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FILE – Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, second from left, and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs head coach Andy Reid chat earlier than an NFL soccer sport, Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021, in Baltimore. Harbaugh as soon as beat his personal brother to win the Tremendous Bowl, so going through a mentor in all probability received’t rattle him. Nonetheless, there’s loads of appreciation between the Baltimore coach and Andy Reid, his counterpart on the Kansas Metropolis sideline for this week’s AFC championship sport. (AP Photograph/Julio Cortez, File)
OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — John Harbaugh as soon as defeated his personal brother in a Tremendous Bowl, so going up in opposition to somebody he used to work with is probably not all that emotional.
Nonetheless, there’s loads of respect between the Baltimore coach and his counterpart this weekend: Kansas Metropolis’s Andy Reid.
“Clearly, it’s an enormous deal by way of the connection,” Harbaugh mentioned this week. “It goes again a protracted, lengthy, good distance. Utmost respect for Andy, utmost appreciation for what he’s achieved as a coach. We had been collectively for 10 years, the primary 10 years there in Philly. We had been in loads of championship video games, and loads of playoff video games.”
They’ll face one another as head coaches for the primary time in a playoff sport when the Ravens host the Chiefs on Sunday. That’s considerably outstanding given how profitable they’ve been. That is Harbaugh’s fourth AFC championship sport with Baltimore and Reid’s sixth in a row with Kansas Metropolis.
Reid leads their head-to-head sequence 5-2 since he and Harbaugh went their separate methods through the former’s tenure on the helm of the Philadelphia Eagles.
“John does an exceptional job. He is aware of the entire sport,” Reid mentioned. “He was an awesome particular groups coach, an awesome secondary coach and he’s been an awesome head coach. Very pleased with him and all he’s carried out and achieved.”
Harbaugh was a particular groups coordinator in 1998 for the Eagles below Ray Rhodes, then remained in that function for eight seasons after Reid took over the next season.
“Ray Rhodes was nice to be round for a yr or two. If Ray’s on the market listening, simply thanks very a lot. I’m all the time appreciative of what I realized from Ray,” Harbaugh mentioned. “Then Andy got here in, I hoped to remain, and he gave me a possibility to do it. I used to be younger and simply figuring issues out. That was good of him, and hope he’s glad he did, wanting again on it.”
Reid mentioned he’d recognized Harbaugh’s father, Jack, earlier than maintaining John on his workers in Philadelphia.
“His dad was the very best. He was actual shut with LaVell Edwards (at BYU). I did a factor at a hospital one time with them. I used to be a younger coach, carrying Coach Edwards’ bag. And I acquired to know them, and we had been like, the three coaches at this complete conference that confirmed up on the hospital,” Reid mentioned. “We spent a few days collectively and it was nice. I by no means forgot it. So once I met John, I used to be like, ‘Should you’re half nearly as good as your dad, you’re on.’ And he’s been that.”
Harbaugh grew to become a secondary coach for Philadelphia in 2007, then took over the Ravens the next season. He received a Tremendous Bowl in his fifth season in Baltimore. The opponent in that sport was San Francisco, then coached by his brother, Jim.
Currently, Reid’s Chiefs have been the workforce to beat within the AFC. Their streak of six straight convention title video games has been accompanied by two Tremendous Bowl wins, considered one of which got here final yr.
Reid additionally reached 4 NFC title video games in a row in Philadelphia with Harbaugh on his workers.
Apart from Harbaugh, Reid’s teaching tree consists of one other Tremendous Bowl-winning head coach in Doug Pederson, in addition to Sean McDermott of the Buffalo Payments, whom Kansas Metropolis defeated last weekend.
“You consider all the good coaches that had been on that workers that Andy assembled and mentored and taught us all a lot,” Harbaugh mentioned. “We had been an in depth group of men, a workers that beloved one another. I see loads of that on this (Ravens) workers, too.”
Though it’s been some time since he and Reid coached collectively, a number of the classes are straightforward to recall.
“I inform this story rather a lot. One of many issues with Andy, he had this three-by-five card behind his desk on his bulletin board. It simply mentioned, ‘Don’t decide,’” Harbaugh mentioned. “I acquired the nerve to ask him about it one time, and he simply mainly (mentioned) it’s sort of a biblical precept. Take folks the place they’re at. Assume the very best. Attempt to talk with everyone on equal phrases. I’ve by no means forgot that.”
AP Sports activities Author Dave Skretta in Kansas Metropolis contributed.
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