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Having Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh As Rivals Again Is What Football Is All About
(Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)

Coke and Pepsi. Ali and Frazier. Borg and McEnroe. There are certain individuals and organizations that make each other better by the sheer will of their competitive spirits. The Beatles probably wouldn't have gone as all-out as they did to make Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band what it was were they not transformed by what Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys had done with Pet Sounds

In the NFL, the last true coaching rivalry we saw like this was the one between Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh from 2011 through 2014, when Carroll was the Seattle Seahawks' head coach, and Harbaugh took that role with the San Francisco 49ers. The two had already had their battles in the Pac-10 when Carroll was at USC and Harbaugh was at Stanford, so the elevation just seemed like the perfect thing to happen. 

Which it was. And now, with the Friday news that Carroll is signing a three-year contract to be the new head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, we get the three-peat of two coaching giants going at it with everything they've got. Harbaugh, of course, has a year's head start as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, which he took right around the time that Carroll's Seahawks tenure was ending after the 2023 NFL season.

From "What's your deal, man?" to 'DON'T YOU EVER TALK ABOUT ME!!!," Carroll's and Harbaugh's teams have always brought out the best (and at times the weirdest) in each other. And now, we have that again. 

During last year's Super Bowl week in Las Vegas, I was able to ask Harbaugh about how he and Carroll had that unique relationship, and how it developed. 

"As tough a competitor as anybody has gone against, I can say with 100% certainty," Harbaugh said of his greatest rival. "I've not competed against anybody tougher than Pete Carroll. He's just a tough person, he builds tough teams, and demands that it pulls it out of you. I mean, you gotta bring your A-game, you gotta compete like, you know, it's in a life or death type of way when you're going against him.

"So, nothing but love and respect for Pete Carroll, and appreciation for, you know, bringing that, he can bring out the best in you, and I felt like that's what those games did, you know, whether it was USC-Stanford, or 49ers-Seahawks."

And when the Seahawks selected Michigan center Olusegun Oluwatimi in the fifth round of the 2023 draft out of Michigan — Carroll's last draft in Seattle — Carroll was quick to praise how well the prospect has picked things up under Harbaugh's leadership with the Wolverines. 

“There’s nothing that we’re doing that he hasn’t done," Carroll said. "Coach Harbaugh’s got a great background in running the football in particular. His guys that come out of there, they’re equipped, they’re well-prepared.”

So, there has been some sneaky love and respect coming out between the two in recent times. That's lovely, but when the Raiders and Chargers face off in the 2024 season and beyond, expect the battles to be as pitched as they always have been.

Because Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh just make each other better, and they only know one way to do it. 

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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