Like the rest of us, Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh understands his older brother, Jim Harbaugh, won’t be unemployed for long after he was fired by the Baltimore Ravens after 18 seasons.
He has just one request. He doesn’t want him in the AFC anymore.
“John Harbaugh’s the best coach I know, best coach I’ve ever seen,” Jim Harbaugh said one day after his brother was fired on Tuesday, January 6. “And as I told him, whatever team he goes to is going to be formidable and I just hope it’s in the NFC.”
The Harbaugh Brothers famously squared off in Super Bowl XLVII following the 2012 season, when Jim Harbaugh was the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, with John Harbaugh’s Ravens coming out with a 34-31 win in a game known for a blackout in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans right after Baltimore’s Jacoby Jones returned a kickoff 106 yards for a touchdown and a 28-6 Ravens lead.
It’s the only time in Super Bowl history brothers have coached against each other — depending on where John Harbaugh winds up with his next job it might not be the last.
AFC West Opening Unlikely Fit for John Harbaugh
The one current head coach opening that would pit the Harbaugh Brothers against each other at least twice a year would be with the Las Vegas Raiders, where Pete Carroll was fired on Black Monday after going 3-14 in his one season with the team.
The Raiders would be a miserable fit for John Harbaugh, who is coming from one of the most stable ownership groups in the NFL with the Ravens and would likely be loathe to join one of the most unstable with the Raiders, who are now apparently being run by former NFL quarterback and 7-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady as the “de facto boss” over football operations — hardly a situation that sounds like a recipe for success.
Football Coaching is Family Business for Harbaughs
The Harbaugh family business, so to speak, is being a football coach.
The Harbaughs’ father, Jack Harbaugh, was a high school football and college football head coach for 45 years, including stints as the head coach at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky, where he led the Hilltoppers to a Division I-AA National Championship in his final season as a head coach in 2002.
Jack Harbaugh came out of retirement twice to coach with Jim Harbaugh — first for one game as the running backs coach for Stanford’s bowl game in 2009 and then again in 2023 as the assistant head coach for Michigan in 2023, when the Wolverines went undefeated and won the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Giants Seem Like Favorites to Land John Harbaugh
Right now, the leader in the clubhouse to land John Harbaugh seems like the New York Giants, who fired head coach Brian Daboll after a 2-8 start to his fourth season.
Harbaugh was already on the radar of the Giants before he was fired, according to The Athletic’s Ian O’Connor.
“… Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Baltimore’s John Harbaugh and Cleveland’s Kevin Stefanski … could potentially become available in the coming days,” O’Connor wrote on Saturday, January 3. “All three would move straight to the top of the Giants’ wish list of candidates in a job market that is almost as uninspiring as the Giants themselves.”
Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh Sends Clear Message After Older Brother Fired by Ravens