The Baltimore Ravens are angling to become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since the New England Patriots pulled off the feat in 2003 and 2004.
Ravens players and coaches are sure to be bludgeoned on a daily basis with tired questions about repeating, a dynamic that coach John Harbaugh blames on those pesky media types.
"The only reason it's hard (is) because people associated with the team can't block it out," Harbaugh told Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun. "I would say to the media, 'Just get over it.' Life moves quickly. I think all of us are capable of doing more than one thing at once. It's not like we have to forget the Super Bowl in order to move onto the next season. We're capable of being proud of the accomplishment and moving on to the next thing. It's not an either/or proposition. It seems like a pretty simple concept."
Harbaugh argues that this year's Ravens aren't mired in "defend the Lombardi" mode, but they're starting fresh and gunning to win a title with a roster that looks markedly different from a season ago. With so many new faces in-house, pep talks about avoiding a Super Bowl hangover aren't high on the agenda.
"It's not a relevant point, and it won't be until the week of the Super Bowl if we're in the game," Harbaugh said. "Until that time, it's a pointless conversation because we're not playing the Super Bowl. We're playing Tampa Bay in the preseason opener. So you could make it an issue if you want, but it's not, and just because (the media) makes it an issue doesn't mean we need to. We didn't figure this out because we won a Super Bowl, how we're going to approach it. That's how we've approached it all along."
It's a healthy outlook, but Harbaugh's fooling himself if he believes reporters will play along. Questions of repeating are the burden of every Super Bowl-winning team, and they're a minor inconvenience that 31 other coaches gladly would take.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
