"Who's got it better than us? Nooooo-body."

Before and after every game that the resurgent San Francisco 49ers play, their first year head football coach, Jim Harbaugh, huddles up his players and leads them into a unified frenzy with a question from Harbaugh, "Who's got it better than us?" The lathered-up Niners reply thunderously, "Nooooooo-body." Kinda like the choir master using the pitch pipe in front of the chorus before the first note is sung.

In week one, asking the question "who's got it better than us?" to a dispirited team going on 8 straight losing seasons was a stretch for the Niners. The players in toto didn't believe in Harbaugh's perceived collegiate naivete. However, miraculously, after week ten, the answer to the question "Noooooo-body" (except for maybe the Green Bay Packers) is not only gaining more traction in the 8-1 49ers locker room but the rest of the National Football League is quickly taking notice.

The 49er pasties of the past are long gone and there is a new tone in the City by the Bay. Lots of bass and less treble. More drums. Less violins. Thanks to their hard-core coach and unique maestro, Jim Harbaugh, the 49ers are winning again and replacing the iconic City love song I Left My Heart In San Francisco with an updated heavy metal ear-blaster for all NFL teams to considerWe Kicked Your Ass in San Francisco.

And just who is this new national NFL figure Jim Harbaugh? Jim is the son of a career football coach, Jack Harbaugh, and Jackie, his mother. Jim was the star quarterback and scholastic All-American at the University of Michigan under Coach Bo Schembechler in the mid-'80s, first round draft pick of the Chicago Bears in 1987, 14 year pro in the NFL, assistant coach for Western Kentucky University and the Oakland Raiders, head coach at University of San Diego and Stanford University, a father of five kids and now the head football coach for the San Francisco 49ers.

Professionally, Jim Harbaugh has transformed somnolent football programs into winners in short order wherever he plied his trade. His upbringing in a football-oriented family culture, his Dad, and, his brother, John, head football coach of the Baltimore Ravens, has prepared him well for success in his chosen field. He believes mightily in himself and of the lessons he's learned along the way to the point of obnoxious self-assuredness. But in this harsh sports world measured only by wins and losses, he wins more than he loses and his sins and shortcomings are easily ameliorated by his employer to the delight of his growing legion of fans.

While Jim was a young boy, he and his family moved around the country alot for his Dad's work. In a span of 20 years, Coach Jack Harbaugh labored at seven different geographic posts in the football world. Moving a family hither thither and yon for work is part of the coach's job description. You either embrace that or you find another calling. For family Harbaugh there was no other calling. Football was the lifeblood for the family. They embraced football, therefore, they embraced moving.

Everytime the Harbaugh's would leave one post and head to the next, paterfamilias Jack stationed behind the wheel of his roomy Oldsmobile, would scream at his enraptured three kids in the back seat, "Who's got it better than us?" On cue, the adoring kids would scream back, "Nooooo-body", to the glee of the father, mother Harbaugh. Little did young Jimmy know that this routine "q and a" from his revered Dad would become the battle cry for every stop along the way in his own coaching journey. Or, just maybe he knew all the while...and filed this priceless memory of his youth in his playbook for what lay ahead.

Next week on Thanksgiving Day, football history will be made. On Thursday, Jim's 49ers play big brother John's Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore. In the NFL's storied 90 year history, two brothers have never faced each other in an a game as opposing head coaches. It will be a historic game for us to witness as fans, for them to experience as brothers and for Jack and Jackie to fret and anguish over.

It certainly appears that the little 'h'arbaugh apples do not fall far from the aging 'H'arbaugh tree. Simply, they continue to answer their own repetitive generational family question, "who's got it better than us? Noooooo-body."