The Midweek
 Motivator

Audience Development Group
Oh, BrotherJanuary 16, 2013
Tim Moore
Tim Moore, Managing Partner Audience Development Group

Managing Partner

Audience Development Group

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Greetings!

The Harbaughs are grinning at each other from the Chesapeake Bay to the San Francisco Bay. For two consecutive years America's ravenous NFL fans are a single game away from seeing a brother-against-brother Super Bowl. A year ago, if not for a muffed punt in San Francisco and a dropped touchdown pass in Foxboro, Jim and John Harbaugh would have met in the NFL Championship game. How they arrived on this seemingly impossible summit might be best answered by the patriarch of the family, Jack Harbaugh, former college coach, athletic director, and father of Joani Harbaugh who just happens to be the wife of Tom Crean, adored head basketball coach of the Indiana Hoosiers! What is it about the Harbaughs?

 

Heading into the NFC and AFC Championship games, Jim and John traveled very different roads. John's Baltimore Ravens were a pre-season pick to finish mid-pack with a depleted roster, all-world linebacker Ray Lewis in the twilight of his final season, and a sturdy but not pyrotechnic quarterback Joe Flacco; all question marks in the Ravens' preseason camp. Few envisioned the superbly coached but less than star-studded Ravens to do the impossible (a word not allowed in the Harbaugh household).

 

Jim on the other hand finished his inaugural 2011 season by taking the formerly under-achieving 49ers into the NFC Championship game, losing only when a bouncing punt brushed a 49er, giving the Giants a late gift-wrapped Super Bowl invitation. This season, NFL archives will record that Jim Harbaugh made a command decision defying coaching tradition when, a few games into the season, accomplished 49er quarterback Alex Smith suffered a mild concussion. Harbaugh inserted his second-year quarterback out of Nevada into the lineup. There is a longstanding postulate among coaches which holds that when a first team player is hurt, he cannot lose his position due to that injury. One could argue it's simply fair-play. But gifted coaches like the Harbaughs don't see things quite the same. Watching his back-up quarterback take the team and the sophisticated 49er offense up a notch, Harbaugh saw what others often miss: in Colin Kaepernick, Harbaugh knew instantly he owed it to the franchise to permanently insert the guy with lightening foot speed, a rifle arm, and the swashbuckling leadership of a quarterback few had ever heard of, much less could pronounce his name. There was no looking back.

 

This past weekend Kaepernick threw for two touchdowns, passed for 263 yards, ran for two touchdowns, and broke the NFL quarterback rushing record with 181 yards! Harbaugh sensed what others might not: Alex Smith did nothing wrong and was developing into a reliable NFL quarterback, but Colin Kaepernick was simply in a different class. Asked about the clich�d "quarterback controversy" earlier in the season the team's CEO had a ready answer: "Coach Harbaugh is going to make the decisions on the field; if you want the owner or CEO to make these decisions, you're cheering for the wrong team."

 

John and Jim Harbaugh might be a shared reincarnation of Patton. If not, their leadership certainly is. They keep foremost in mind leadership is not a popularity contest, they always lead from the front, they coach forward installing a team superiority complex, use all available talent, and when in doubt on either offense or defense, they attack, holding nothing back. No one expected the Ravens to beat Denver at Mile High while many expected Green Bay to win in San Francisco. But that's just not the Harbaugh family tradition.

Sincerely,

Tim Moore

Tim Moore

Managing Partner 

Audience Development Group

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