
the favorite? Was? Was Jim the favorite? Did you? I
felt like Jim was the favorite pretty much our whole
I did. I did Jim felt like he was a favorite.
But the truth Joni, our sister, she was truly the favorite.
Here's the little baby girl, Joanie. Now where does she coach? She? So?
(37:05):
What are you gonna do? Now? I'm taking fishing. I
know we're gonna go to back to football. Never talk
to your brother. I'm hoping sometime, you know soon we
actually we have meetings come up. We have a combine
in two weeks. He is there animosity here? No, no,
you know what there is is he feeling bad? As
if you need to reach out to him. He's playing golf.
Today's playing golf. The yeah, heat, No, there's no consolation.
(37:26):
There's no way that you console your brother. Anybody that
has a brother knows that you don't console your brother
doesn't work. Uh, not having a brother. I have two sisters. Uh.
And it was unlikely that any of us would have
coached the super Bowl game. So I don't know what
this is. I don't know what this is. You wake
up thinking, oh, thank god I beat him, or oh
I won, but oh too bad. I just don't know
(37:47):
what that. You know what you do? Wake up thinking
thank god I beat him? You do, Yes, it would
have been a long life, you know, A gentleman here
is So we're Baltimore Raisings, Ravens y Hope. David Letterman
just said Baltimore Raisins. He's funny even when he doesn't
(38:08):
mean to be. But I have to be honest about something.
I didn't expect the Harbos to have this brought of
a line drawn in the sand. Sure, everyone wants to win. Heck,
I'd want to win if I were in their shoes.
But I thought there would be a lot more mixed emotions.
And I totally understand the band of brothers concept, where
their loyalty to each other must be replaced by their
(38:30):
loyalty to their teams. I mean that makes total sense
because John and Jim had hundreds of players dreams in
their hands. The athletes worked and sacrificed their whole lives
to get to this point, so the brothers had to
worry about them and the millions of fans from the
cities of Baltimore and San Francisco. But still, even with
all that, thanking the man above for beating his brother
(38:54):
and saying it would have been a long life otherwise
that was surprising to me at least, or Jim saying
he wanted to be combative, that was also striking. But
the more I talked with the har Boss, the more
I got their approach. And don't get this mentality confused
with machismo. Were two brothers who grew up in sports
or simply puffing out their chest and pounding it to
(39:15):
prove that they are superior. Although there's probably a little
bit of that in play, but more than anything, competing
to become the best is a family motto. I spoke
with their parents and they were equally as passionate about
the topic. Here's Mom Jackie, followed by Dad Jack. Do
you think at all? I remember? John was asked at
(39:36):
the Super Bowl if, as the older brother, he felt
like maybe even just a tiny bit that he kind
of hopes his little brother wins the game. And John
was like, nope, not at all. Is that pretty characteristic
of them? It doesn't matter if it was a super
Bowl or young they always wanted to win. And well,
you know what it's don't you think that's true of everybody? Though? Oh?
(40:01):
Come on, don't you want to win in your profession too?
With what you're doing with any project you have, don't
you want it to be the best project out there?
Because if you don't, well, what's the point of doing it? Right?
I mean, what's the point of doing it? So if
(40:22):
if you're in a game, a card game or whatever,
most people really do want to win. I just think,
you know, how do you get better at anything if
your goal isn't to do it the very best you
can do it with the hopes that in the end
(40:44):
you're going to be the victorious. And why are you coaching? Then?
If you don't want that for your team? That's true,
a lot of people depending on you, a lot of
people depending on you. So, yeah, you want to win?
And my brother or not my brother, you know, like
John would never feel guilty for winning, would he no good. Yeah,
(41:09):
I shouldn't feel guilty. I beat him, and you shouldn't
feel any other way. Why would you ever want to
feel because if he if he won, I would expect
he would be you know, it's a feeling he's going
to have. But that's a beauty of life lesson than
a negative. In our society to day, we want to
make competition negative. If you're not competitive, I guarantee you're
(41:32):
you're you're swimming backwards. I mean, you're not moving forward,
And you gotta be competitive. You gotta juice has got
to flow every day, and just today it happens to
be your brother, right still, Attack life with an enthusis
yea to mankind? Or any question about that? If you
haven't heard the Harbaugh theme, attack life with an enthusiasm
unknown to mankind, you will by the end of this podcast.
(41:53):
It's right up there in popularity with the family's other
famous line, who's got it better than us? Nobody? But
it's important that you pick up on a big piece
of the family's competition motto that Jack touched on. If
you truly want to understand the Harbos, you need to
understand this piece, and it's about feelings. Jack said that
(42:16):
not only did John have an absence of guilt, he
felt good about beating Jim. This is an essential part
of competition. After you battle it out with everything you have, mind, body, spirit,
there's no hard feelings afterwards, you better be ready to
move on because the hardbas already have. Here's John Eisenberg again.
(42:38):
I do think you know, John will always think that,
you know, I found a way to win that game. Yeah,
And because there is something about because what people don't
understand with that mentality with John being happy and not
feeling about it about you know, beating his brother, is
that's just them. Like they John can get into an argument,
(43:00):
whether it's with the press or the player or whatever.
I mean, I've heard plenty of stories. You get in
an argument, you battle it out for your position, and
then after it John's it's not like John's angry. It's
not like John's angry. It's like, what what we had
to get to the truth there? We had to get to,
you know, the best method there. We had to do whatever.
You like, I didn't hurt your feelings right like they
(43:22):
didn't hurt your feelings. That that's that's the point, and
that's just John I'm Jim have been competing for their
entire lives like that, and then after you're done, you
don't even mad at each other. Right, That's very true.
It's very true. I've actually had those arguments with John
our Pall, yes, several and so, yes, but that's very true.
When it's over, it's like, Okay, we're good. It's over. Yeah. Yeah.
(43:47):
So it's like and you're a little rattled, you know,
but yeah, I mean you better be because he's moving on. Yeah.
So but yeah, I mean that's just what it is.
And that's that's how they are. The object was to win.
