NEW ORLEANS –Jim and John Harbaugh (alphabetical order) are on the verge of coaching the biggest game of their respective careers. The Super Bowl is an iconic event. It determines legacies. When Sunday’s game ends, one will experience ultimate bliss, the other will feel like they swallowed a grenade.

So what were these two doing Friday? Sharing a stage. Holding a joint news conference. Laughing, telling stories. You know, just like Lombardi and Halas would’ve done back in the day.

It was less a news conference than it was a Harbaugh family picnic Friday. I kept waiting for a three-legged race to break out. Mom, dad, Grandpa Joe, uncle, cousin Chad, they all were in attendance. I guess Checkers the dog couldn’t make the trip.

This was the first time the Super Bowl’s head coaches are brothers so the NFL figured: Why not the joint news conference? At least they won’t punch each other (although that would’ve been funny).

So there was the polished, cerebral older brother John, looking sharp in a suit, and his slightly spacey, less worldly brother, Jim, in a 49ers sweatshirt and hat, looking like he was preparing for a Fantasy League draft. They fielded questions almost exclusively about themselves and family. (We learned the Harbaugh boys once made a hockey net out of chicken wire and then shot out all the windows on the garage door? Mom wasn’t happy that day.)

Just wondering how a Dan Reeves-Mike Shanahan joint news conference would’ve gone in 1998? (They share a warm embrace, then Reeves says: “Mike, while you’re back there, can you pull out the knife?) Maybe Tom Landry and Chuck Noll swap stories. Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin used to work on the same staff, but would you put them in the same room this week?

Jim said this week of John: “I’m half the coach that he is but I’m trying.”

John’s response: “He’s just trying to soften me up. I know how he operates. He’s a great coach. I’m proud of Jim.”

Noogies all around.

I remember Super Bowl XIX when somebody asked Don Shula during the week if he had learned anything from watching Bill Walsh’s offense. Flames shot out of Shula’s ears.

OK. It is a cool story. They’re the sons of a long-time college coach, Jack Harbaugh. Jim was the better athlete, the former NFL quarterback. John was the more book-smart of the two, the potential lawyer. Both wound up in coaching. Until they faced each other last season on Thanksgiving – Baltimore beat San Francisco 16-6 – brothers never had coached against each other in an NFL game.

What doesn’t get talked about nearly enough: Both made radically unorthodox decisions this season that could have derailed their team’s season but instead propelled them to Sunday’s game.

John fired his offensive coordinator, Cam Cameron, when the Ravens were 9-4. (Family tie: Cameron also coached Jim at Michigan.) Jim benched starting quarterback Alex Smith, who had gone 19-5 as a regular season starter since last season and got the 49ers to the NFC title game last season. Smith was 6-2 this season when he suffered a concussion, sat on the bench for two weeks, then morphed in Wally Pipp as Harbaugh opted to ride with Colin Kaepernick.

Great head coaches excel at more than Xs and 0s. They know what buttons to push with players. They have nerve and instincts. These two have that. Consider the results: In five seasons (John 5, Jim 2), neither has ever missed the playoffs. They’ve gone to a combined five conference championship games (John 3, Jim 2) and now a Super Bowl.

That’s not just about having great players.

If they have one commonality, San Francisco offensive coordinator Greg Roman said, it’s that, “The root of each team starts with that Jack Harbaugh tough, hard-nosed, disciplined and smart football.”

John said the winning coach will not console the loser: “We’ll probably get a golf game going in the offseason [for] revenge.”

Jim attempted to diminish the brothers theme by quoting Shakespeare: “For he who sheds his blood with me today shall be my brother.”

Game day will be easier on them than their parents, Jack and Jackie, who watched the 2011 meeting on TV in a stadium office, out of public view. They may do the same Sunday.

“There are no emotions during the game,” Jack said. “Last year, it was emotionless. There wasn’t any cheering. It was just watching the game.”

Family fun for all soon will be fun for one.

From earlier today and Super Bowl week

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