Harbaugh still connected to Super Bowl three years after leading 49ers there

TORONTO – Jim Harbaugh is going to wait to pick a favourite when Denver and Carolina face off Sunday in Super Bowl 50. After all, he has ties to both teams.

Without pausing, the Michigan head coach can rattle off a half dozen people he knows personally that will be involved in the big game in Santa Clara, Calif.

There’s Denver tight end Vernon Davis and Carolina safety Colin Jones, who played for Harbaugh whe he coached the San Francisco 49ers. Panthers head coach Ron Rivera was a teammate of Harbaugh’s during the former quarterback’s playing days with the Chicago Bears.

“You watch it and you see which team’s playing harder, and that’s the one I root for,” Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh himself appeared in the Super Bowl in 2013. The 49ers were defeated 34-31 by the Baltimore Ravens, led by Harbaugh’s brother John.

While Harbaugh has since left the NFL and returned to Michigan, his alma mater, he will still be involved tangentially with Super Bowl 50.

An advocate for water conservation, Harbaugh has teamed with Colgate-Palmolive on an initiative to get people to turn off the faucet while brushing their teeth. The campaign includes a 30-second commercial that will air during the Super Bowl near the two-minute warning of the first half.

“The amount of water required to brush your teeth is a quarter or a half bottle of water, not four gallons which all of us use if we leave the water running,” Harbaugh said. “Trillions of gallons could be saved if everyone did that.”

The serious tone of the ad will contrast with other planned commercials for Super Bowl 50, which includes one where Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler serenades a portrait of himself made up of Skittles and another where people dressed up like ketchup bottles frolic in a field with wiener dogs.

“I think it’ll be a good thing to actually get to have awareness for a topic, and a strategy to implement,” Harbaugh said.