This Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers is being dubbed the “Harbaugh Bowl” – or even better, the “Super Baugh.”
The designation stems from the fact that for the first time in the championship game’s history the teams are being coached by brothers. Jim Harbaugh is the head coach of San Francisco, and John is at the helm for Baltimore.
What are the odds of such a matchup between two brothers?
Kathy Ensor is a statistician with Rice University and breaks it down as follows: “Given there is one pair of brothers in a pool of 150 potential NFL head coaches, the odds of them facing off in the super bowl are 1 in 11,175.”
Speaking of odds, it was reported the other day that the Las Vegas sportsbooks are entertaining some of the strangest bets ever this year including, “Who will be mentioned more by full name during the games, John or Jim?”
For me, the most interesting sideshow of the game will be watching Jim and John’s parents sitting in the stands. You can be certain the cameras will be trained on them all throughout the contest.
Jack and Jackie Harbaugh (pictured) assured reporters the other day they’re not rooting for one son over the other, but instead for both at the same time. Of course they realize that come Sunday, one will win and the other will lose – but how else is a parent to manage?
I was thinking the other day how I would react if Trent and Troy were squaring off against each other in the Super Bowl. I hope I’d be as levelheaded about it as Jackie and Jack Harbaugh.
Said Jackie this past Tuesday:
I would honestly have to say that the birth of our own children and then the birth of our grandchildren are the most important to me and this is like frosting on the cake for our whole family.
Jack chimed in:
All those millions of people that are parents out there, this is just a fantastic, fantastic experience and really no one has it better than us. But when you’re in the process of going through parenting, the day that they made the junior high school football team…You have that feeling of being thrilled for your children. They go to high school and they make the high school team. Then they are lucky enough to get a college scholarship. Then every one of those stops along the tremendous journey. The thrill that you feel, I know this is on a big stage, but in parenting, those don’t rank any differently.
In other words, the Harbaughs are reminding us that being a mother or father is a privilege that far exceeds the thrill of playing or coaching or watching any championship game.
That’s something to keep in mind as you make your way through another challenging day as a parent.
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