The NFL playoffs have reached the championship rounds and low and behold the two Harbaugh brothers are still standing for a second consecutive year. Jim Harbaugh’s 49ers will travel to Atlanta to take on the top-seeded Falcons, while John and the Ravens will see a familiar foe in the New England Patriots with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. If you played a drinking game next week associated with the word “Harbaugh”, you’d be drunk by sunrise each day.
But that’s just next week. Wait until both brothers make it to the Super Bowl. The ESPN coverage for an all-Harbaugh Super Bowl would make even Tim Tebow jealous. Heck, if CBS were smart, it would just go ahead and pick up Tebow as a guest analyst for the Super Bowl, shattering every TV rating in sports history (only kidding). But seriously, if you’re hosting a Super Bowl party and the Ravens and 49ers are playing, just play the “Harbaugh” drinking game. Just imagine the possibilities.
To put things into consideration, imagine if Bill Belichick had a brother. What would the over/under be on how many times the word Belichick would be used during the course of a broadcast? We’ll already hear it hundreds of times next week, and he’s only on one sideline.
Obviously the Harbaugh brothers don’t carry with them the credentials of a Bill Belichick, but they do carry with them a football storyline that has every sports reporter in the nation salivating at the opportunity for a brother vs. brother Super Bowl. But as fans, would you be willing to put up with two weeks of inside reporting at the Harbaugh households, planted cameras at the parent’s house, more questions about family than X’s and O’s and so on and so forth. America, are you ready?
It would make for great TV. There is no doubt about it. If one of the Harbaugh’s has to make it, the NFL would probably rather see both of them go ahead and punch their ticket. It may just be me, but I would dare to say the NFL would much rather see a Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh Super Bowl, rather than a Falcons vs. 49ers Super Bowl.
We know the coverage would be great and everyone would tune in. But, what about the actual game? Would this matchup prove to be the best Super Bowl matchup? Yes. Brothers and storylines aside, a Ravens vs. 49ers Super Bowl would make for an excellent game and an excellent payday at 6/1 odds (bet it at Bovada) plus it would feature two hard-nosed teams that play football the same way it was played back in the days of leather helmets. Both teams get after you. They run the football and punish you up front. This would make for a Super Bowl the way it was meant to be played.
So here’s the deal. If you’re simply a football fan and have no dog in the fight next week, I think you should root for the Harbaugh brothers, simply because it would make for the best game. The catch, however, is that you may want to spend the two weeks leading up to the game giving in to your wife and watching Desperate Housewives, unless of course they bring in a guest with the last name of Harbaugh. At that point you either change the channel, or if the drinking game has already started, go ahead and take a drink.