After 18 years coaching the fiercest rival of the Pittsburgh Steelers, John Harbaugh was fired by the Baltimore Ravens on Tuesday.
His last game as head coach in purple and black will go down as one of the most memorable games in the rivalry between the two franchises — a 26-24 loss by Harbaugh’s Ravens on a last-second missed field goal.
THE RAVENS KICK IS NO GOOD AND THE STEELERS ARE PLAYOFF-BOUND. pic.twitter.com/cIVq2TPKwp
— NFL (@NFL) January 5, 2026
It was a result that gave the AFC North crown to the Steelers and eliminated the Ravens from playoff contention at 8-9 to end a season that many thought would bring a third Super Bowl title to M&T Bank Stadium.
After six division titles, a 17-22 record against the Steelers and two wins in four tries against them in the playoffs, Harbaugh’s role in this historic battle has ended.
Harbaugh helped write many chapters of it. The Ravens became a franchise 30 years ago. He’s been there for 18 of them.
I probably should be feeling … more. Feeling something. Yeah … something more.
For all the heated contests between the Ravens and Steelers, the fan part of me that still exists somewhere deep inside rarely looked at the Baltimore sideline and growled, “I hate that guy.”
He came off as annoying sometimes. Petulant other times. Varying degrees of arrogant, smarmy and standoffish in between.
Harbaugh didn’t generate frothing at the mouth and gnashing of teeth. He usually inspired an eye roll and a heavy sigh.
Bill Belichick, John Madden, Don Shula, Tom Landry, Bill Walsh and Jerry Glanville — for various reasons of familiarity, jealousy, personality, style of coaching (or all of the above), I feel like those coaches elicited a much more gut-churning reaction.
But most of those guys either didn’t coach as long, win as much or face the Steelers as frequently as Harbaugh did.
Honestly, I find myself having a more visceral reaction to Harbaugh’s brother (Jim) in Los Angeles, or what I remember of Brian Billick when he preceded Harbaugh in Baltimore.
It seems like a lot of Steelers fans are on the same page with me.
After 18 seasons of coaching the Steelers biggest rival, John Harbaugh is out as Ravens head coach. As Steeler fans how will you remember him.
— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) January 7, 2026
What’s interesting about the poll is that (at the time of this post) “like/respect” got the most votes, but more than half the responses were in categories much less favorable than “like/respect.”
That kinda sums it up, doesn’t it?
Some of that is the nature of the sport. In college football, ask a Pitt fan why they hate Penn State, and the first name they’ll still grumble about is Joe Paterno.
He’s been dead for 13 years.
A longtime Ohio State fan is going to bring up Bo Schembechler before they bring up Desmond Howard. And any self-respecting Miami fan will curse Bobby Bowden’s name before Charlie Ward’s.
In the NFL, it’s players first. Blood boils in Steelers fans when they think of Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Joe Flacco and Terrell Suggs. Baltimore fans seethe at the thought of Troy Polamalu, Joey Porter, Hines Ward and Ben Roethlisberger.
The mutual disdain among fans of both clubs for Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin appears to be down the list.
I always got the vibe that Harbaugh was a little bit more bothered by Tomlin and the Steelers than the other way around. That’s probably because of the Jacoby Jones kick-return incident and the fact that Tomlin and the Steelers won more often and earlier in their respective careers, which only began a year apart.
Tomlin was in the second year of his Steelers tenure in 2008 when Harbaugh began in Baltimore. He already had one division title under his belt, then went through the Ravens en route to two Super Bowls (and one championship) before Harbaugh broke through in 2012.
There was a palpable sense from Baltimore over the years that — outside of their respective markets — Tomlin always got more credit for Pittsburgh’s success and less blame for the team’s failures than Harbaugh did.
They felt that way because — let’s be honest — it’s 100% true.
Then again, from afar, I always got the impression that folks in Baltimore were every bit as hard on Harbaugh as Pittsburghers are on Tomlin. For guys who have such similar track records, that’s understandable.
I’ve always believed that if both men posted exactly the same resumes in each other’s cities, Harbaugh would’ve gotten more love and protection in Pittsburgh than he got in Baltimore, and Tomlin would’ve received less criticism in Baltimore.
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Meanwhile, the national media and the other 30 fan bases would’ve likely perceived them exactly the same.
Then again, maybe Harbaugh doesn’t step right in and mesh with Roethlisberger as well as Tomlin did over his first five years. Maybe Tomlin doesn’t achieve quite as much quite as quickly if he’s got Flacco instead of Big Ben.
But he would’ve had that Baltimore defense, though. And we all know he would have drafted Lamar Jackson too.
So, who knows?
What I do know is that neither coach can tell their story without mentioning the other man, and neither franchise would resonate as deeply without the other team being as consistent as both have been during both of their runs through the first two decades of this century.
John Harbaugh didn’t “make” the Steelers rivalry, but he was part of making it even better than it was when he took over.
For that, he’ll forever have some level of love-hate status within the Steelers fan base.
When you think about it, for a division rival, that’s elite praise.
Happy trails, Harbaugh. You’ll be missed.
Unless you get hired by the Browns. If you end up in Cleveland, forget anything nice you just read.