It doesn't mean that you don't he doesn't love his
brother just as much. Yeah, what are they supposed to
do in that situation? Right? But what's really amazing is,
(44:09):
you know, since then, I mean I've seen i mean,
Jim comes crawling, he's around the ravens, I've seen him
on some sidelines. I've seen him in locker rooms and
he puts on the hat, i mean onto the next Yeah,
this is a team that beat me in the super
Bowl and you know he doesn't even blanket. It's true
family love, It really is. It really is. Obviously the
idea of competing to be the best no matter who
(44:30):
the opponent has worked really well for the har Boss,
both in dealing with the emotions of the Super Bowl game,
but also in John and Jim's careers. But there's a
downside of this approach, especially when dealing with people who
don't have the same competitive spirit or feel like the
har Boss can take competition to the extreme. These people
(44:52):
can be left feeling rattled or even drained, and it's
made for some significant bumps along both their careers this
season on Man of the Crowd, what are your impressions
of Jim crazy? Jim is hyper hyper competitive. He can
(45:14):
never lose even when he's won. He got mistreated really
badly in one of those jobs, really badly, and I
know that. Yeah, I do think Jim is misunderstood sometimes.
What do you think Bo would say right now if
he saw Jim leading this program? Oh, he'd be so proud.
And I think he does know how about that? I
(45:35):
think he looks down and get an emotional just talking
about it. I think when John came in the building,
he was expecting a fight. You either sit up or
you can leave. Ed got up and just walked out
into Oh yeah, that was a really bad vibe. And
(45:59):
I told him that will be your biggest challenge. And
he had that hardball look, you know, you get that
hardball look and the eyes his lip was quivering. What
do you think at last Place? What do you think
holding one day? It brings twos from my eyes thinking
about it because it's huge, you know, it's um They've
(46:23):
both traveled a different path, and John traveled a long path,
you might saying, Jim shadow and every time I didn't
have a friend, Uh, did you know? I sometimes I
wear those out. Sometimes he was my older friend. This
is all about family and in the end, what does
(46:45):
it come down to? It comes down to your family.
Hey man at the Treadless Nurse. Before you go, I
want to run through a couple of housekeeping items first.
If you like what you've heard in episode one, be
(47:07):
sure to hit that subscribe button on iTunes, SoundCloud, google Play,
or wherever you're listening to this. I'll post a new
episode every Monday morning leading up to the Ravens season
opener against the division rivals Cincinnati Bengals on September tenth.
Then you'll get a bonus ninth episode on the Friday
before that game. Also, we've created a Man of the
(47:28):
Crowd micro site. I think you'll like it because it
has tons of great content that will compliment what you're
listening to here. It has a list of biographies about
some of the key interviews I've done over the last year,
and that should help you better understand and identify the
voices that you'll get to note throughout this podcast. There's
also an episode guide to get a sneak peek of
what's coming up this season. And then there's some pretty
(47:51):
cool photo galleries. We have one of the Harbaugh family
from when John and Jim were growing up as young boys,
and then there's a Super Bowl forty seven photo gallery
that features family moments during the game. Check it out
on Baltimore Ravens dot com, backslash Man of the Crowd.
And finally, I want to hear from you guys. If
you have any comments or questions or whatever, hit me
(48:12):
up on Twitter. My handle is at sg Ellison. I
look forward dear feedback and I'd love to interact with you. Okay,
that's it. That's all I've got, but I'll be back
next week with episode two. Inside the Mind of a
Harbaugh
From the Baltimore Ravens. This is Man of the Crowd,
a multi episode podcast that pulls back the curtain on
Ravens figures personal lives this season the Horrorbaugh family. I'm
Sarah Ellison. We're going to attack this day with an
(00:25):
enthusiasm unknown. Go by and bye, because you are fighters,
and that's what you are going to be today. Tomorrow
you are going to fight. Wouldn't you think that a
controversial ending in the first ever Super Bowl that featured
two brothers facing off his head coaches would constitute as
(00:49):
a topic that's off limits at the family dinner table.
Well not if you're John and Jim Harbaugh. They've never
shot away from conflict. Jim told me. I was very
curious about this. He said that when you two get together,
conversations about the Super Bowl are not off limits. I'm wondering,
four years later, what are those conversations. What do they
(01:11):
look like? The thing about the officiating in the game
has never been resolved. I mean, he's never gonna We're
gonna have to agree to disagree on that one, for sure.
You know, he forgets the calls that went his way
down the stretch, and he and I think he overexaggerates
the calls that didn't get called against him, especially in
the last series and all that. But you know he's
never gonna agree with that. I mean, he's never going
to take that position. So it's just we're basically at
a hard there's a lion to sand on that. I
(01:33):
think we're both amazed by that that had even happened.
For the past twelve years, I've been working for the
Baltimore Ravens, and I've always wished that I could give
fans the same inside personal view that I enjoy, and
dinner conversations between two of the top head coaches in
the country are exactly the kind of details that I
(01:54):
want to get into. So more than a year ago,
I came up with this Man of the Crowd podcast
past idea. It's designed to dive much deeper into the
lives of key Ravens figures. And when I say deeper,
I mean way deeper, like eight episodes about forty five
minutes each in length, deeper, all on one main story.
(02:16):
Lots of people ask me where I came up with
the name Man of the Crowd, and it's not original.
It's the name of a short story written by Edgar
Allan Poe in eighteen forty, in which a nameless narrator
is watching a crowd of people in London and suddenly
becomes fascinated with one intriguing man in that crowd. So
(02:36):
the narrator starts to follow him around London all night,
telling of the twists and turns that continued into the morning.
