Name: John Harbaugh vs. Jim Harbaugh | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2026-01-15T16:15:19.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'John Harbaugh vs. Jim Harbaugh | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2026-01-15. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'John Harbaugh vs. Jim Harbaugh | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2026-01-15. Transcript available.

how you feeling pretty good i guess i'm feeling pretty good parade go well in
baltimore the
parade was good we had people trying to climb into the stadium after we locked
the gates that's
baltimore there you go fantastic uh you know so much has been uh written and
spoken and discussed
not just in the super bowl but you and your brother had coaches uh i was
interested to read
about your parents uh your mother's name is jackie right father's name is jack
right now tell
it worked out well tell us about jack he was he was a football still is a
football guy but i mean
he was really dedicated committed to being a football guy wasn't he yeah he's a
ball coach
you know we grew up around it that's what we did we had a chance to uh to run
around it with his teams
and get stuffed in lockers and tape the goal posts and that's what all the
coaches kids did you know
how many how many teams did he work with oh maybe maybe 12 14 over the years
mostly the main thing
was when we were growing up we were at michigan and that was in the 70s and jim
ended up playing
for michigan so you know that worked out well also and and your your dad was
part of the coaching staff
that won the uh big 10 championship is that right yeah they won a few what year
was that that he
won his i really don't remember you know it's maybe 73 they won 76 i think they
won they won a few so
this guy is all business then isn't he yeah well he wanted he was at western kentucky
won a national
championship as a head coach later on and jim helped coach there yeah he was he
was kind of all business
and your your mom what what factor does she present in this equation she would
she raised us you know
dad was the football coach and mom was in charge of the kids you know and then
we'd get a little carried
away every now and then and mom would call dad you know and dad would come
would come in did daddy like
eat dinner with a whistle and he did always have a yeah it's always all right
kids do some sprints
around the house but now uh you and your brother jim you're the older right uh
what was that relationship
like was it was it uh oh we just it was peaches and cream that's right very
nurturing we we spent
a lot of time together uh supporting one another look at the cute kids right
there there we go which
one's you which one's your brother uh that i'm the bigger one there uh-huh that
changed since
you're about a year and i've got the smile and he's got the scowl see it
and here's mom and dad this is great now this is america we're looking at right
there that's right
that was about 65 yeah
your mother is a lovely woman thank you very much uh and and so uh uh he was
the better athlete you
were the better student is that how it breaks out that's that's kind of the
storyline right now you
know i don't i don't know there were times when i was the better athlete but it
ended up kind of
going that way you played some college ball the university of miami right right
about that mid-american
conference school you're familiar with that conference i certainly am ball
state that's right
and uh university of miami ohio beautiful beautiful campus there and they've
turned out some pretty
good football players haven't they football players and football coaches the
cradle of coaches it's
called aripar siegen john pont bo schembuchler woody hayes oil boil boy how
about that now um
were you happy with the game the way things went i like the way it turned out
yeah that was good
it started well it finished well there was that little thing in the middle that
was a little
distracting i think we have some videotape here this is i believe you during
the the blackout who are
you talking to there uh that's that's mike kentzel with the nfl and what is the
issue well there was
a concern about the restaurants after the game new one's got a lot of great
restaurants dave we weren't
sure about where to go that's pretty good that's and one more thing hey listen
i'm not hey i'm not done
with you you know that guy he knows you but what was the point of the
conversation this this is during
the blackout and you're saying they should call the game it's over we're ahead
exactly right it's like
it's like baseball you know you get your four and a half innings and it's
halfway through it's we're done
it's an official game it's in the books thank you we were good uh did that did
that have any
to do with the the 49ers surge in the second half you know i'll tell you that
was not surprising and
just the longer i sat over there maybe that's why that kind of happened but the
longer i stood over
there knowing jim knowing the kind of competitor he is the type of team they
