John Harbaugh

For those who believe the NFL is secretly as scripted as pro 'rassling, Sunday's games could provide the most suspicious story line imaginable. If things break right, the Super Bowl could feature the Harbaugh brothers coaching against each other in the city where one (Jim) played quarterback for four years, and in the state where their brother-in-law (Tom Crean) coaches the Indiana basketball team. It would be an upset for either brother to reach the Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

When you grow up in a football family like the Harbaughs, you know in your very bones what it means when two teams line up for a punt or kickoff. Time to hit the fridge. "My dad's been a coach for all those years," John Harbaugh said. "He knows as well as anyone how important special teams are. But when he watches a game, he's just like everyone else. A punt means it's time to go get a drink or a snack. " John Harbaugh is the Eagles' special-teams coach. His brother Jim is an NFL quarterback currently playing in San Diego.

On this, the Eagles' players did not differ. John Harbaugh's tongue was legendary. In an instant, he could turn from that pleasant-looking, mild-mannered Midwestern guy into an unforgiving, tyrannical coach who neither spared feelings nor minced words. Any imperfection, big or little, from a missed assignment to questionable effort, would unleash the beast. Harbaugh, a former Eagles assistant, is in his first season as the Baltimore Ravens' head coach. "But we all mend," he said.

Some Eagles still remember Washington Redskins kick returner Brian Mitchell shaking his fists, beating his chest, and taunting the team that couldn't stop him. Those 1995 and 1996 seasons, Mitchell and the Redskins' special teams crushed the Eagles play after play. It was humiliation that John Harbaugh, the Eagles' first-year special-teams coach, missed and has spent the week planning to dodge as the Eagles near tomorrow's game against the Redskins at Veterans Stadium. Harbaugh, the one hero on the Birds' coaching staff in a so-far winless season, has focused this week on getting his players to avoid careless penalties, adapt to injuries to returners Allen Rossum (concussion)

Ravens coach and former Eagles special-teams coordinator John Harbaugh might be interested in giving free-agent tight end L.J. Smith a new start in Baltimore. Harbaugh, who took the Ravens to the AFC championship game in his first season as head coach, invited Smith for a visit Wednesday, and Smith said he accepted. The Baltimore Sun reported that a source said parameters of a one-year, $1.5 million deal are in place. Smith made $4.52 million last season as the Eagles' franchise player.

If John Harbaugh wants Pat Shurmur to be the offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, he has Andy Reid's permission. "Pat's been with me a long time, and if he has a chance to move on in that capacity, I'd welcome it for him," the Eagles' coach said yesterday after watching the North team practice at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in preparation for Saturday's Senior Bowl game. Harbaugh, who was hired as the Ravens' head coach Friday, did not make the trip to Mobile. According to a league source, he remained in Baltimore because he is trying to put together his coaching staff and is talking to Ravens assistants who worked for the fired Brian Billick.

The men who coached the two bright spots in an otherwise dismal Eagles season will remain with the team. Special-teams coach John Harbaugh and running-backs coach Ted Williams will be on new head coach Andy Reid's staff, the Eagles announced yesterday. Reid will also retain Mike Wolf, the strength and conditioning coach who has managed to get the most out of the tiny weight room at Veterans Stadium. There was no announcement on a new defensive coordinator, perhaps the most important hire Reid will make.

When the Eagles play the Ravens in a preseason game at Baltimore tonight, Eagles special-teams coach John Harbaugh and his brother, Ravens quarterback Jim, are both hoping for a picture-perfect night. "If there's one thing I want from that game, it's a picture taken on the field with my brother," Jim Harbaugh said. "It'll be a proud moment, not only for us but for my mom and dad. " "Getting the opportunity to stand on the field next to my brother and have our picture taken as members of the NFL, well, that feeling will be beyond belief," John Harbaugh echoed.

It was a big moment in the life of the Harbaugh family. The oldest son, John, announced that he had made an important decision. His mother, Jackie, couldn't wait to hear which law school he would attend. "That was her goal for John," said Jack Harbaugh, the patriarch of the clan and head coach at Western Kentucky. "He was going to be a lawyer and go into politics. When he told her he'd made up his mind and that he was going into coaching, his mother dropped her head onto the kitchen table and burst into tears as if she'd lost her son. " "My mom was a little disappointed," said John Harbaugh, whose momentous decision led him to his new job as the Eagles' special-teams coach.

