Team flag waves as 49ers arrive for Super Bowl
By By Barry Wilner
Topics: From the Wires, News
arrive at the Louis Armstrong International Airport for the NFL Super Bowl XLVII football game Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Pat Semansky)(Credit: Pat Semansky)NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Jim Harbaugh stepped to the podium, smirked a bit, and greeted his first news conference as a Super Bowl coach.
“We’re super happy to be here,” he said Sunday night as his NFC champion San Francisco 49ers arrived in the Big Easy for the big game.
“I think this team has the best focus on unity and winning I’ve ever been a part of.”
Considering that Harbaugh was an NFL quarterback for 14 seasons and a successful college coach before joining the 49ers, he knows something about winning.
Under Harbaugh, San Francisco has been to two NFC title games and, now, to its first Super Bowl in 18 years. The Niners (13-4-1) will play Baltimore (13-6), coached by Harbaugh’s older brother, John, in next Sunday’s Super Bowl.
He is certain his team is ready for the task as the 49ers seek their sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy; they are 5-0 in Super Bowls.
“These are uncharted waters for a rookie Super Bowl coach,” Harbaugh said. “But that’s exciting. It’s a great thrill, and we have a desire to be in uncharted waters. We always strive for that kind of challenge.”
Earlier in the evening, with a team flag waving from an open window of their chartered plane, the 49ers arrived in a businesslike manner. The players calmly walked off the airplane — no video recorders or cameras, no waves to onlookers.
Most of the team’s veteran players disembarked first, including center Jonathan Goodwin, who won a Super Bowl three years ago with the Saints.
“You get to go to the Super Bowl with your childhood team, so that’s something special to me,” he said. “So hopefully I can find a way to win the Super Bowl with my childhood team.”
Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, wearing a red wool cap sporting “49ers” on it, mouthed the words to a song on his headphones as he walked on the tarmac.
He seemed just as relaxed 90 minutes later as he met the media.
“Pressure comes from a lack of preparation,” said Kaepernick, who took over as the starter when Alex Smith got a concussion in November and has been sensational in keeping the job. “This is not a pressure situation. It’s a matter of going out and performing.”
Harbaugh said the 49ers came to New Orleans on Sunday to simulate a normal week. He likened their trip to his strategy the last two seasons when the 49ers spent a week in Youngstown, Ohio, between Eastern games rather than return to the Bay Area.
He liked the way the players and coaches bonded during that experience.
“Same approach,” Harbaugh said. “Enjoy the moment and the preparation. I think our team enjoys that the most: the meetings, the preparation and then, especially, the competition.”
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
Illinois' fracking and coal rush is a national crisis
-
Developers evict historic women's shelter to build luxury hotel
-
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship
-
DHS admits "impossible" to control 3D-printed guns
-
Journalists file suit against Manning trial secrecy
-
Russia: Syrian regime ready to talk peace
-
Report: Nearly a quarter of all Americans struggle to afford food
-
Ted Cruz against the world
-
Louie Gohmert: Women should be forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term
-
2 men arrested for endangering commercial aircraft
-
Oversized load blamed for bridge collapse
-
This is what Guy Fieri looks like as a balloon
-
Iran hackers aiming at U.S. energy firms
-
Lawyers release data in attempt to discredit Trayvon Martin
-
Anonymous rallies behind Kaitlyn Hunt
-
Bridge collapse: Part of "aging infrastructure"
-
Mistrial in penalty phase of Arias case
-
Amanda Bynes arrested after hurling bong from window
-
Interstate 5 bridge collapses north of Seattle
-
Mississippi could begin prosecuting women for miscarriages
-
Teenage girl claims she was beaten up for looking like Taylor Swift
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Judge tells lesbian couple to separate -- or lose kids
Irin Carmon
-
9-year-old slams Rahm over Chicago schools
Natasha Lennard
-
Greek yogurt, toxic waste hazard?
Kristen Gwynne, AlterNet
-
Tornado survivor to Wolf Blitzer: Sorry, I'm an atheist. I don't have to thank the Lord
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
Experts: Fox News spying scandal a game-changer
Natasha Lennard
-
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship
Katie Mcdonough
-
Glenn Beck: CNN interview with atheist tornado survivor was a setup!
Katie Mcdonough
-
Graphic video reportedly shows possible London machete attack suspect
Jillian Rayfield
-
Joe Francis apologizes for calling jury "retarded"
Prachi Gupta
-
Couple files groundbreaking lawsuit over child's sexual-reassignment surgery
Katie Mcdonough
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com

135 points136 points137 points | 12 comments

77 points78 points79 points | 21 comments
From Around the Web
Presented by Scribol
- US should help mediate territorial dispute between Taiwan and Philippines
- 'Black widow' suicide bomber injures 12 in Russia's Dagestan
- Pakistan school bus fire kills as many as 17 children
- Let them drink yogurt! Turkey's parliament tightens alcohol sale restrictions
- Bidders line up to buy online TV service Hulu


Comments
0 Comments