Tuesday, May 21, 2013 | 5:35 a.m.
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Posted: 10:06 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013
By Nick Gholson, AP Sports Editor
AP and KTVU.com
I'm all for seeing the Super Bowl version of Family Feud. Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh. Jim vs. John.
Brother vs. brother.
And with Jim's son, Jay, now working as an intern for his Uncle John, there could even be a bit of a father-son sidebar to this pro football story.
But for this to happen, both Jim Harbaugh's 49ers and John Harbaugh's Ravens will have to win conference championship games today.
A year ago, we were in this same position, but both brothers came up empty — each falling three points short of playing on the NFL's Super stage.
That won't happen this year. But neither will an All-Harbaugh Super Bowl.
Jim, will get there. John won't. The 49ers are the best team in the NFL right now, and Jim Harbaugh is the main reason why.
San Francisco was 6-10 in 2010, but Harbaugh has turned that into 13-3 and 11-4-1 and two straight appearances in the NFC Championship Game.
In his first draft as an NFL head coach, Harbaugh traded up nine spots in the second round to get quarterback Colin Kaepernick out of the University of Nevada.
Then in the middle of this season, when Alex Smith was healthy and ready to come back from a concussion, Harbaugh kept him on the bench and kept Kaepernick in the starting lineup.
Last week, the young quarterback proved his coach right by running for 181 yards — more than any NFL quarterback in any game ever played — and upstaged Aaron Rodgers and the Packers 45-31.
Kaepernick is a child of destiny.
Even though Atlanta's 13-3 record was the best in the NFC this season and despite being 7-1 at home, the Falcons are a 4-point home underdog today against the Niners.
Atlanta is the most unloved team in the league. There is something I just don't like about the Falcons, but I don't know what that is.
So even though San Francisco has not won three games in a row this year and hasn't won a road playoff game in 24 years, I still like the Niners in this one.
Not only do they have Kaepernick, they also have the third best defense in the NFL this year.
The other three Super Bowl contenders didn't have a defense ranked in the top half of the league. Atlanta was 24th, New England was 25th and Baltimore was 17th.
Jim Harbaugh, who is 26-8-1 in his two seasons as an NFL head coach, will make it to the Super Bowl.
John Harbaugh, 15 months older than his little brother, has a 61-30 record as Baltimore's head coach and has the Ravens in the AFC Championship game for the third time in five years.
But he will be 0-3 in those games after today.
How the Ravens got here baffles me. They were a middle-of-the-road team both offensively and defensively during the regular season.
New England's defense isn't very good, but it won't have to be.
Don't ever bet against Tom Brady.
This is the sixth time in 12 years that Tom Brady has quarterbacked his team to the conference championship game. And he has won five of those, including a 23-20 victory over the Ravens last year.
John Harbaugh's team will play New England tough again today, but I just can't see Baltimore beating Tom Brady.
So I'm picking a 49ers-Patriots Super Bowl.
The best team in the NFL vs. the best quarterback.
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