Hopefully I'm not giving off a Stoker vibe here, but
I identified with the nameless narrator who really isn't recognized
by the crowd or the fascinating man, but has stories
to tell of them that feels like me, So I
(02:59):
thought the title was fitting anyway. The man of the
Ravens Crowd I chose to focus on for this season
of the podcast is head coach John Harbaugh, although it's
not just about him. You could even call this season's
podcast Family of the Crowd, because I've set out to
take you inside the entire Harbaugh family, and to do that,
(03:20):
for the past year, I've interviewed multiple members of the
first Family of football, former teammates, players, journalists, and the
men who hired both John and his brother Jim for
their current jobs. Upwards of twenty five interviews were conducted,
and I have to thank the Harbaughs upfront for giving
me incredible access. I think I've had you for almost
(03:43):
two hours. I appreciate I needed you know. It was
very therapeutic for me. Oh good stuff. So thanks good Yeah, no,
thank you for giving me the time. It's some perspective.
My wheels are turning, and I just, oh, my gosh,
I want to do this thing justice. Yeah, you know
you will. You'll do great with it. You'll do great
with I think I think you got something almost iconic here.
I mean, I'm glad, I'm glad. I just think this
(04:04):
is something that really could be something that could last, yeah,
for really a long time. Honestly, we're like, I want
your grandkids to listen to it and be like, oh,
I get my Grandpa John now, or you know, or
my uncle John or whoever. Like this is the family
I come from. Yeah, this is this is what the
name stands for. This is what I want to live
(04:24):
up to. This is who makes me me. Yeah, you
got it. The best place to start with the Harbaugh
family is probably the Super Bowl. I could argue that
Super Bowl forty seven is one of the best championship
games in NFL history, although it's mostly famous for what
went wrong as opposed to what went right after Beyonce's
halftime performance. After that, the lights in New Orleans literally
(04:49):
shut down, and there was a bizarre blackout in the
Superdome that caused the thirty four minute delay in the game.
Somehow a massive outage of power in New Orleans. The
Superdowl has put this game on the whole all for
the light. Now the forty nine Ers side of the
superdol are out. Does this happen? It's just insane. It
(05:10):
also featured a dramatic twenty two point second half comeback
that fell just five yard short on a controversial play
in the final minute. It's nearly five years later and
the brothers, media and fans still debate that controversial play.
But what I find most compelling, and it's one of
(05:31):
the reasons I've spent the last year working on this podcast,
is super Bowl forty seven featured the ultimate sibling rivalry.
It pitted John Harbaugh against his younger brother of just
fifteen months, Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the San Francisco
forty nine Ers. As I mentioned before, it was the
(05:52):
first ever Super Bowl contested by brothers. As such, the
game affectionately became dubbed Horbowl excited great, Yeah, absolutely, how mean?
All right, I'll see it. Okay, correct figure today, okay,
really crowded. The brotherly fight for the Lombardi Trophy began
(06:15):
favoring the older Harbaugh. John's Ravens seemed like they couldn't
be stopped. Bolted touchdown rab At. The Ravens strike birth
at Super Bowl forty seven, Black of play action rows
pant Zone, touched up Rabbits, Dennis petted on the receiver again.
(06:39):
Raven's quarterback Joe Flacco was putting together a performance that
is still compared to some of the all time greats.
He was absolutely on fire, rowing deep, He's got to
Kobe Jones open at the Ted Jones makes the catch,
He's nottop. It was complete domination as the forty nine
Ers fell behind fifteen points heading into halftime. Then things
(07:01):
only got worse for San Francisco when the Ravens Jacoby
Jones returned a kickoff for a Super Bowl record one
hundred and eight yards record twenty clack hey will go
all the way, Jacoby Joel. There were no signs of
life in the forty nine Ers with a twenty two
point death to sit in the third quarter. It got
(07:22):
to the point where San Francisco needed to craft one
of the biggest comebacks in Super Bowl history if they
were going to win the game. Forty nine Ers linebacker
Patrick Willis was on the sideline trying to motivate his
teammates to hold on to some shred of hope in
the fight. Sometimes, well, take some blues. I might be
a little swollen. Tell't mean you stop fighting. You're gonna
(07:43):
stop fighting too. He down and out. Team did something
big got to happen. That Willis got his wish. Something
big was about to happen. Why's the clock stopped? Whyn't
the clock stopped? We're thirteen twenty eight left in the
(08:05):
third quarter, and somehow a massive outage of power in
New Orleans Superdome has put this game on a hole.
All the lights on the forty nine Ers side of
the Superdome are out, and only imagine the scramble officials
are going through. This has lapsed into the surreal. The
(08:29):
lights go out in the super Bowl, one of the
biggest sporting events on planet Earth. How in the world
does that happen? Well, I was actually there when it
all went down. I was sitting in my Superdome seat
next to my husband, and initially my heart started to
race because I thought all the lights were going to
shut down, and I thought we'd be in pitch black.
(08:52):
At first, I imagine mass hysteria with the stadium full
of seventy two thousand fans and a potential emergency evacuation,
so I grabbed my personal belongings just in case. But
it turned out that only the West side lost all
its power, and in hindsight, everyone remained remarkably calm given
the circumstances. Nobody bolted for the exits. There was no commotion,
(09:15):
There was just confusion. Still no official word. All they
have on the video scoreboards sign of the Obvious. We
have experienced partial interruption and lucky your service. Thank you,
Captain Obvious. Please remain in your seat. Service will be
restored momentarily. The keyword is what does momentarily. It didn't
take long for the conspiracy theories to set in. I'm
(09:37):
not going to accuse nobody of nothing because I don't
know facts. But you are zillion dollar company and your
lights go out? No, no, if you grew up like
I grew up, and you grew up in a household
like I grew up, then sometimes your lights might go
out because times get hard. Ravens, laying back of Lewis,
(10:00):
joked that maybe the NFL intended for it to happen
so the game would be close. Some thought it was
Beyonce's fault after her electric halftime performance, or maybe it
was a terrorist attack, but NFL officials quickly ruled out
those possibilities. Here's an incredibly nerdy nutshell of what actually happened.
(10:25):
It was later reported that the problem was in a
switch gear in one of two brand new cable feeds
that supplied power to the stadium from a half mile away. Ironically,
all of this new equipment was installed to avoid a
power outage, but it turned out to be the cause.
