This year will be an unusual Thanksgiving in the Harbaugh household.
For one thing, Jim's 49ers are playing the Seahawks on Thursday night, so the family will have to find another time to sit down for a meal. And when Jim, his wife, Sarah, and their three young children do enjoy their Thanksgiving feast, one key dish will be missing.
Harbaugh revealed this week that, after seeing a somewhat distressing clip during Sunday Night Football, he and his wife are considering alternates to turkey. The clip in question was used during a stoppage in the game, and it was meant as a lighthearted way to incorporate turkeys into the broadcast.
But, as evidenced by the Harbaugh family, the clip backfired.
At the end of the clip you can even hear broadcaster Cris Collinsworth let out a disapproving groan after Al Michaels' morbid joke.
"We were watching the Sunday Night Football game," Harbaugh told reporters this week. "We were planning on having turkey, but then they showed this piece where they were showing all the turkeys and everything and my son Jack and Katie and Addie, 'Look at the turkeys. Look at all the turkeys there.' And they were getting excited looking at the turkeys."
The children Harbaugh mentions are all under 7 years old, so you know this story won't end well.
"And then the next shot was they had loaded the turkeys onto a truck and they were driving them away and the kids were like, 'Where are they going?'," Harbaugh said. "And we kind of thought maybe we won't have turkey this year for Thanksgiving. So, we're in discussion on that. We'll have some tofu or something."
This may mean Harbaugh will have to come up with a new catchphrase if anyone asks him about the confidence of his quarterback, as a reporter did following one of Alex Smith's strong performances in 2012.