This year’s Super Bowl will lift sibling rivalry to stratospheric levels as John Harbaugh coaches the Baltimore Ravens against a San Francisco 49ers team led by his younger brother Jim.
San Francisco pulled off the biggest-ever comeback in an NFC championship game, coming from 17-0 behind to beat the Atlanta Falcons 28-24, with Frank Gore running for a pair of second-half touchdowns.
The Baltimore Ravens also had to come from behind at half-time as they beat the New England Patriots 28-13. Baltimore is back in the Super Bowl for the first time since 2001.
While there are plenty of interesting Super Bowl plot lines involving the players – from retiring Ravens great Ray Lewis to the sudden emergence of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick – the sibling angle will make this coaching match-up the most scrutinised in the nearly half-century of Super Sundays.
The 49ers will be trying to join Pittsburgh as the only team with six Super Bowl championships, and trying to start a new era to build on the powerful 1980s and 1990s teams led by quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young.
“It will be a great football game,” said John Harbaugh, after the Ravens victory. “Two great teams squaring off, I can’t wait.”