Jim Harbaugh is a skilled ninja in matters of annoyance.
That ability to get under people's skin was on shining display last week when Seattle Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner and wide receiver Golden Tate each expressed their desire to physically batter the San Francisco 49ers coach. Harbaugh had angered the men -- and added fuel to the burgeoning NFC West cold war -- when he told reporters he had "definitely noticed" the Seahawks' recent PED woes.
None of this behavior is new for Harbaugh. His brother, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, has spoken about a childhood short on long-term bonds for young Jim.
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"He would alienate the other kids, so I was really the only friend he had," John said in 2011, according to The Sacramento Bee. "We joke that dad's profession was the perfect profession for Jim, because after two years, he'd be like, 'It's time to move, dad. I've lost all my friends.'
"We were in Iowa one time and dad felt bad because we were leaving for Michigan," he went on." He tried to break it to us, and Jim goes, 'Just in time, dad. I just ran out of my last friend.'"
John recalled one baseball game in which Jim drilled a girl between the numbers because she was crowding the plate. That's almost cartoonish villainy!
The Bee story also included the recollections of a Comcast SportsNet Bay Area reporter who was a teammate of Jim on a high school basketball team in Palo Alto, Calif. After Harbaugh incited a fight in the game, spectators crashed the floor to get a piece of the man that would one day give wooden life advice at Bayside High.
Never change, Jimbo.
Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @DanHanzus.
