Who's got it better than the fans of the HarBowl? Nobody!

HarBowl is for real and almost here. I love everything about this Super Bowl, which is now less than 2 days away. Some people in the media were put off by the very thought of the harbowl from day 1, even before any of the expected overexposure started. Super Bowl stories tend to run it's course in a couple of days and bore us for 10 more days as the non-stop hype machine bombards us for 2 straight weeks. But I was happy to hear the harbowl stories of brotherly love on ESPN instead of it being Ray Lewis's retirement channel, 24 X 7. Both are strong story-lines, but brothers coaching against each other in a Super Bowl is beyond fascinating and may never happen again. Only thing better could be the Manning boys playing each other in the big game and time is running out on that ever happening, though we have 2 years of clock left on it. I also like it because these 2 guys are great coaches, and I don't usually throw around the word "great" without meaning it. Jim Harbaugh is flat out a witch and his head coaching record in both the college and the pros speak for themselves. 

John Harbaugh is even more fascinating. I have always been intrigued by his success given that he started of as a lowly special teams coach in the NFL. For him to go into that Ravens locker room with strong personalities like Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and earn their respect and build an identity for himself takes some serious leadership and people skills. It's not surprising anymore given that he has been successful and nothing builds credibility in sports quite like winning, but coaches like him rarely survive the first 2 or 3 years. I knew he was a stud when he established himself in that town beyond those first couple of years and of course, he will become a legend if he wins the Super Bowl on Sunday. I can't even imagine the mindset of his parents during this Super Bowl. I am glad they got a news conference too during the hype week. They deserve it and their mindset as they watch their 2 sons compete is as good a side-story to follow as anything else. As for the sons, John is a lot more level-headed and normal while Jim is a football psycho. That almost makes me want to pick the older and saner John to win, but Jim is a better coach. Plus he has the better roster. So advantage Jimmy boy.

Speaking of the rosters, the game itself is going to be very interesting and tight. I am expecting a high-scoring game and mistakes will decide it. Turnovers are a story in any football game, but it's going to be even more of a factor in this one as I expect it to be close and swing back and forth. Kaepernick seems to be everybody's favorite QB all of a sudden and Joe Flacco has been playing great in these playoffs too. The Ravens defense has improved over the course of this season, but I don't think they are still good enough to stop what Kaep and Harbaugh will throw at them. The niners do have a far superior defense, but at a neutral venue, against a good offense, I expect them to be good, but not great. Plus Flacco plays well ONLY in big games and all he needs to do is connect on a couple of long bombs to put the Ravens in a good spot. I expect him to do that and I expect Kap to keep up with him and the guy throwing a bad pick or 2 wil decide this game. Or may be a fumble. The running backs in the game are worthy of a lot of attention too, but Frank Gore and Ray Rice have not gotten much airtime due to the other stories in play. Late in the season, their backups LeMichael James and Brandon Pierce have become effective X-factors too. There is enough talent on the field on both sides of the ball to make this Super Bowl a classic. I expect a TD win for the niners. 31-24, San Francisco 49'ers.

In Harbaugh I trust. I meant Jim Harbaugh, but I would neither be surprised nor too disappointed if it ends up being John Harbaugh.

HarBowl

All the talk in the NFL right now is about the HarBowl on Thanksgiving night. The niners are playing the Ravens and the Harbaugh brothers are (head) coaching against each other for the first time. NFL put this game on Thursday night for this storyline, but now this contest is also a premier game of the week since the niners are much better than expected under Jim. Not only are they good, they actually have a better record than the Ravens at 9-1. The Ravens are still the favorites here since the game is at Baltimore and since the jury is still out on the niners. San Francisco's defense is definitely great, but their offense - especially the passing game is still shaky. The Ravens are inconsistent themselves, but their offensive talent is a little more legit than the niners. If the niners win this game on a short week, we better put them in the contender circle for good. They are not Packers yet - no team is. But this game can establish them firmly in the second tier with the other good teams. They will still not have a Drew Brees or Tom Brady playing QB for them, but they may have the best defense in a league without many dominant defenses this season and that should count for something. This game should be a great night-cap on Thanksgiving.

The day games feature the usual dates in Dallas and Detroit, but Detroit is good this year for a change. This makes the turkey day games really interesting as all 6 teams involved won last week. Of course, Dallas should still win against Miami easily, but the Dolphins have been playing way better lately. Undefeated Green Bay is going into Detroit and that should be a good one. Nobody will be surprised if the Packers lose as Detroit will be up and ready for this one against their division rival. Detroit had a great game last weekend and they might have even found a running game in Kevin Smith. The NFC north has some of the best arms in the league with Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers and the now injured Jay Cutler. This game should feature a lot of bombs from both QBs and should be a lot of fun. The Bears were playing really well too and it's too bad Cutler is hurt. Denver released Kyle Orton - a former Chicago Bear, today. It's a smart move. They are hoping Chicago will pick him up and pay the rest of his salary saving Denver some cash. John Elway decided to cut Orton, but is still refusing to completely endorse Tim Tebow. Elway seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place.

In college, USC beat Oregon by a field goal to put the BCS in a high-speed spin cycle. Now the top 3 teams are all from the SEC and the prospect of a Alabama-LSU rematch looms large. Arkansas is third and they play LSU next. Things will get really interesting and confusing if Arkansas upsets LSU and Alabama wins the iron bowl against Auburn. In that case, Arkansas has to be ahead of LSU and LSU beat Alabama. But Alabama can't drop from 2 to 3 after a win against Auburn. Also Alabama has already beaten Arkansas. This means Alabama will jump to 1, Arkansas 2 and LSU 3. This is not because that's how they rank on the field, but because that's the ranking that looks the least stupid. If this is not an argument for a playoffs, nothing else can be. I am not a BCS hater. In a non-playoff world, BCS is a decent effort to implement a system, but it just doesn't work because it's dealing with a problem that is intractable. So you need a playoff and you need to decide all this on the field. But I have to add that I do see the argument that playoffs will dilute the value of these weekly games. If there was a playoffs down the road, I will not care all that much about the LSU-Arkansas match-up this weekend. The fact that this game can eliminate LSU does adds a lot of juice to the contest and that's not a bad thing. But that juice is not worth all the squeeze and we need the playoffs in College football, period.