While most of the NFL's coaches and general managers declined to discuss specific free agents for fear of being accused of tampering, John Harbaugh wasn't as tight-lipped. The Baltimore Ravens coach expressed his team's interest in two former Eagles, running back Brian Westbrook and wide receiver Terrell Owens. "To me, Brian Westbrook definitely has a lot left," said Harbaugh, a former Eagles assistant. "I think probably the Eagles know that, and everybody else knows it. He's going to have plenty of opportunities to play.

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh made a critical remark about the New England Patriots in a radio interview on Tuesday, but later backtracked. Harbaugh told a Baltimore station that New England's championships "got asterisks now; it's been stained" while referring to the Spygate scandal of 2007. The Ravens later released a a statement from Harbaugh in which he said his "reference was to the perception out there that came as the result of the league's actions. " He said that he could have been clearer and that "I totally believe that the Patriot and Saint coaches and players earned those championships.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - John Harbaugh spent the first 9 years of his NFL coaching career as a special teams coach. So maybe he has a little more empathy for kickers. Maybe that explains why the Ravens coach chose to defend Billy Cundiff after his costly 32-yard miss in the final seconds of yesterday's 23-20 AFC Championship Game loss to the Patriots rather than follow the lead of his former boss, Andy Reid, and suggest to reporters that they "do the math" to ascertain the importance of the miss on the game's outcome.

For those who believe the NFL is secretly as scripted as pro 'rassling, Sunday's games could provide the most suspicious story line imaginable. If things break right, the Super Bowl could feature the Harbaugh brothers coaching against each other in the city where one (Jim) played quarterback for four years, and in the state where their brother-in-law (Tom Crean) coaches the Indiana basketball team. It would be an upset for either brother to reach the Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

BALTIMORE - The Ravens are like Joe Flacco's Fu Manchu mustache. They aren't exactly a thing a beauty, but they get the job done. In an AFC divisional game that surely won't leave a lasting imprint in the annuals of the NFL, Baltimore scraped by the Houston Texans, 20-13, in the same manner as many of its victories over 17 years of existence. The Ravens prevailed behind the strength of their defense - albeit an aging one - and in spite of mediocre quarterback play.

BALTIMORE - Big brother got the best of little brother in a unique NFL duel. The Baltimore Ravens tied a franchise record with nine sacks and beat the San Francisco 49ers, 16-6, last night, giving John Harbaugh reason to celebrate after the first NFL game featuring brothers as opposing head coaches. The Ravens (8-3) chased, hindered and battered Alex Smith for much of the night despite playing without middle linebacker Ray Lewis, the team's leading tackler and spiritual leader.

Ravens 16, 49ers 6 BALTIMORE - Baltimore sacked Alex Smith nine times and beat San Francisco to give John Harbaugh an emotional charge in the first NFL game featuring brothers as opposing head coaches. The Ravens (8-3) chased, hindered, and battered Smith for much of the night despite playing without middle linebacker Ray Lewis, who was inactive for a second straight game with a foot injury. The nine sacks tied a franchise record, accomplished twice previously. San Francisco (9-2)

Researchers studying a degenerative brain disease in former athletes plan to test about 100 retired NFL players to try to learn how to diagnose the condition during life. The only way now to confirm chronic traumatic encephalopathy is by examining brains after death. The Boston University center that has analyzed the brains of more than 70 former athletes is starting a three-year study of living patients. The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at BU's school of medicine also will recruit 50 retired elite athletes from noncontact sports as a comparison group, codirector Robert Stern told the Associated Press on Thursday.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Eagles held a mock game at training camp on Wednesday and, in some ways, they will do the same thing Thursday night in Lincoln Financial Field against the Baltimore Ravens. Even in a normal year, the first exhibition game of the season is a vanilla sundae floating in a lukewarm bowl of dumbed-down schemes. This year, without the benefit of minicamp preparation and with barely two weeks of limited contact in training camp, the result will definitely be more scrimmage than scrum.

If the Eagles don't know exactly who their new defensive coordinator will be, they have a very good idea. There. Feel better? It is fun and easy - especially easy - to portray the Eagles' hiring process as a series of slapstick blunders. Nature and the media abhor a vacuum, and the team has left an informational vacuum since firing Sean McDermott earlier this month. But there is no logical basis for this widespread fallacy that Andy Reid is not working from a plan. This is Andy Reid we're talking about.

When Sean McDermott was a young assistant, he used to go on long runs in FDR Park across from the NovaCare Complex along with veteran Eagles coaches Brad Childress and Steve Spagnuolo. McDermott, a fitness nut, went for the exercise, but he also tagged along to work on the thing he is nuttiest about: coaching. "I would just jog and listen to those two talk and just kind of be a fly on the wall," McDermott said earlier this week. "I just learned. Just cutting my teeth growing up around that was interesting and good for my career.