To fix the problem, all that was needed was a
simple reboot of the system, but that was going to
(10:47):
take some time. So both teams were on the field
stretching and trying to keep warm and hydrated. On the
forty nine er sideline, they talked about using this unexpected
twist as a way to reboot their own systems and
use it as a fresh start. They knew the delay
could hurt the Ravens momentum and then they could get
(11:08):
back in the game. Meanwhile, John Harbaugh rounded up his
team to try to make sure that that wouldn't happen. Hey,
bringall might get everybody up here. Let's get everybody up. Hey.
There ain't no mountain high enough, and there ain't no
valley low enough. And there is nothing that's gonna keep
us for winning this championships, not this and not nothing.
(11:30):
We're gonna win this game no matter how long it takes.
No question, this is going to affect the momentum of
this game. Who's gonna go down to history? The gonnare
gonna come back and then they're gonna be tellingbout did
the lights he tho, guys come back, but they make
it progress, they're starting to come up. Yeah, they've got
the great coming back guys. Yeah, we're now win it.
(11:51):
To resume action, let's go val the super Bowl. In total,
it's took thirty four minutes for the lights to come
back on, and with it came a huge power surge
to the San Francisco offense. Kaepernicks play action Fire's near
(12:13):
side completed a fifteen Practrick breaks a couple of tackles
and strives in for a forty nine Ers touchdown. Yeah,
I come back, great job. This is what the Ravens
feared coming out of that half hour out. The brotherly
rivalry was back on Suddenly. John's Ravens, who once seemed
(12:34):
like they could do no wrong before the blackout, looked
like a JV squad against the re energized forty nine ers.
But he always knew that his younger brother wouldn't quit
his side. Hand on Frank Gore running to the right.
He's got plenty of room and he's got a touchdown,
and we've got a ball game. Now. Look out. It
was first year starting quarterback Colin Kaepernick's turned a show off,
(12:56):
doing so with both his arm and his legs. Was
left Kaepernick what the rope let's pressure coming. Kaepernick sprints
around the left end rupe, but Randy hit the ten
the five, and he did for the touchdown. Jim's forty
nine Ers scored three touchdowns in a little over twelve minutes.
Now their teams were separated by just five points. Horrible
(13:16):
would be decided by three San Francisco offensive tries from
the five yard line with less than two minutes remaining,
xx to snap. The roll was right rolling. Look at
the back of the ends. Don't ask boss, doesn't throw
a doll vers it didn't complete? What the five? Yea
gonna let them tackle me like that? Crazy man head
(13:38):
back goes the ball in the quick of the flatcot
My grand tree charm didn't compline. And now the forty
Niners Super Bowl will come down to fourth down. But kid,
now we went day. Let's go. Let's go bigger. You
stand up right here. Less than two minutes remained in
the Hall of Fame career of Ray Lewis. After letting
the forty nine ers storm back, his defense was on
the field and backed into a cooler. If ever there
(14:01):
was a time for a legend to make a legendary play,
this was it. All right, let's go. People want it?
We were who pick what play? Yeah, let's go, Gray
little stairs across the line of Colin Kaprick, he's in
the pistol, Frank Gore behind him. Lewis comes on a
(14:22):
Liz Kaepernick glow to the end zone incomplete. No flights
on the play incomplete. Ray Lewis and the defense deliver
that stop. The forty nine Ers at the five. While
John's Ravens were celebrating one of the biggest defensive stops
(14:44):
in Super Bowl history, his brother Jim was livid and
screaming at the referees for a holding penalty against his
wide receiver Michael Crabtree. Crabtree and Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith
were both engaged in hand fighting on the play. Smith
had a quick grab and Crabtree had a quick push off.
Smith fell down in the end zone, and then the
(15:06):
pass fell incomplete just a few inches away from Crabtree's
outstretched hands. What then is the referee going to throw
that when the Super bowls on the line. No, he's
not going to the flag. The gym so desperately wanted
(15:30):
would never come. The Ravens got the ball back with
their protected five point lead and managed to drain the
clock to just four seconds remaining. After a few rushing
attempts and an intentional safety. To seal the win, they'd
have to tackle forty nine ers dangerous returner Ted gin Jr.
On the ensuing kickoff. Yeah, game's over. If we cover
(15:51):
this kick. We don't make it easy, do we. No,
we don't that was Flacco and John Harbaugh contemplating the
dramatic situation they found them selves in. John also turned
to head referee Jerome Boger to comment on the craziness
of the championship game. It's wild, isn't it. It's wild,
isn't it? It is? John? You quick? This job to do?
(16:15):
What is in your blood? Yeah, we're all guilty, all right,
Yeah I did, But it's in your blood. You were destined.
I chose to be here, but it's in your blood.
You were destined to be here. Interestingly, Boger said that
(16:35):
to himself after he walked away from John Harbaugh. The
final play of the game was then underway. Gin awaits
Cook gets a high spiral field by gain at the
eighteen block. Begins three seconds left, two get to the forty.
Time is expired. Dennis cockled, how about her? The raven
(17:02):
are super Bowl? Trammel, who let us not the brodcake
last feast. John had just earned the victory of his life,
while Jim had just endured a heartbreaking defeat at the
hand of his lifelong best friend and toughest competitor dating
(17:24):
back to childhood. Now they had to face each other
at midfield for the traditional and much anticipated postgame handshake.
As the confetti fell, the brothers worked their way toward
the middle of the field, surrounded by a pack of
photographers trying to capture the historic moment. There were no hugs,
(17:51):
just a handshake and a couple of pats on each
other's chest and back of the neck, and in a flash,
Jim disappeared from the field. Their parents, Jack and Jackie
made their way down from their seats to congratulate John,
who knew it must have been a bittersweet day for them.
We made this all happen for both of us. There
(18:13):
are no losers. Then, how about Jack Harmon, Who's got
a bag? Jaddy? We've seen it all tonight in New Orleans.
A spectacular starts, a blackout in the third quarter, a
(18:33):
game that came down to nail by their plays, and
the career of ray Lewis ends with the defensive stand
for the Ages. It's John Harball over Jim Harball, the
Ravens over the forty nine ers, and for a second time,
the fault of our Ravens are super Bowl Champions of
the World. I can give you more, but I'm just
(19:00):
going to give you four reasons why I believe Super
Bowl forty seven deserves to be in the top ten
of the game's fifty one year history. Number One, the blackout.
