Since Jim Harbaugh is at the center of the football universe this week as he leads his San Francisco 49ers against brother John’s Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII, I thought it would be interesting to look back where his NFL career started, as quarterback of the Chicago Bears.  (more…)

The Super Bowl XLVII matchup is set.  It’s going to be brother against brother, Niner against Raven, Jim against John, Harbaugh against Harbaugh.   The San Francisco 49ers will face the Baltimore Ravens in New Orleans.

It’s tough to get back to the playoffs, much less to a conference championship game, so this Super Bowl matchup is testament to teams working their way up the playoff ladder as both the conference championship game winners went home as losers last year.  The Niners and Kyle Williams  fumbled away their chance for a Super Bowl against the Giants while the Ravens were a Lee Evans dropped TD pass away from a trip to the big dance last year.

The 49ers advanced to the Super Bowl by defeating the Atlanta Falcons, overcoming a 17-0 deficit on the road to charge back to a 28-24 victory.   Meanwhile, the Ravens kept the Ray Lewis retirement tour going, cruising past the New England Patriots in Foxboro.  Pretty damn impressive on both counts.

If you’re looking for a blueprint to follow from the Super Bowl teams, there are plenty of things to draw upon.  Both of these teams do it with strong lines on both sides of the ball.  They play physical and smash mouth football on offense, but use that to set up their aerial attack.   The Niners use the read option and Kaepernick as a dual threat.  He proved that when he dismantled the Packers last week.

The Ravens do it a little more ‘by the book’ on offense, but Joe Flacco has weapons at all levels of the field – from Ray Rice running and short routes, to Dennis Pitta and Anquan Bolden attacking the middle of the field to Torrey Smith to blow the top off opposing defenses.

Prepare yourselves for two weeks of Harbaugh sibling rivalry while Jack Harbaugh, father of the two brothers, will become a media sensation.  Let the hype begin.

Oct 10, 2011; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz during the second half against the Chicago Bears at Ford Field. Lions won 24-13. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-US PRESSWIRE

How do you reward a coach that has had 4 different players arrested 6 times during one off season?  If you are the Detroit Lions, those kind of statistics earn you a contract extension.  The terms of the extension were not disclosed, but Jim Schwartz was about to begin his last season under his original four year contract he signed when joining the Lions before signing an extension Friday.

Even though the incredible lack of discipline has been running  throughout the organization from Ndamukong Suh’s actions on the field, to all the arrests off the field, one thing that cannot be argued is the tremendous turnaround in the win column since Schwartz took over as head coach. Schwartz was hired as head coach after taking over for current Bears defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli , who departed after going  0-16 in 2008.  Schwartz’s Lions records have improved each season going from 2-14, 6-10, to 10-6 and a playoff appearance in 2011.

The playoff appearance by the Lions was their first one since 1999, well before Matt Millen personally tried to destroy the franchise one decision at a time and send the organization into Lake Erie.  Ever since Schwartz’s  back slap controversy with Jim Harbaugh after their loss to the San Fransico 49ers, the Lions discipline has virtually disappeared. It’s kind of curious that even though Schwartz has turned around the win column that the Lions committed to him long term without seeing if he can turnaround the discipline column.

It was BEARly worth mentioning, but they are our rivals!