Thursday, January 24, 2013

Domination Station

The Brothers' Grimm
By Caleb Musselman


This segment is dedicated each week to an athlete who dominated their sport that week

Photo Cred www.gamedayr.com
            A few times every decade, a pair of brothers make it to the professional level. In the NHL, the Staal family has defied the odds by taking the league by storm and placing four brothers at the highest level of competition. In the NBA, Marc and Pau Gasol made history by being the first pair of European brothers to not only play, but excel at the highest level. Now, all of these accomplishments are impressive, but in the NFL there stands a brother tandem that sets itself apart on the domination scale.


            Jim and John Harbaugh are the only logical choice for our first Domination Station. According to thesportsdigest.com, the odds of a high school senior varsity football player eventually being drafted into the NFL stands at .08%. A puny percentage compared to the plethora of self-identified all-stars across the nation who have dreams of professional stardom. Unfortunately for more than 99% of high school players, the varsity jacket and football will be traded for a suit jacket and desktop by the time they reach the age of RGIII.
Photo Cred www.fox59.com

             
          Now, try to get your mind around this. There are 53 players on each NFL team; however, each team has only one head coach. Thus, each high school varsity football player has roughly a 0.0015% chance of becoming a head coach. Obviously this is a rough calculation, however the point is not to be pin-point precise. The point is to show just how unbelievably unlikely it is for two brothers to become head coaches in the NFL.


            Now, you might be thinking, “what about the Ryan Brothers”? There is an enormous difference between two coaches making the league because of something their father did, and what the Harbaughs have done. Rex and Bobby have, in my opinion, displayed embarrassingly poor coaching skills in their respective jobs. On top of that, they have taken once thriving positions in NY and Dallas and made themselves the laughing stock of much of the league. This does not constitute brotherly domination. This constitutes two brothers who made it into the coaching sphere on the coattails of there father’s success.

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            Now back to the Harbaughs. Check out some of these numbers...John Harbaugh (age 50), just 5 years into his first coaching stint in Baltimore has a career record of 54-26. He has captured the AFC North 3 out of those 5 years, and possibly more impressive, he has won at least 1 playoff game in each of these 5 years.


            Jim Harbaugh (age 49), just 2 years into the NFL coaching realm has taken the league by storm. After dominating at Stanford for 4 years, James Joseph Harbaugh decided to take his talents to Candlestick. His first year he posted an average 13-3 record (sarcasm noted), and fell just one game short of the Super Bowl with an average quarterback (sorry Alex Smith). His second year, with a major quarterback change and a more competitive NFC West, Harbaugh led the 49ers to an 11-4-1 season. In case you don’t have a calculator handy, that makes for an amazing .750 winning percentage in his first two seasons in San Francisco. That’s domination.


            Clearly with these two brothers, winning is first priority. Now, this titanic matchup between the Brothers’ Grimm on February 3rd in Super Bowl XLVII promises to be one of the best Super Bowls in recent memory.
Photo Cred www.mirror.co.uk

            Will John play the big brother role and beat up on little Jimmy just like the old days? Or will Jimmy show he’s all grown up and extend the undefeated Super Bowl streak to 6 for San Francisco? One thing is clear, we are in for a wild ride. The Harbaughs have established themselves as arguably the best 1-2 coaching tandem in the NFL, and in case you forgot, they are pretty new to this. With only 7 years total experience between the two of them, the wins will continue to pile up and the Super Bowl rings will likely multiply. Expect the domination to continue for many years to come. Bring on the Harbowl baby. 

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