He might be coaching against his brother on Thursday night, but John Harbaugh wants the Baltimore Ravens to know that they are his family.
That was the message Harbaugh imparted to his team in their Monday morning meeting, according to the team's website.
"Off the field, they’re brothers. But come Thursday night, Jim and John aren’t family. John and the Ravens are family and Jim and his Niners are family and it’s two families going to battle," said Baltimore linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, who had a brother in the NFL too, former fullback Obafemi. Their teams played each other twice, splitting the games.
Judging from his players' reaction, the Ravens are buying into the whole "We are family" thing.
"We really want to win it bad for him," outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said.
"Harbaugh is a great guy," linebacker Jameel McClain added. "He goes to bat for us all the time, so it’s only right that we got to bat for him. That’s just what we are, that’s what we do as a team. We all go to bat for each other."