As the confetti fell Monday night inside Houston’s NRG Stadium, Ravens coach John Harbaugh was, of course, happy for his brother, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. The Wolverines were College Football Playoff champions, a 15-0 team with more than a few connections to Maryland.
But at some point in the afterglow of Michigan’s 34-13 win over Washington, Harbaugh thought about his own team’s playoff path.
“Like any brother ... your brother gets something, you want it, too, right?” he said Wednesday. “You’re down there, you see the team hugging, you become a part of the celebration and the confetti and the jubilation and the tears, and you just kind of ... it sinks in. Like, ‘Man, I really want to experience this for our team. I want our team to experience this.’ That’s the big picture. That’s the ultimate goal for the season.”
The Ravens are just three wins from another Harbaugh family celebration. They were back at work Wednesday, preparing for next weekend’s divisional round, eager to make good on their Super Bowl potential and the possibility of a sibling sweep.
Harbaugh said he sees similarities between his brother’s Michigan team, which features a couple of former Ravens coaches, and these Ravens.
“I think Jim talked about his football family and his family at home,” Harbaugh said. “Those two things are something we talk about here, being 100% committed to both those two things.”
Over a decade ago, Harbaugh had to take down his brother’s San Francisco 49ers for his first Super Bowl title.
This time, Jim’s out of John’s path. (For the time being, anyway.) But John acknowledged Wednesday that he could take a page out of his brother’s playbook and memorialize a championship in ink.
“I told my wife and daughter, they get first dibs on the tattoo choices, probably,” he said. “But a Super Bowl championship would be pretty tempting, no doubt.”
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