Harbaugh: ' We ' ll take over Washington, D. C. '

On Monday afternoon, I saw the following from WNST radio in Baltimore being tossed around on Twitter:

#Harbaugh says #Ravens want to "take control of #Washington #DC" fanbase. #Redskins

Naturally, that created quite a stir. Redskins fans generally don’t take kindly to talk of being taken over by invaders from the North. As I write this, the thread about this topic on Extremeskins is at 99 posts long and growing. The comment seemed a bit bold for John Harbaugh who is, by all accounts, as classy as they come. So I got in touch with John Eisenberg who does a fine job of covering the Ravens for CSNbaltimore.com to get some context for the story. John told me that this came up in response to questions about the possibility that Harbaugh getting a contract extension soon. The coach talked about how excited he was about the future of the team and then, as John put it, “he kind of got into his Buzz Lightyear ‘to infinity and beyond’ mode” and got more excited as he spoke. Here is the full quote from Harbaugh so that you can get the context:

I’m looking forward to a lot of things in the offseason I’m excited about being here. I really am grateful and appreciative to be the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens; to be associated with Baltimore football. Now three years here, being part of this fan base, it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I love the Baltimore Raven fans. We’re reaching out and trying to get more. We’re trying to take control of this whole area. We’ll take over Washington DC while we’re at it. And head up into Pennsylvania and grab all those fans, and over to West Virginia and Virginia. Come on and be a Baltimore Raven fan because this is an exciting organization and exciting football team.

If you ask me, it sounds more like Howard Dean after the Iowa caucuses in 2004 than Buzz Lightyear, but it seems to be rather harmless in any case.