OWINGS MILLS, Md. – Jim Harbaugh became a NFL quarterback who played professionally for 14 years. But for most of their upbringing, older brother John Harbaugh had the physical advantage over Jim. For the sons of longtime college coach Jack Harbaugh, fights weren’t uncommon.
“It used to get hot,” John Harbaugh said this week. “Back when we were younger, it was every day.”
With John imposing his will, Jim would deploy the “crab technique.”
“I’d hold him down and stuff … and he would basically get on his back, and he’d get his hands and his feet up there, and he’d just fend me off with his hands and his feet,” said John, “and I couldn’t get to him.”
John figured out a counter-move. Using the old corduroy brown pillows in the Harbaugh basement, John would take the pillow, swipe his feet down, pin his brother and then get back on top of him. According to John, he forgot all about that. Jim didn’t. The younger Harbaugh reminded his big brother about that when the two spoke last month.
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“I take a little credit for his toughness, I guess,” John Harbaugh said. “He’s probably one of the toughest people I know.”
Perhaps the “crab” is a metaphor for “Monday Night Football,” when John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens face Jim Harbaugh’s Los Angeles Chargers (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN): one side fending off the other, each making adjustments to account for the mind meld between the two in building their respective rosters and organizations.
It will mark the third time the brothers have squared off in the NFL and the first time since they did it on the world’s grandest stage more than a decade ago: John’s Ravens defeated Jim’s San Francisco 49ers, 34-31 in Super Bowl 47.
“I don’t know if it will happen again for a long time, this particular thing, so it’s hard to describe it,” John Harbaugh said. “I would say to people, if you have a sibling you’re close to, you probably understand it. You probably can put yourself in those shoes and just kind of imagine what it’s like to be across the sidelines in an NFL game coaching your teams. Everything else is the same.”
Jim Harbaugh returned to the NFL coaching ranks this year after nine seasons at the University of Michigan, where he led the Wolverines to the 2023 national championship. While serving a suspension during the program’s sign-stealing scandal last season, the brothers watched a Michigan game with their wives at John’s Maryland home.
A year later, Jim has the Chargers at 7-3. The Ravens, at 7-4, are a half-game back in the standings and one spot below Los Angeles in AFC wild-card positioning.
“To me, it’s a reflection of his coaching style, it’s a reflection of his football personality,” John Harbaugh said of his brother’s team. “They’ve taken that on.”
The term “reflection” can also apply to the rosters and coaching staffs of the Ravens and Chargers, as the connections are numerous beyond the Harbaughs’ blood relation.
Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who also worked with Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, worked for John Harbaugh and the Ravens from 2017-20. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman held the same role with Baltimore from 2017-22. Ravens running backs coach Willie Taggart was a longtime Jack Harbaugh assistant and worked for Jim at Stanford.
Los Angeles running backs Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins both started their careers with the Ravens and played there until last season. Center Bradley Bozeman, tight end Hayden Hurst, offensive lineman Sam Mustipher and safety Tony Jefferson (who was a scouting intern with the Ravens in 2023) are also former Ravens.
“They are similar coaches, so they need similar players, similar guys,” Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard said, “so it makes sense that they’re using a lot of people that have been here.”
Ravens backup quarterback Josh Johnson was the first quarterback Jim Harbaugh coached at San Diego 20 years ago. He’s played under John Harbaugh in an official capacity for multiple seasons now, but his first experience came when John lent a hand to Jim’s staff and stood on San Diego’s sidelines when his schedule allowed as special teams coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles.
“That’s just what they do,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s interactions with Jim Harbaugh from those San Diego days to their time together in San Francisco to now have been the same, he said. He hasn’t played for Jim in a decade but “if I’m a betting man, I’m pretty sure (his coaching style is) similar.”
Johnson predicts there will be heart-warming moments between the Harbaugh brothers leading up to kickoff. All bets are off after that.
“During the game, it’s going to be competitive, like they don’t know each other,” Johnson said. “Then after the game it’ll be back to normal. That’s what I would expect.”
The NFL schedule-makers deserve a hat-tip for placing the game on the Harbaugh parents’ 63rd wedding anniversary. They will be watching the game at the home of their daughter and son-in-law, Joani and Tom Crean, in Florida. Talking about the matchup has not been a taboo topic for the family.
“It’s just, ‘What are we going to talk about?’” John said. “Everybody kind of understands the situation.”
John Harbaugh called Jim “one of the best coaches of this generation” and said he would stand by that statement even if they weren’t brothers.
“He always has a way of seeing things that’s really interesting, and that’s why people are interested in hearing from him,” John said.
One Harbaugh is surely going to hear from the other depending on the outcome Monday night.