John and Jim Harbaugh will likely have no shortage of friends and family in attendance at SoFi Stadium when their respective teams face off on Monday – but two of the brothers’ biggest supporters will notably be absent from the stands.
Jack and Jackie Harbaugh will not be present for the ‘Monday Night Football’ matchup between John’s Baltimore Ravens and Jim’s Los Angeles Chargers, though they have good reason for missing their son’s faceoff. The longtime couple plan to travel to Florida to spend time with their daughter Joani, son-in-law Tom Crean and two grandchildren on the night of their 63rd wedding anniversary – while also getting a head start on Thanksgiving preparations.
“We are choosing to go down there and celebrate Thanksgiving with them and be able to watch the game with them,” Jack said on ‘The Lounge’ podcast. “And we’ll have a lot of fun and enjoyment doing that.”
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Discussing his relationship with Jackie, Jack credited his wife with assuming the duties of “head coach” in the family during Jim and John’s formative years. The 85-year-old attributed much of the success that his sons’ have achieved in the NFL to their mother, joking: “Thank God for moms.”
Jack added: “Just go right back to Jackie. She was the head coach of them and still is. They’ve had me around, but she’s been around them 14, 15, 16 hours a day when they were growing up.
“Back in 1957 in that biology class, I looked down into row number one in that class and four years later we were married. That was the decision that changed my life. … We’re just so blessed that Jackie’s with us and she’s still the head coach of the Harbaugh family.”
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John’s Ravens defeated Jim’s 49ers on two separate occasions during their past faceoffs (
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Jim Harbaugh is currently head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers (
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Fortunately for Jack and Jackie, the pair have been able to watch their sons’ teams go head-to-head on more than one occasion prior to Monday night’s contest. Back in 2011, John’s Ravens defeated Jim’s 49ers 16-6 on Thanksgiving day. Two years later, Baltimore once again beat San Francisco, 34-31, during Super Bowl XLVII.
In the leadup to the latest Harbaugh NFL clash, Jack was offered a pearl of wisdom from John regarding how to best watch the game without allowing emotions get in the way. “We’re thinking, you know, here we go again,” Jack said. “It was good and it wasn’t so good. But we knew what it was about.
“[John] said, ‘Dad, this is not for the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl was an ending. There was going to be a Super Bowl championship. There would be someone that didn’t win it. In this game, it’s a game and both teams are still challenging for playoff position. So it doesn’t quite have the magnitude that the Super Bowl had.’
“And you know what? I shook my head,” Jack continued. “Once again, I learned something from John that made me a little bit wiser and a little bit more comfortable.”
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