INTRODUCING THE SMART HARBAUGH, WHO DUPED EVERYONE
By STEVE KING
His last name is Harbaugh, but he’s not Jim, the clueless knucklehead who has single-handedly dumbed down Michigan football to the point of being mediocre – and that’s being kind.
No, rather, this is John, the smart, witty outstanding longtime head coach of the Baltimore Ravens (2-1), who entertain the 1-2 Browns on Sunday with first place in the AFC North on the line. As such, he is the antitheses of Jim.
As you may recall, it was back in the spring when John said – no one cares what Jim says – that the Browns, who had added some marquee free-agent pieces in the offseason, were the most talented team in the division. Everybody said, “Ohhh, ahhh!,” since it was coming from the well-respected coach of the defending division champions.
Now in these days leading up to the first of their two annual meetings, Harbaugh is being reminded of that.
He says he meant it from an offseason perspective.
No matter, his Ravens took note of that remark, and in the interim they say they have grown tired of listening to how good the Browns are supposed to be.
Harbaugh threw out the bait, and, as a group, the entire football world swallowed it whole.
That’s exactly what Harbaugh wanted. For you see, in addition to the fact he’s a very good coach, what we’ve also learned about Harbaugh is that he’s a master psychologist – one of the best in the NFL, in fact, second only to that guy in New England, Bill Belichick. That Belichick is better than he is, and because his teams are also better, is why the Ravens always struggle so much to beat the Patriots.
But with the Browns, who have a young team and a first-year head coach in Freddie Kitchens, it was easy pickings. They didn’t know how the game was played, and they sucked in all of Harbaugh’s praise. And more importantly, Harbaugh’s players, as mentioned, sucked it in, too, and, during a time of the year months ago when there’s usually nothing to really rally around, he found something and began getting his guys stoked for the season and those two games against Cleveland.
There’s another part, or even parts, really, of this story – a part that could, and should, benefit the Browns — and I’ll talk about that in my next post.