had you could just feel
like they were going to make a comeback and you just knew it was going to be
tough that's the way
it was that's the way it was their whole life growing up what what didn't
surprise me and what
little i knew about the niners but the one thing is their quarterback was
starting his 10th game a
10th or 11th game right i mean that's crazy that his 11th game 10th game is the
super bowl for god's
sake so you can understand why they'd find themselves down uh 28-6 at that
point well i'll tell you they
came roaring back and colin kaepernick's amazing he made a he made all kind of
plays throwing in
and running uh they just have a tough hard-nosed team i mean there was no way
that they were gonna
they were gonna wilt i think they got their they kind of got their second wind
what uh did you say
to your brother after the game what did he say to you i told him that i told
him i loved him you
know good game and uh and he said congratulations right you know i'm proud of
you have you spoken
to him since i have not we have not had a conversation we will soon
i i i mean i guess unless you're in that position you don't really know what it
is but what was it it's
your brother do you are you able to dismiss that is it meaningless once the
game starts
uh yeah it kind of is i mean you look you look across the field you see him and
you kind of see
what he's doing over there and you kind of say hey now the time i didn't really
have a problem with
looking him on the on the other sideline that seemed normal to me when i looked
out there and
saw him in the other huddle in their huddle when they were getting ready to run
a play
that seemed that seemed like jim that wasn't surprising uh i was i was told now
i'm not sure
where i heard this information but your your folks watched with the
commissioner the nfl commissioner
right uh the game at the superdome there and that it was absolutely they did
not say a word through the
whole game they had a great week and then kickoff happened yeah and it was all
downhill from there
right so uh did you ever get a sense growing up that there was favoritism one
to the other were
were you the favorite was was jim the favorite did you ever i felt like jim was
the favorite pretty
much our whole i did i did jim felt like he was a favorite but in truth joanie
our sister she was
truly the favorite she was the little baby girl joanie joanie now where does
she coach she
interesting you asked yeah she is uh she's married to tom cream the basketball
coach in indiana
you probably know and indiana they got a program again they're back thanks to
tom and joanie that's
fascinating we'll be right back with the coach ladies and gentlemen now listen
i'm gonna uh
if you don't mind i'd like to ask you uh some basic dumb guy questions i never
played professional
football no i'm the dumb guy uh how many players uh suit up uh every time you
guys practice after the
season starts you practice tuesday through uh what do you practice we practice
uh wednesday through saturday
wednesday through saturday 61 guys 61 guys how many do you dress for each game
46 46 and what are the other
guys do that don't get dressed they uh they get dressed but just not in
football uniforms they have
sweatsuits and things like that okay all right all right good
uh and and and uh uh uh plays can can anybody come to you and say hey coach i
thought of a play
no we discourage that really joe we let joe every now and then call a play you
know he was here the
other night he's a pretty good guy now in this guy i have some concerns about
that what that you're
involved with his contract negotiation somehow i'm handling it yes i am you and
i will be talking later
uh but but where did the plays come from the plays come from uh they come from
the coaches they come from
the press box jim caldwell calls the plays on offense and dean pease on defense
the players
do have some input ray lewis every now and then changes the play we allow that
and what was your
relationship like with ray lewis were you scared of him right absolutely petrified
now uh you have an
offensive coordinator you have a defensive coordinator all right what what do
you do i i i i get real
nervous you know i get nervous and i sweat a lot but now do you go to practice
and everybody says hey
coach and then you got them running laps and then what happens uh well then we
blow like you said you
blow a whistle and you kind of like that you say you know you kind of point a
little bit and act like
you know what you're doing but now kind of like you do it yeah but honestly say
uh your wife or your
sister i had a dream about a play and they write it down and they that couldn't
happen it could happen
actually i mean we would we're always has it ever happened no it never has but
it could hypothetically
but now how many plays do you guys go through in a season how many plays and do
you have the same
plays every other team has we like to think that we have better plays than most
teams but it doesn't
always work out that way we probably have hundreds of plays hundreds of plays
