‘Enthusiasm unknown to mankind’: How the Harbaugh family mantra began

While their sons add another chapter to their unmatched slice of NFL history, Jack and Jackie Harbaugh will be tuned in from across the country. When that ball left the kicker’s foot — if I close my eyes I can still see it — that ball’s rolling end over end, higher and higher, and then it’s coming down and all at once I’m realizing, ‘Oh my goodness, there’s going to be a winner and there’s going to be a loser.’ The rest of the game, we were like zombies.” The parents were watching from a suite with Roger Goodell, and at one point Jackie leaned over to the commissioner and said, “Is there any way this can end in a tie?” John Harbaugh said that he would welcome having his parents at Monday night’s game, while he and his brother are focused on what’s happening on the field. “If my parents were there it would be good, but it’s too complicated because this game is really important,” John said. “We walked into the stadium where the seats are so high up you can’t tell if they’re playing football or ice hockey down there,” Jack said. “That ‘enthusiasm unknown to mankind?’ It’s real,” he said, invoking a family mantra.