A year after his brother engaged in a confrontational postgame handshake in Detroit, Ravens coach John Harbaugh says there was nothing confrontational at all about his postgame handshake with Steelers coach Mike Tomlin on Sunday.
Many viewers thought the Harbaugh-Tomlin handshake appeared to include some tense words being exchanged, and was perhaps reminiscent of last season’s confrontation between 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh and Lions coach Jim Schwartz. But John Harbaugh said today that he was surprised to hear people thought he and Tomlin had an issue, because he said there was nothing unusual about it.
“Nothing uncomfortable at all,” John Harbaugh said Monday. “I thought Mike did a terrific job preparing his team. Obviously, they played very well, and I made a point to congratulate him on that. Hopefully he accepted that. It was all good.”
Harbaugh seemed surprised by a reporter’s question about dramatic encounters between coaches after games.
“I really don’t know about the handshake agendas,” Harbaugh said. “I felt fine about it. It was fine. I just wanted to make sure he knew that we congratulated him and that was it.”
And that’s that, until the next Tomlin-Harbaugh handshake. Which may take place in January, in a rematch in the playoffs.