and do do the players
dictate the kind of plays you have they do you try to build your plays around
your players ability
and talents you work with the talent whatever the talent brings how many trick
plays do you have we
have a few trick plays what are what are the trick i can't share those with you
we tried a trick play in
the game it was a fake field goal now that that to me it although he did not
score it was not a failure
thank you i've been brilliant strategist
i agree with that because yet again the niners found themselves in deep deep
deep territory it had
to do with field position thank you very much now uh did you score much on the
fake field goal during
the season we did we scored a touchdown on a fake field goal against the raiders
in the middle of the
season now what is what about the officiating toward the end of the game your
brother was questioning
whether those calls had been uh reasonable did you he did yeah he does that at
times yeah
most of the fans know that you thought they were okay i thought they were well
i thought the ones
that some of them were and then other ones i had a problem with the ones
against us i wasn't as happy
with now what what about this uh rule and i'll get this wrong after a safety
there's a free kick
and possibly it could have scored they could have scored that way right but
they were too far away
right was it was that ever going to be a factor well there's a little known
rule that that you can
actually fair catch a punt right and kick a field goal from that exact spot if
you like that's what
it is yeah yeah so the time to do it would be the end of the game it would be
the winning points
and there were a couple people on my sideline that and i guess on tv too that
had a concern when we
were punting the safety and then we were only up by three points right that if
we did that and we
kicked a short punt that they would be able to do that but it turned out it
would have been
as it ended up a 90-yard field goal yeah he kicked it down to the 20-yard line
thank goodness sam cook
so what are you going to do now uh hunting fishing no we're going to go to back
to football it never
ends when will you talk to your brother i'm hoping sometime you know soon we
actually we have meetings
coming up we have a combine in two weeks is there animosity here no no you know
what there is is he
feeling bad as if you need to reach out to him he's playing golf today playing
golf yeah he no there's
no consolation there's no way that you console your brother right anybody that
has a brother knows that
you don't console your brother doesn't work uh not having a brother i have two
sisters uh and it was
unlikely that any of us would have coached the super bowl game so i don't know
what this is i don't
know what this is do you wake up thinking oh thank god i beat him or oh i won
but oh too bad i just
don't know what that is you know what you do wake up thinking thank god i beat
him you do yes
it would have been a long life you know ladies and gentlemen here he is from
your baltimore raisins
ravens super bowl champion head coach john harbaugh nice meeting you john thank
you very much

John Harbaugh vs. Jim Harbaugh | David Letterman

how you feeling pretty good i guess i'm feeling pretty good parade go well in
baltimore the
parade was good we had people trying to climb into the stadium after we locked
the gates that's
baltimore there you go fantastic uh you know so much has been uh written and
spoken and discussed
not just in the super bowl but you and your brother had coaches uh i was
interested to read
about your parents uh your mother's name is jackie right father's name is jack
right now tell
it worked out well tell us about jack he was he was a football still is a
football guy but i mean
he was really dedicated committed to being a football guy wasn't he yeah he's a
ball coach
you know we grew up around it that's what we did we had a chance to uh to run
around it with his teams
and get stuffed in lockers and tape the goal posts and that's what all the
coaches kids did you know
how many how many teams did he work with oh maybe maybe 12 14 over the years
mostly the main thing
was when we were growing up we were at michigan and that was in the 70s and jim
ended up playing
for michigan so you know that worked out well also and and your your dad was
part of the coaching staff
that won the uh big 10 championship is that right yeah they won a few what year
was that that he
won his i really don't remember you know it's maybe 73 they won 76 i think they
won they won a few so
this guy is all business then isn't he yeah well he wanted he was at western kentucky
won a national
championship as a head coach later on and jim helped coach there yeah he was he
was kind of all business
and your your mom what what factor does she present in this equation she would
she raised us you know
dad was the football coach and mom was in charge of the kids you know and then
we'd get a little carried
away every now and then and mom would call dad you know and dad would come