The lights going out in and of itself makes this
game stand out, and with all the technological advancements in
the year twenty thirteen, it seems crazy that it could
(19:20):
even happen. But it did, and more importantly than simply happening,
it had a tangible effect on the game. Number two
the epic goal line stand in the final minutes. I'll
put this one in perspective by pointing to Super Bowl
fifty one, which we just witnessed a few months ago.
It featured quarterback Tom Brady and the New England Patriots
(19:44):
rallying from a twenty eight to three deficit in the
third quarter to beat the Atlanta Falcons. The Patriots were
downed by twenty five points, and they still wound up
lifting the Lombardi Trophy by completing the largest comeback in
Super Bowl history. Well, here's the point of bringing this up.
Once you're on the ropes like the Falcons and Ravens were,
(20:04):
it's extremely difficult to put your foot in the ground
and make a stand. The Falcons and ability to stop
the bleeding against the Patriots puts into perspective just how
epic the Ravens defensive goal line stand was against the
surging forty nine ers. San Francisco had three tries from
the five yard line, three, but Baltimore dug deep and
(20:27):
found what it took to put the game away. Number
three the emotional and controversial down to the wire ending.
Just as expected, the Harbaugh Battle turned out to be
a close, physical clash with a tight thirty four to
thirty one final score. Any Super Bowl that comes down
to the final minute of the game just five yards
(20:48):
short of a completely different outcome in winner, deserves to
be in the top ten. And finally number four. It's
very unlikely that we will ever see two other Space
Office head coaches and the Super Bowl again. How unique
was the Super Bowl having those two brothers theresh No,
(21:08):
it will never happen again. That's John Eisenberg, my colleague
and columnist for the Baltimore Ravens. He's been writing about
sports for nearly three decades. The Super Bowl was like
winning the lottery on back to back day. That will
never happen again. I mean to have well, first off,
(21:32):
I mean, how many you know of these brothers have
ever just going to coaching at all. You know, there's
plenty we don't hear about. I mean, Robin, Rex Ryan
have gone into it, you know, gotten pretty far. Now.
That was one where it could have happened if the
dominoes had fallen right for the right people. But just
to have first off, two coaches at all in the
(21:55):
family have some success, the odds of that are really slim.
To have two coaches brothers make it into the NFL.
We're talking thousands to one there, I think. And then
to have them both be winning in the same year,
and then to play each other in the Super Bowl,
I think. I mean, honestly, you know, I think it's
(22:16):
the sun rising in the west, right. I don't think
it's you know, I think you know, it happened, so
we all saw it. But I just thought, and we
watched their careers in fold and it sort of came together.
But I just think it was just the craziest, most
outlandious thing that will ever happen, that two coaches coached
(22:36):
against each other, two brothers in the Super Bowl. I
also called up and asked Rich Eisen, who was one
of the most respected NFL journalists in the country about
this exact point. We'll never see it again. That's a specialist.
We'll never see it again. It's never gonna happen again.
The odds of that happening that just having the brothers
coaching in the NFL at the same time are infantestimal,
(22:57):
and then having them being separate conferences where they could
set up to be playing in the biggest game of
them all and it happens. You know, it's just it's
never gonna happen again. You got to come from good stock,
you got to come from a good football family, and
you got to be very, very very good at what
you do. And again, it's like a lightning strike, maybe
(23:17):
even more of a worse odds than a lightning strike.
But I'm glad that I was able to see it.
I'm glad that hardballs were too, And it was really
special to cover and it was special to be there,
and you know, it was it was terrific. It was
a hardball pellusive that I will never forget. And we'll
(23:38):
never see anything like that again. Okay, I've laid out
my arguments about why I think Super Bowl forty seven
is one of the best in history. But here's the thing.
As good as Horball was with the blackout, the near comeback,
the epic goal line stand, and memorable finish, as exciting
as all of that was, my feeling is you cannot
(24:01):
fully appreciate this game until you get to know the
Harbaws on a personal level. And that's what I've set
out to do with this podcast, to take you inside
the Harbaugh family. Here's my analogy of what I think
this will do. It's like the vision seen from two eyes.
For example, try closing your left eye and take a
(24:23):
look around with only your right, then switch by opening
your left eye and closing your right. Alternate back and
forth a couple of times. You don't see the same
thing with two eyes separately, but it is the combination
of those two views that gives you three dimensional perception
and shows you a lot more than either eye by
(24:43):
itself sees. My theory is that a new perspective will
be gained for the Super Bowl when you combine both
the game itself with the Harbaugh family background. You will
better appreciate both together. As I mentioned before, I was
at the game and as a Ravens employee, I'll be
(25:03):
honest about the fact that I was happy that Baltimore won.
I got to enjoy the postgame celebration with all the
players where Mary J. Blige performed, I got a Super
Bowl ring, and I was part of the White House
visit with President Barack Obama. It is definitely a time
in my life that I will never forget. Having said
(25:23):
all that, I hope you'll believe me when I say that.
As happy as I was almost immediately after the game ended,
my heart went out to Jim and his parents and
really the entire Harbaugh family because I was wondering how
they were dealing with what I imagined was a bittersweet moment,
and questions flooded my mind that I'm sure many of
(25:44):
you have. Two. For example, is the thrill of victory
for John diminished knowing that it was accomplished by robbing
his brother of his lifelong dream to win a Super
Bowl too? Can John truly feel happy knowing that his
flesh and blood was hurting? And could Jim find pleasure
for John's life achievement despite the heartache of losing. And
(26:07):
how did their parents and sister Joni handle the moment?
These are dilemmas that even young, innocent minds can comprehend.
