harbaugh.jpg

San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh pleads for a defensive holding call in the fourth quarter of Sunday night's Super Bowl game in New Orleans.

(Photo by JOHN G. MABANGLO/EPA)

NEW ORLEANS — The older brother gave a clinic on how to be graceful after a victory, telling the entire world that the losing coach in the Super Bowl was the best in the business.

"There is no greater coach in the National Football league — or in the world, really — than Jim Harbaugh," his brother John said.



The younger brother showed everyone exactly how not to handle a defeat on the biggest stage, behaving like an overgrown brat after the referees didn't throw a flag for defensive holding on the final play of the decisive drive, and then in a six-minute news conference never praising his brother once for what he accomplished.

"I really want to handle this with class," Jim Harbaugh said, before he decided not to, "(but) there is no question in my mind that there was a pass interference and a hold on (Michael) Crabtree on the last one."



So let that be the postscript of Super Bowl XLVII: The two weeks leading into the game were a psychological study of two brothers so close in age but so different in every way, and that didn't change Sunday night after the Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31, with a dramatic defensive stand.



John Harbaugh surrounded himself with family and dedicated the Lombardi Trophy to O.J. Brigance, a former Ravens player who is battling the final stages of ALS, as a national TV audience watched.

“All the Ravens fans, a big cheer for O.J.!” Harbaugh told the Superdome crowd.

Jim Harbaugh was alone, spiking a half-full Diet Coke into a trash can as he entered a testy news conference before ripping the referees when, clearly, coaching was just as much to blame.



The 49ers had a first-and-goal on the Ravens 7-yard line with two minutes left and trailing by five. He had four shots to score the winning touchdown and cap the most brilliant comeback in Super Bowl history.



And he had the most dynamic running quarterback the NFL has seen in years, facing an exhausted Baltimore defense without its best run stopper, nose tackle Haloti Ngata.



The ending seemed so obvious: Colin Kaepernick would run into the end zone to steal a sixth world title for the 49ers. He would kiss his biceps one more time with the world watching and make everyone — from NFL general managers to Pop Warner coaches — rethink the most important position on the field.

That never happened. Because somehow, against all reason, Harbaugh called four plays in the shadow of the Ravens’ end zone and not once did Kaepernick run with the football.

First down: LaMichael James went up the middle for a 2-yard gain.

Second down: Kaepernick threw incomplete to Crabtree, with Harbaugh furious that the referees failed to call pass interference.



Third down: Kaepernick threw again to Crabtree, inexplicably short of the end zone, and Crabtree dropped the pass.



Fourth down: Kaepernick faced an all-out Ravens blitz and tried to hit Crabtree in the corner of the end zone. Was Crabtree held? Maybe. But it certainly wasn't blatant, and if you're counting on a referee to throw a flag to decide the Super Bowl, you're going to end up disappointed.

If the best play call you have with the Super Bowl on the line is a low-percentage fade into double coverage, you don’t deserve the trophy.

“I realize I’m on the side of the 49ers,” Jim Harbaugh said. “I probably have some bias here. But I wouldn’t be bringing it up if, in my mind, it wasn’t obvious. That’s not the way (the officials) saw it.”

Harbaugh made sure the world knew he was getting jobbed, gesturing with his arms for the holding call like an over-caffeinated traffic cop. Maybe someday, when the Harbaugh family gets together and watches their improbable moment, he'll realize just how much he looked like a horse's behind.



Maybe then, he'll also see how his big brother schooled him from the opening kickoff. John Harbaugh had his team more prepared at the start as the Ravens raced out to a 28-6 lead, and then managed to regroup his team after that 33-minute power outage seemed to knock out the Ravens' lights, too.

Not that the elder Harbaugh would take credit for that.



"I just knew with Jim Harbaugh being on the other sideline and all of those years we have been together that the game was going to be a dogfight to the end," he said. "Those guys were coming back."



They did. When it ended, it was the older brother who walked to his postgame news conference with his famous family — parents Jack and Jackie behind him, brother-in-law and Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean with his left arm over his shoulders — and credited everyone in Baltimore but himself.

"Take a few seconds to think about how few people have done what you just did," Crean told him.



John Harbaugh is on the top of the football world today. Jim Harbaugh is sulking back to San Francisco a bitter loser. For this story of the two coaching brothers, it was a perfect ending.



Steve Politi: spoliti@starledger.com; Twitter: @StevePoliti

