By: Meghan Donovan, Staff Writer
Brothers, coaches, and now Super Bowl XLVII opponents: John and Jim Harbaugh will be taking opposing sidelines on February 3 in New Orleans.
In this weekend’s conference championship games, the dominant second half performance from the Baltimore Ravens placed them into the Super Bowl to face the San Francisco 49ers. This match-up was unexpected as the Baltimore trumped the New England Patriots in the second game on Sunday and San Francisco made a fourth quarter comeback to beat the Atlanta Falcons.
The shock of these two teams headed toward the Super Bowl was only made more attention-grabbing when the name Har-Bowl (short for Harbaugh-Bowl) started getting thrown around. The coach of Baltimore, John Harbaugh is the 15 month elder to brother Jim, the coach of San Francisco.
They are the first brothers in National Football League (N.F.L.) history to coach at the same time. They come from a family of football—their father, Jack was also a football coach. Not only did they make history in being the first two brothers to coach for the NFL, but they are to make history on February 3 as they face off for a Super Bowl game.
For both of the brothers, this game will be their first Super Bowl as an NFL head coach. Although both have lead teams into the playoffs in their previous seasons, neither have made a Super Bowl appearance thus far.
Not to be overshadowed by the hype of the brother-coaches in the upcoming Super Bowl, both teams have overcome hardships should produce an interesting game next Sunday.
San Francisco faced Atlanta for the National Football Conference (N.F.C.) championship. After falling behind shortly after the start of the game, it appeared that the end of the season was near for San Francisco. In an unlikely turn of events, San Francisco made a fourth quarter comeback to win 28-24, clenching the NFC championship and a Super Bowl berth.
San Francisco will be led by Colin Kaepernick, rookie quarterback who replaced Alex Smith halfway through the regular season. With only 10 weeks of play under his belt, Harbaugh has put the weight of the team’s Super Bowl dreams on this young quarterback’s shoulders. Kaepernick has been able to handle the pressure thus far—winning two out of two post-season starts. His chance to go three for three will be in Super Bowl XLVII.
The Baltimore Ravens, led by hype-man and defensive linebacker Ray Lewis, were able to lay crushing hits on the favored Patriots in last weekend’s game. For Patriots fans, it seemed there was no escaping injury as player after player was sent to the locker room from the severe blows delivered by Baltimore’s defense. Baltimore was able to pull away early in the fourth quarter and continued to floor it from there, winning 28-13.
Ray Lewis was sidelined for most of the year with a triceps injury but has come back and helped his team make their way to the big game. The previous defensive player of the year is expected to show an electrifying performance on February 3 before he says his farewell to the N.F.L..