I'll get into this later, but if I've learned anything
from the Harbaughs is that you include your children in
your work wherever you can. So I asked my two
sons how they would feel if they were faced with
(26:27):
these family dynamics. I may and am my fife. My
name is Gunner Elsen. I'm of course you're sending you know,
I'm sen years old. All right, Well, this is what
I want to know. If you were like John Harbaugh
because you're the oldest, and was like Jim Harbaugh, and
Aiden was like Jim Harbaugh because he's your younger brother. Yeah,
(26:49):
how would you feel about having to play against him
in the super Bowl? You too? Aiden? Scare it? Why?
Because if feel young, you might be a little weak? Right? Yeah, Okay,
Now who would you want to win? Would you want
(27:11):
to beat Gardner? Or would you want Gardner to win?
M it's kind of hot cheese, yeah yeah. She like
a suff and you like your brother and that's kind
of hot crushed. Yeah. Yeah. But you could say that
you just don't care and say you would be happy
for your brother winning and be sad for you you'd
(27:32):
be happy for you and said for your brother, you
could say that if you wanted. What do you think
of that? M how about you don't know? You don't know? Okay,
well here's my other baby. I can just try your best.
This would be very hard for me. What who should
I root for? Well, you should try twos. This is odd, Kristen,
(27:59):
kind of too hard, I aswered. Maybe you can just
cheer to both of them then tell you know if
they win. You should just don't care who wins, because
they're both your sons. It's really hard to make it
to the super Bowl, so you should probably be proud
of both of us and don't care who wins. Just
(28:20):
be proud of both of us because whoever loses. It's
also really hard to make it to the super Bowl
and beat the other team that made to the super Bowl,
because both of the teams are really tough and made
to the super Bowl. Right, Okay, let's say after the game.
Let's say that you have to go back with the
Ravens and you guys are having a big celebration party,
dancing and music and having fun, and then Aiden goes
(28:43):
with his team and everybody's sad. Who should I go
with should I go with you to the party? Or
should I go with Aiden to cheer him up? To
cheer him up? Which both aid to cheer him up?
Why because if he just sat and you're doing a
party with me, he would probably be more sad, so
you should probably chum up so he could be happy too.
I should I go with go with Gardner and get
(29:09):
him some of his favorite toys of Vault. Yeah, wouldn't
it be great if a toy from the store could
heal all wounds? Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. But here's
the thing. The Harbaws were able to substitute something in
for a toy that actually did simplify things a great deal.
(29:30):
And that thing was the spirit of competition. Anyone who
knows the Harbaws also knows that they might be the
most competitive people on the planet. And I'm not exaggerating.
Winning and being the absolute best is the top priority.
It doesn't matter what the competition is, the Super Bowl
(29:51):
or a friendly pickup basketball game, and it doesn't matter
who is standing in your way, your brother, or even
a complete stranger. I talked with Ravens, Senior vice president
of public Relations, Kevin Byrne how about a time that
he witnessed the brothers coming up with a random competition
as full grown adults, and they genuinely cared about winning.
(30:14):
It occurred in twenty eleven, just before the Ravens and
forty nine Ers were scheduled to face off for the
first time during the regular season with John and Jim
as head coaches. We did a shoot for HBO the
summer before we played the forty nine Ers on Thanksgiving nights,
So the two brothers were going to face each other.
So Andrea Kramer for HBO comes up with a concept.
(30:37):
It's a good one if I can get Jim to Gettysburg,
you know, the big battle of the war between the States,
you know, the family at war, so to speak, Civil war,
brother against brother. Do you think John would do it?
I said, there's no doubt. If Jim's going, he's going,
you know. So Andrea comes back and said that Jim's
(30:59):
gonna go. So we go out to Gettysburg in the summer.
It was maybe late June, early July, and in fact,
my wife Sally went with me because Ingrid was going
out because they're going to tour Gettysburg a little bit
so there's a large stansion at Gettysburg that you can
(31:19):
climb to the top and see the whole battlefield, you know.
So the two of them are talking, and they're filming
the two of them talking as they approached the entrance
to this and Andrea Kramer's kind of standing off the
side along with her producer. And they get to the
first step and John looks over at Jim, and Jim
(31:42):
looks over at John and they just turn. He takes
off and John tries to grab the back of his pants.
Now this is a little dangerous too. These are two adults,
by the way, and they are now racing up these
stairs to see you get to the top of the
stanchion first. And at first I thought that's cute, that's funny.
Then you see, oh, they were serious about it. It
(32:02):
was important. It was important for one to be first.
And so the day continued, and so Jim at one
time mentioned he was really gonna be hard for us
to go play on Sunday, go across the country and
have to play you guys on Thanksgiving night, So you're
you're going to have an advantage there, and John says,
(32:25):
we got to deal with stuff like that. We all
deal with schedule headaches. And so I say to Jim,
because I know Jim well enough, I say, you don't
quit whining. And he spends on me, and he goes,
I'm not whining. I'm talking about unfairness. I'm talking about
NFL on fairness. Ozzie's on that competition committee, your owners
(32:45):
loved by the Commissioner's office. And that's why I've got
to take my team all the way across the country
after playing on Sunday, I got to travel on Wednesday morning,
come out and play you guys on Thursday night on
a holiday, and you have an advantage. I am not
whining about it. I'm going Holy cow, you know. And
John kind of looks over at him and goes, it
(33:06):
is kind of whining, and then he leaps into John
about it. And then John leaves back saying, it's not
about my franchise getting extra things. We all have to
do these things. I'm gonna have to do it. Then
Jim goes, you know what, I hope in four years
when we have to play each other again, that you
have to come into my place on Thanksgiving night, you know.
(33:29):
And my wife Sally is standing there and it's like
one hundred degrees and we're in this parking lot and
we're all sweating, and she starts backing away like she goes.
I thought they were going to come to blows, you know.
And then the conversation ends and they kind of put
their armor on each other and walk across and say, hey,
do you want to get some lunch down before we
go back? That's part of it. I went back and
(33:52):
watched that episode on HBO, Andrea Kramer sat down for
an interview with the siblings at a stage dinner table
that you would like please see at a traditional Gettysburg
home from that era. Here's Jim. He's my best friend,
next to my wife, My dad, and my brother are
my best friend. But he will be a guy that
I'm trying to beat. I'm not going to be friends
with him. It will be combative, it will be competitive,
(34:14):
and that's just the way we wanted. Did you hear
that banging? That's Jim pounding the table that had the
eighteen sixty metal dinnerware sitting on top of it. He's
being dead serious about his approach to playing against his brother.
