
Editor's note: The above video is from Dec. 29, 2014.
SANTA CLARA -- Coach Jim Harbaugh will be 2,400 miles away on Sunday when his former team, the 49ers, face his brother’s team, the Baltimore Ravens.
Nobody will refer to the game at Levi’s Stadium as the “Har-bowl,” the widely used tag used for Super Bowl XLVII, when John Harbaugh’s team emerged with a 34-31 victory over the 49ers to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
After four seasons as head coach, Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers “mutually parted ways" -- though Harbaugh later said there was nothing mutual about the parting.
But Jim Harbaugh and his family have moved on, John Harbaugh told Bay Area reporters on Wednesday in a conference call.
“Jim loved his time there,” the Ravens coach said. “He loved the players, loved the fans, loved being a 49er. And they had four great years and everybody moves on to the next thing in life.
[MAIOCCO: 49ers, Ravens undergo roster makeovers since Super Bowl]
San Francisco 49ers
Find the latest San Francisco 49ers news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
“Once you realize all that, it’s bigger than worrying about anything besides that. That’s how he feels about it. He’s great about it. And if he feels great about it, I feel great about it for him. Other than that, I’m not involved in that at all -- never was.”
The 49ers advanced to three NFC Championship games and a Super Bowl in Jim Harbaugh’s first three seasons. The 49ers fell out of contention last season with a four-game losing streak and finished with an 8-8 record. His relationship with ownership and management soured, leading CEO Jed York and general manager Trent Baalke to ultimately hire former defensive line coach Jim Tomsula to replace Harbaugh.
John Harbaugh said there is no added motivation going against the 49ers because of the messy separation with his brother.
“No, you don’t have time for that,” he said. “I knew there’d be a question. Good question. Fair question. Yeah, it’s too much to worry about and too much to prepare for. Too many things that we’re dealing with to even think about that stuff.
“That’s very much irrelevant to what we’re trying to accomplish. We got our hands full with what we’re trying to do as a football team to think about any of that stuff.”
While the 49ers (1-4) and Ravens (1-4) are both floundering and showing no signs of their recent Super Bowl pasts, Jim Harbaugh is experiencing his trademark ability to turn around a situation quickly at the University of Michigan.
After losing the opener at still-unbeaten Utah, Harbaugh’s Wolverines have reeled off five consecutive victories, including a 38-0 trouncing of then-No. 13 Northwestern. On the eve of the 49ers-Ravens game, Michigan, now ranked 12th, will face No. 3 Michigan State.
“This last one against Northwestern, I can’t say they were going to win like that against a top-15 team,” John Harbaugh said. “So they’re doing good.”
John Harbaugh said there is no reason for him to reach out to his brother this week for any intelligence before facing the 49ers. After all, the 49ers' schemes on both sides of the ball have changed under new coordinators Geep Chryst and Eric Mangini.
“He’s busy. I’m busy. And, really, I don’t know what he could add to it that way,” John Harbaugh said. “We watch them on tape and we see the schemes and there’s really not too much we could learn that way.”
John Harbaugh went 2-0 in head-to-head matchups against his brother. In Jim’s first season as 49ers coach, his team traveled to Baltimore for a Thanksgiving night matchup that the Ravens won 16-6. Then, of course, the brothers were the main story all week leading up to the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
Obviously, John Harbaugh said this game feels different without the personal connection on the other sideline.
“I’m trying to find a way to answer that. And there’s only one way to answer that: Yes. It’s different,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s something you give too much thought to. We have a game against a good team. We got to travel all the way out to the west coast to play them in a hostile stadium. We got to be a better football team. We have to execute better in all three phases. We got to finish games.”