After landing in New Orleans, John Harbaugh took the mic and shared a few words with the press a day before Super Bowl XLVII's Media Day. In this brief Q&A, Harbaugh, the Baltimore Ravens head coach not to be confused for his brother Jim coaching the opposition San Francisco 49ers, expressed how Muhammad Ali became a symbol of respect for the two Super Bowl coaches were growing up.
John remembered his father Jack Harbaugh reminiscing on Ali's fight against Ernie Terrell as he was defending his Heavyweight title almost exactly 46 years ago in 1967. Around this time, the polemical Ali was fresh off a name change since he claimed Cassius Clay was his slave name. Reporters took a while to adjust to the name change and respecting Ali's decision, but Terrell refused to acknowledge the champ's new name.
The result, as Jack remembers clearly as he reenacted it for the Ravens over the summer, Ali completely punishing and briefly blinding Terrell from all the blows.
Here are the first couple of rounds. From the onset, Ali is too fast on offense and defense. You can tell the two are jawing off at each other as well. If anything, Ali was doing all the talking, but Terrell was repeatedly calling Ali "Cassius Clay" during press conferences and interviews, which prompted the champ to ask Terrell "What's my name?" during the fight.
Ali landed blow after blow and continued to ask "What's my name?" The fight went 15 rounds though it should have ended sooner, but Ali wanted to teach Terrell a lesson and this he did successfully by extending the fight as well as the punishment.
Eventually, after being disfigured, Terrell called Ali after his proper name.
The moral of the story? From the words of Jack, "Respect. You don't ask for it. You don't plead for it. You don't beg for it. You gotta go out and earn it."
It's what John asks his team in the huddle before handing them over to Ray Lewis on the field. The Ravens were close to winning the AFC Championship in 2011, but they fell short. This season, the theme for the team was "What's my name?"
They wanted the rest of the league and the NFL as a whole to respect them, but they knew that after coming so close, they would have to fight for their way to the Super Bowl.
Boom! They won the AFC North. Boom! They beat the Indianapolis Colts. Boom! Boom! They beat the No. 1 seeded Denver Broncos and No. 2 seeded New England Patriots.
For both Jim and John Harbaugh, respect is what they strive for and they will try to gain each other's and the rest of the NFL's respect after they meet in Super Bowl XLVII.
The winner will be champion of the NFL and only then would will they have bragging rights for an entire year.
You can join us tomorrow as we will bring you all the action from Media Day with live blogs and live streams of the action. There are still a few days left before the big game and Media Day is where all the press conferences are held before the players can focus on the actual matchup.
This will be one of the many interesting stories that will surface following Tuesday's press conferences.