would come in did daddy like
eat dinner with a whistle and he did always have a yeah it's always all right
kids do some sprints
around the house but now uh you and your brother jim you're the older right uh
what was that relationship
like was it was it uh oh we just it was peaches and cream that's right very
nurturing we we spent
a lot of time together uh supporting one another look at the cute kids right
there there we go which
one's you which one's your brother uh that i'm the bigger one there uh-huh that
changed since
you're about a year and i've got the smile and he's got the scowl see it
and here's mom and dad this is great now this is america we're looking at right
there that's right
that was about 65 yeah
your mother is a lovely woman thank you very much uh and and so uh uh he was
the better athlete you
were the better student is that how it breaks out that's that's kind of the
storyline right now you
know i don't i don't know there were times when i was the better athlete but it
ended up kind of
going that way you played some college ball the university of miami right right
about that mid-american
conference school you're familiar with that conference i certainly am ball
state that's right
and uh university of miami ohio beautiful beautiful campus there and they've
turned out some pretty
good football players haven't they football players and football coaches the
cradle of coaches it's
called aripar siegen john pont bo schembuchler woody hayes oil boil boy how
about that now um
were you happy with the game the way things went i like the way it turned out
yeah that was good
it started well it finished well there was that little thing in the middle that
was a little
distracting i think we have some videotape here this is i believe you during
the the blackout who are
you talking to there uh that's that's mike kentzel with the nfl and what is the
issue well there was
a concern about the restaurants after the game new one's got a lot of great
restaurants dave we weren't
sure about where to go that's pretty good that's and one more thing hey listen
i'm not hey i'm not done
with you you know that guy he knows you but what was the point of the
conversation this this is during
the blackout and you're saying they should call the game it's over we're ahead
exactly right it's like
it's like baseball you know you get your four and a half innings and it's
halfway through it's we're done
it's an official game it's in the books thank you we were good uh did that did
that have any
to do with the the 49ers surge in the second half you know i'll tell you that
was not surprising and
just the longer i sat over there maybe that's why that kind of happened but the
longer i stood over
there knowing jim knowing the kind of competitor he is the type of team they
had you could just feel
like they were going to make a comeback and you just knew it was going to be
tough that's the way
it was that's the way it was their whole life growing up what what didn't
surprise me and what
little i knew about the niners but the one thing is their quarterback was
starting his 10th game a
10th or 11th game right i mean that's crazy that his 11th game 10th game is the
super bowl for god's
sake so you can understand why they'd find themselves down uh 28-6 at that
point well i'll tell you they
came roaring back and colin kaepernick's amazing he made a he made all kind of
plays throwing in
and running uh they just have a tough hard-nosed team i mean there was no way
that they were gonna
they were gonna wilt i think they got their they kind of got their second wind
what uh did you say
to your brother after the game what did he say to you i told him that i told
him i loved him you
know good game and uh and he said congratulations right you know i'm proud of
you have you spoken
to him since i have not we have not had a conversation we will soon
i i i mean i guess unless you're in that position you don't really know what it
is but what was it it's
your brother do you are you able to dismiss that is it meaningless once the
game starts
uh yeah it kind of is i mean you look you look across the field you see him and
you kind of see
what he's doing over there and you kind of say hey now the time i didn't really
have a problem with
looking him on the on the other sideline that seemed normal to me when i looked
out there and
saw him in the other huddle in their huddle when they were getting ready to run
a play
that seemed that seemed like jim that wasn't surprising uh i was i was told now
i'm not sure
where i heard this information but your your folks watched with the
commissioner the nfl commissioner
right uh the game at the superdome there and that it was absolutely they did
not say a word through the
whole game they had a great week and then kickoff happened yeah and it was all
downhill from there
right so uh did you ever get a sense growing up that there was favoritism one
to the other were
were you the favorite was was jim the favorite did you ever i felt like jim was
the favorite pretty