He calls him a guy. He will be a guy
that I'm trying to beat. I'm not going to be
(34:34):
friends with him. It will be combative beat Gilbert w
BLTF how you doing, coach? Two years later, this is
a Super Bowl press conference, just a few days before
the game. Their approach didn't change after their head to
head Thanksgiving battle, which the Ravens also won sixteen to six.
As the older brother, you want to kind of always,
(34:55):
I suspect protect a little bit, that threat you're growing up.
Do you still feel that way with jim him? And
I guess, like on Sunday, the possibility to take away
a dream of his to fulfill your own? Is that
is that hard at all? No, not at all, suspect
he feels the same way. You know. It's it's about
the teams. You know, we we are. We are fiercely loyal.
(35:15):
There's no doubt. I think we'd all we'd all say that,
you know, not just of one another, and we always
have been. You know that's that's definitely not ever going
to change. We will continue to be fiercely loyal and
protective of one another, but also of our teams. And
Jimmy mentioned her earlier in the week he talked about
the brotherhood, the band of brothers, the brothers that will
take the field. And that's true. You know, the band
(35:37):
of brothers will be the brothers on the sideline, be
the Raven sideline. It will be the forty nine er
sideline that'll be the band of brothers in this competition.
To drive home the importance of this competition theme one
last time, listen to John's appearance on the David Letterman
Show on CBS just a few days after his Super
Bowl win over his brother. What did you say to
(36:00):
your brother after the game? What did you say to you?
I told him that I told him I loved him,
you know, good game, and uh, and he said, congratulations,
I'm proud. Have you spoken to him? Since I have not?
We have not had a conversation very well soon. I mean,
I guess unless you're in that position, you don't really
(36:21):
know what it is. But what was it? It's your brother?
Do you are you able to dismiss that? Is it
meaningless once the game starts? Uh? Yeah, it kind of is.
I mean you look, you look across the field and
you see him, and you kind of see what he's
doing over there, and you kind of say, hey, now,
the time I didn't really have a problem with looking
at him on the on the other sideline. That seemed
normal to me when I looked out there and saw
him in the other huddle, in their huddle, when they
(36:42):
were getting ready to run a play, that seemed that
seemed like Jim. Did you ever get a sense growing
up that there was favoritism one to together? Were you
the favorite? Was? Was Jim the favorite? Did you? I
felt like Jim was the favorite pretty much our whole
I did. I did Jim felt like he was a favorite.
But the truth Joni, our sister, she was truly the favorite.
Here's the little baby girl, Joanie. Now where does she coach? She? So?
(37:05):
What are you gonna do? Now? I'm taking fishing. I
know we're gonna go to back to football. Never talk
to your brother. I'm hoping sometime, you know soon we
actually we have meetings come up. We have a combine
in two weeks. He is there animosity here? No, no,
you know what there is is he feeling bad? As
if you need to reach out to him. He's playing golf.
Today's playing golf. The yeah, heat, No, there's no consolation.
(37:26):
There's no way that you console your brother. Anybody that
has a brother knows that you don't console your brother
doesn't work. Uh, not having a brother. I have two sisters. Uh.
And it was unlikely that any of us would have
coached the super Bowl game. So I don't know what
this is. I don't know what this is. You wake
up thinking, oh, thank god I beat him, or oh
I won, but oh too bad. I just don't know
(37:47):
what that. You know what you do? Wake up thinking
thank god I beat him? You do, Yes, it would
have been a long life, you know, A gentleman here
is So we're Baltimore Raisings, Ravens y Hope. David Letterman
just said Baltimore Raisins. He's funny even when he doesn't
(38:08):
mean to be. But I have to be honest about something.
I didn't expect the Harbos to have this brought of
a line drawn in the sand. Sure, everyone wants to win. Heck,
I'd want to win if I were in their shoes.
But I thought there would be a lot more mixed emotions.
And I totally understand the band of brothers concept, where
their loyalty to each other must be replaced by their
(38:30):
loyalty to their teams. I mean that makes total sense
because John and Jim had hundreds of players dreams in
their hands. The athletes worked and sacrificed their whole lives
to get to this point, so the brothers had to
worry about them and the millions of fans from the
cities of Baltimore and San Francisco. But still, even with
all that, thanking the man above for beating his brother
(38:54):
and saying it would have been a long life otherwise
that was surprising to me at least, or Jim saying
he wanted to be combative, that was also striking. But
the more I talked with the har Boss, the more
I got their approach. And don't get this mentality confused
with machismo. Were two brothers who grew up in sports
or simply puffing out their chest and pounding it to
(39:15):
prove that they are superior. Although there's probably a little
bit of that in play, but more than anything, competing
to become the best is a family motto. I spoke
with their parents and they were equally as passionate about
the topic. Here's Mom Jackie, followed by Dad Jack. Do
you think at all? I remember? John was asked at
(39:36):
the Super Bowl if, as the older brother, he felt
like maybe even just a tiny bit that he kind
of hopes his little brother wins the game. And John
was like, nope, not at all. Is that pretty characteristic
of them? It doesn't matter if it was a super
Bowl or young they always wanted to win. And well,
you know what it's don't you think that's true of everybody? Though? Oh?
(40:01):
Come on, don't you want to win in your profession too?
With what you're doing with any project you have, don't
you want it to be the best project out there?
Because if you don't, well, what's the point of doing it? Right?
I mean, what's the point of doing it? So if
(40:22):
if you're in a game, a card game or whatever,
most people really do want to win. I just think,
you know, how do you get better at anything if
your goal isn't to do it the very best you
can do it with the hopes that in the end
(40:44):
you're going to be the victorious. And why are you coaching? Then?
