Ravens head coach John Harbaugh dishes on brother taking Chargers job, facing them next season

John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens may be spending the week getting ready for the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, but that isn’t going to stop the media from asking Harbaugh about the NFL return of his older brother, Jim. Two weeks after leading the Michigan Wolverines to a National Championship, Jim Harbaugh reached a deal with the Los Angeles Chargers to become the 19th head coach in franchise history, meaning both of the Harbaugh brothers will be back in the NFL for the first time in ten years.

How Ravens Ground-And-Pound Run Game Gave Seahawks Trouble

During his media availability on Thursday, John Harbaugh fielded a question about his brother’s NFL return with the kind of dry humor and sincere admiration we’ve come to expect from each of the Harbaugh brothers.

“I’m just very happy for him, proud of him. Excited for him, excited for his family,” John Harbaugh said after first acknowledging that next year the Ravens and Chargers will play each other in what will surely be one of the most highly-anticipated primetime showdowns on the NFL schedule — if Baltimore falls short of winning the Super Bowl this season, consider this my official prediction that Ravens at Chargers will be the opening Sunday Night Football game of the season, otherwise, Baltimore will be opening the season at home on Thursday Night Football, with both the Eagles and Bills as interesting possible opponents.

Ravens rout Seahawks 37-3 behind defense and Keaton Mitchell's big day – KXAN Austin It’s gonna be great. It’s well deserved,” John Harbaugh continued. “And I’ll say this, the Chargers just got themselves one great coach.”

They did indeed. For all of the success that John Harbaugh has had in the NFL — a Super Bowl title, 160 regular season wins (20th-most all-time), and only two losing seasons — at this point in time, John ranks second among the Harbaugh brothers in terms of career winning percentage in the NFL.

In four seasons as the San Francisco 49ers head coach, Jim Harbaugh won 69 percent of his games, comfortably ahead of John’s .618 winning percentage. But here’s the record that matters most: John is 2-0 versus Jim, with the first win coming on Thanksgiving night in 2011, and the second victory in Super Bowl XLVII.