much our whole i did i did jim felt like he was a favorite but in truth joanie
our sister she was
truly the favorite she was the little baby girl joanie joanie now where does
she coach she
interesting you asked yeah she is uh she's married to tom cream the basketball
coach in indiana
you probably know and indiana they got a program again they're back thanks to
tom and joanie that's
fascinating we'll be right back with the coach ladies and gentlemen now listen
i'm gonna uh
if you don't mind i'd like to ask you uh some basic dumb guy questions i never
played professional
football no i'm the dumb guy uh how many players uh suit up uh every time you
guys practice after the
season starts you practice tuesday through uh what do you practice we practice
uh wednesday through saturday
wednesday through saturday 61 guys 61 guys how many do you dress for each game
46 46 and what are the other
guys do that don't get dressed they uh they get dressed but just not in
football uniforms they have
sweatsuits and things like that okay all right all right good
uh and and and uh uh uh plays can can anybody come to you and say hey coach i
thought of a play
no we discourage that really joe we let joe every now and then call a play you
know he was here the
other night he's a pretty good guy now in this guy i have some concerns about
that what that you're
involved with his contract negotiation somehow i'm handling it yes i am you and
i will be talking later
uh but but where did the plays come from the plays come from uh they come from
the coaches they come from
the press box jim caldwell calls the plays on offense and dean pease on defense
the players
do have some input ray lewis every now and then changes the play we allow that
and what was your
relationship like with ray lewis were you scared of him right absolutely petrified
now uh you have an
offensive coordinator you have a defensive coordinator all right what what do
you do i i i i get real
nervous you know i get nervous and i sweat a lot but now do you go to practice
and everybody says hey
coach and then you got them running laps and then what happens uh well then we
blow like you said you
blow a whistle and you kind of like that you say you know you kind of point a
little bit and act like
you know what you're doing but now kind of like you do it yeah but honestly say
uh your wife or your
sister i had a dream about a play and they write it down and they that couldn't
happen it could happen
actually i mean we would we're always has it ever happened no it never has but
it could hypothetically
but now how many plays do you guys go through in a season how many plays and do
you have the same
plays every other team has we like to think that we have better plays than most
teams but it doesn't
always work out that way we probably have hundreds of plays hundreds of plays
and do do the players
dictate the kind of plays you have they do you try to build your plays around
your players ability
and talents you work with the talent whatever the talent brings how many trick
plays do you have we
have a few trick plays what are what are the trick i can't share those with you
we tried a trick play in
the game it was a fake field goal now that that to me it although he did not
score it was not a failure
thank you i've been brilliant strategist
i agree with that because yet again the niners found themselves in deep deep
deep territory it had
to do with field position thank you very much now uh did you score much on the
fake field goal during
the season we did we scored a touchdown on a fake field goal against the raiders
in the middle of the
season now what is what about the officiating toward the end of the game your
brother was questioning
whether those calls had been uh reasonable did you he did yeah he does that at
times yeah
most of the fans know that you thought they were okay i thought they were well
i thought the ones
that some of them were and then other ones i had a problem with the ones
against us i wasn't as happy
with now what what about this uh rule and i'll get this wrong after a safety
there's a free kick
and possibly it could have scored they could have scored that way right but
they were too far away
right was it was that ever going to be a factor well there's a little known
rule that that you can
actually fair catch a punt right and kick a field goal from that exact spot if
you like that's what
it is yeah yeah so the time to do it would be the end of the game it would be
the winning points
and there were a couple people on my sideline that and i guess on tv too that
had a concern when we
were punting the safety and then we were only up by three points right that if
we did that and we
kicked a short punt that they would be able to do that but it turned out it
would have been
as it ended up a 90-yard field goal yeah he kicked it down to the 20-yard line
thank goodness sam cook
so what are you going to do now uh hunting fishing no we're going to go to back
to football it never
ends when will you talk to your brother i'm hoping sometime you know soon we
actually we have meetings
coming up