If you don't want that for your team? That's true,
a lot of people depending on you, a lot of
people depending on you. So, yeah, you want to win?
And my brother or not my brother, you know, like
John would never feel guilty for winning, would he no good. Yeah,
(41:09):
I shouldn't feel guilty. I beat him, and you shouldn't
feel any other way. Why would you ever want to
feel because if he if he won, I would expect
he would be you know, it's a feeling he's going
to have. But that's a beauty of life lesson than
a negative. In our society to day, we want to
make competition negative. If you're not competitive, I guarantee you're
(41:32):
you're you're swimming backwards. I mean, you're not moving forward,
And you gotta be competitive. You gotta juice has got
to flow every day, and just today it happens to
be your brother, right still, Attack life with an enthusis
yea to mankind? Or any question about that? If you
haven't heard the Harbaugh theme, attack life with an enthusiasm
unknown to mankind, you will by the end of this podcast.
(41:53):
It's right up there in popularity with the family's other
famous line, who's got it better than us? Nobody? But
it's important that you pick up on a big piece
of the family's competition motto that Jack touched on. If
you truly want to understand the Harbos, you need to
understand this piece, and it's about feelings. Jack said that
(42:16):
not only did John have an absence of guilt, he
felt good about beating Jim. This is an essential part
of competition. After you battle it out with everything you have, mind, body, spirit,
there's no hard feelings afterwards, you better be ready to
move on because the hardbas already have. Here's John Eisenberg again.
(42:38):
I do think you know, John will always think that,
you know, I found a way to win that game. Yeah,
And because there is something about because what people don't
understand with that mentality with John being happy and not
feeling about it about you know, beating his brother, is
that's just them. Like they John can get into an argument,
(43:00):
whether it's with the press or the player or whatever.
I mean, I've heard plenty of stories. You get in
an argument, you battle it out for your position, and
then after it John's it's not like John's angry. It's
not like John's angry. It's like, what what we had
to get to the truth there? We had to get to,
you know, the best method there. We had to do whatever.
You like, I didn't hurt your feelings right like they
(43:22):
didn't hurt your feelings. That that's that's the point, and
that's just John I'm Jim have been competing for their
entire lives like that, and then after you're done, you
don't even mad at each other. Right, That's very true.
It's very true. I've actually had those arguments with John
our Pall, yes, several and so, yes, but that's very true.
When it's over, it's like, Okay, we're good. It's over. Yeah. Yeah.
(43:47):
So it's like and you're a little rattled, you know,
but yeah, I mean you better be because he's moving on. Yeah.
So but yeah, I mean that's just what it is.
And that's that's how they are. The object was to win.
It doesn't mean that you don't he doesn't love his
brother just as much. Yeah, what are they supposed to
do in that situation? Right? But what's really amazing is,
(44:09):
you know, since then, I mean I've seen i mean,
Jim comes crawling, he's around the ravens, I've seen him
on some sidelines. I've seen him in locker rooms and
he puts on the hat, i mean onto the next Yeah,
this is a team that beat me in the super
Bowl and you know he doesn't even blanket. It's true
family love, It really is. It really is. Obviously the
idea of competing to be the best no matter who
(44:30):
the opponent has worked really well for the har Boss,
both in dealing with the emotions of the Super Bowl game,
but also in John and Jim's careers. But there's a
downside of this approach, especially when dealing with people who
don't have the same competitive spirit or feel like the
har Boss can take competition to the extreme. These people
(44:52):
can be left feeling rattled or even drained, and it's
made for some significant bumps along both their careers this
season on Man of the Crowd, what are your impressions
of Jim crazy? Jim is hyper hyper competitive. He can
(45:14):
never lose even when he's won. He got mistreated really
badly in one of those jobs, really badly, and I
know that. Yeah, I do think Jim is misunderstood sometimes.
What do you think Bo would say right now if
he saw Jim leading this program? Oh, he'd be so proud.
And I think he does know how about that? I
(45:35):
think he looks down and get an emotional just talking
about it. I think when John came in the building,
he was expecting a fight. You either sit up or
you can leave. Ed got up and just walked out
into Oh yeah, that was a really bad vibe. And
(45:59):
I told him that will be your biggest challenge. And
he had that hardball look, you know, you get that
hardball look and the eyes his lip was quivering. What
do you think at last Place? What do you think
holding one day? It brings twos from my eyes thinking
about it because it's huge, you know, it's um They've
(46:23):
both traveled a different path, and John traveled a long path,
you might saying, Jim shadow and every time I didn't
have a friend, Uh, did you know? I sometimes I
wear those out. Sometimes he was my older friend. This
is all about family and in the end, what does
(46:45):
it come down to? It comes down to your family.
Hey man at the Treadless Nurse. Before you go, I
want to run through a couple of housekeeping items first.
If you like what you've heard in episode one, be
(47:07):
sure to hit that subscribe button on iTunes, SoundCloud, google Play,
or wherever you're listening to this. I'll post a new
episode every Monday morning leading up to the Ravens season
opener against the division rivals Cincinnati Bengals on September tenth.
Then you'll get a bonus ninth episode on the Friday
before that game. Also, we've created a Man of the
(47:28):
Crowd micro site. I think you'll like it because it
has tons of great content that will compliment what you're
listening to here. It has a list of biographies about
some of the key interviews I've done over the last year,
and that should help you better understand and identify the
voices that you'll get to note throughout this podcast. There's
also an episode guide to get a sneak peek of
what's coming up this season. And then there's some pretty
(47:51):
cool photo galleries. We have one of the Harbaugh family
from when John and Jim were growing up as young boys,
and then there's a Super Bowl forty seven photo gallery
that features family moments during the game. Check it out
on Baltimore Ravens dot com, backslash Man of the Crowd.
And finally, I want to hear from you guys. If
you have any comments or questions or whatever, hit me
(48:12):
up on Twitter. My handle is at sg Ellison. I
look forward dear feedback and I'd love to interact with you. Okay,
that's it. That's all I've got, but I'll be back
next week with episode two. Inside the Mind of a
Harbaugh
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