Very few parents get to see even one child make it to the NFL in any fashion, much less two. Jack and Jackie Harbaugh are about to watch their sons coach against each other for the third time.
On Monday, John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens travel to face Jim Harbauagh and the Los Angeles Chargers in a sibling rivalry just before Thanksgiving. The brothers have faced off twice before, including in Super Bowl XLVII when John’s Ravens defeated Jim’s San Francisco 49ers in a 34-31 thriller.
This game obviously doesn’t hold the same stakes as a Super Bowl, but that doesn’t matter to the Harbaugh family. Any time their two sons meet each other, emotions are bound to be high in the household.
“We’re thinking, you know, here we go again,” Jack said on “The Lounge” podcast. “It was good and it wasn’t so good. But we knew what it was about.”
In an effort to help his father manage his emotions on Monday night, John gave him a bit of friendly advice to follow.
“He said, ‘Dad, this is not for the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl was an ending,'” Jack said. “‘There was going to be a Super Bowl championship. There would be someone that didn’t win it. In this game, it’s a game and both teams are still challenging for playoff position. So it doesn’t quite have the magnitude that the Super Bowl had.’
“And you know what? I shook my head. Once again, I learned something from John that made me a little bit wiser and a little bit more comfortable.”
Unfortunately, Jack and Jackie will not be present at SoFi Stadium to watch the game in-person. Instead, they’ll be heading down to Florida to be with their daughter Joani, their son-in-law and former Georgia men’s basketball coach Tom Crean and their two grandchildren. The Ravens and Chargers both play the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so John and Jim will both be hard at work on opposite sides of the country.
In an amazing coincidence, Monday also marks Jack and Jackie’s 63rd wedding anniversary, adding to an already-exciting day. When reflecting on how far his sons have come, Jack had to give credit to his beloved wife.
“Just go right back to Jackie. She was the head coach of them and still is,” Jack said. “They’ve had me around, but she’s been around them 14, 15, 16 hours a day when they were growing up.
“Back in 1957 in that biology class, I looked down into row number one in that class and four years later we were married. That was the decision that changed my life,” he said. “We’re just so blessed that Jackie’s with us and she’s still the head coach of the Harbaugh family.”
