text: Kawakami: Jim and John Harbaugh engender support of 49ers, Ravens by deflecting attention - EastBayTimes.com
  Which brings us to the Super Bowl, the Harbaugh Brother storyline, and two teams shaped by coaches who aren't into peeling back their own life stories."I can take a pass personally from that," Jim Harbaugh said Monday after a few Harbaugh family questions.He will be tested over the next two weeks, especially during the strobe-light mayhem of Super Bowl Week.But the 49ers coach is a proven master of bluntly and unashamedly declining to answer questions he has no interest in answering.You press him harder, he only digs deeper, which, frankly, I respect more than I probably want him to know.I think it also helps give the franchise a broad sense of toughness.If Harbaugh doesn't yield in front of the media or to other coaches around the league (including his brother), then why should the 49ers players ever yield, even if they're down 17-0 in the NFC Championship game, as they were Sunday in Atlanta?His message is the one he issues from the podium, and any other conversation with his players is private and remains private."You love to have Coach on your side," 49ers CEO Jed York said of Harbaugh after Sunday's victory. "He puts his guys first. "He might not put the media first; he might not put the rest of the league first. I understand that, and he is who he is and he's comfortable with it and I respect him and I respect the job that he's done." Who else but a Harbaugh would have replaced Alex Smith, a proven recent winner having a career year, with Colin Kaepernick in late November?That took guts, it took instincts, and Jim Harbaugh presented the decision without reflection or the desire to convince anyone but himself.And Kaepernick, about to make the 10th start of his NFL career, has proved Harbaugh right with every new big play.Who else but a Harbaugh would have replaced his offensive coordinator in early December, as John Harbaugh did this season -- dumping old mentor Cam Cameron and promoting Jim Caldwell?That took chutzpah, and Caldwell's leadership and play-calling has justified everything by pushing quarterback Joe Flacco and the Ravens offense to a higher place.This is how the Harbaughs do it, and they do not ask for favors along the way -- and now they're playing each other for a title, the first Super Bowl head-coaching appearance for either man.True to the patterns of the Harbaugh family, John Harbaugh already has humored the brother questions for a bit longer and more effusively than his steelier little brother.But as the questions continue, neither will do much more to help these stories.And they already went through it last season, when they met for the first time as NFL head coaches -- a Ravens' victory on Thanksgiving night in Baltimore."I just want everybody to know, that was a four-day deal and every story has been told," John Harbaugh said Monday in Baltimore."I really hope the focus is not so much on that. We get it, it's really cool and it's exciting and all that. But it's really about the team, about the players, about the guys you're talking about." It's not about the Harbaughs, but it's also about why the Harbaughs don't want it to be about the Harbaughs.It's about two tough coaches, two tough teams, and a family spirit that is mostly and proudly played out on the football field.Read Tim Kawakami's Talking Points blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami.Print Email Font ResizeReturn to Top Kawakami: 49ers' QB question quickly becomes a no-brainerKawakami: First of many happy moments for Kevin Durant, Warriors?Kevin Durant comfortable with his decision • Article commenting rules of the road