We expected a great "Sunday Night Football" game between the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers. We got 42-13. Seattle's loud statement for the football world to see was the latest in a budding rivalry between the two sudden NFC West powers.
The teams' smashmouth, defensive mindsets remind us of the best days of Baltimore Ravens-Pittsburgh Steelers. But there's a little extra between coaches Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll because of their history together in college, and it spills on to the field.
It sometimes even spills into the parking lot. Seattle defensive backs Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman claimed Harbaugh honked and waved at the Seahawks' team bus after the 49ers beat them in San Francisco in October.
"He honked his horn at the bus and waved," Sherman told Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports after the game. "That happened -- a bunch of the guys told me. Yeah, he was (honking)."
"Yeah, he (honked at us)," Thomas said. "It seems like he tries to be a professional in front of the camera, but he does his antics, like that, when the cameras aren't around. He's just a big kid. We don't worry about that stuff. We just play the game. The best team won (Sunday), and it was convincing."
Thomas and Sherman didn't witness the incident, and Harbaugh denied Monday that it happened, calling it a "fabrication," according To The Sacramento Bee. It might be apocryphal, but we almost don't care. It's hilarious and perfectly captures this 49ers-Seahawks rivalry in 2012. It's personal. It's more fun this way.
"I'm not gonna lie to you," Sherman told Silver after the game when recalling Seattle's final touchdown Sunday night. "I told Pete, 'Let's score and go for two.' He said, 'We have more class than that.' "
Sherman, who played under Harbaugh at Stanford, is referencing the famous time Harbaugh went for a two-point conversion late in a blowout win over Carroll's USC squad. Carroll now has an NFL-level powerhouse that's capable of blowing the doors off any team.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
