Last night history was made. On Thanksgiving Thursday, 2011, two brothers coached against each other. That’s not historic, plenty of brothers have coached against each other, sure, but this is the first time those brothers were standing on opposing NFL sidelines. The league-leading
Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers (appropriately tied for second before last night), coached by John and Jim Harbaugh respectively, played a juggernaut of a football game last night. As my wife said, they were like two evenly-matched competitors in an arm-wrestling match, the result being intensity rarely seen and epitomized by both arms hardly moving.
The phenomenon of great brothers is one near and dear to my heart – my brother and I are both very close and both aspire to greatness. Thus this, our second blog; thus all the ideas we’ve hatched to start our own companies, discover successes. We know that neither of us would be content with success if our brother didn’t achieve something similar. But what is it that propels not just one but two or more men within one family – two men sharing the same parents, upbringing, life – to achieve fame, fortune, success against the odds that keep most men average and plain? Certainly a big part of it must be the parents, not only their stock but their upbringing – evidence is found in the fact that Jim and John’s father, Jack, is a lifetime coach who no doubt filled their childhoods with talk about various defenses and offenses, how to recruit, how to see the game on the macro and micro scale, shared lore of the legends in the trade, and made them practice half-time speeches at the dinner table. But another element is that brothers have that bond of brotherhood which allows one to lift the other and vice versa. It essentially gives each one and a half times as much a chance for achieving greatness, an eternal corner man who knows that when their time comes to fight the roles will gladly be switched. As such, let’s look at just a few modern brothers who have recently shaped and/or are shaping various aspects of our wide world this very minute:
The Auteurs
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| Geniuses of the Modern Era |
The Coen Brothers – Ethan and Joel Coen, those brilliant, twisted, and weird brothers who have penned and directed some of the finest films of their generation. From RAISING ARIZONA to FARGO to THE BIG LEBOWSKI to their Oscar-winning NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN to a successful remake of a John Wayne classic, they are the creative team that all Hollywood creative teams aspire to be. Their versatility – going from comedies to horrors to dramas to dramedies with such flair, skill and definite style is a skill few in Hollywood can emulate. Even though they used to have to split billing (Hollywood had rules against co-directing credits – yes, Hollywood, the kid who pretends he’s cool and artistic when really he’s rigid and regimented) they’ve seen every element of every project together and it is this relationship that has made them so successful.
The Quarterbacks
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| Peyton, Eli, and pops |
Peyton and Eli Manning – Peyton is considered by most to be one of the greatest of all-time (as evidenced by the Indy Colts being dead last in the league now that he’s out). So when Eli, who is notably not as consistent and automatic as his older brother, started out it looked like he would always be the “other Manning”. Then he led his Giants to a Super Bowl victory over the undefeated Patriots. Now, with Peyton’s career possibly over due to injury, and with Eli seemingly getting better every game, there’s a possibility that the lesser brother may overcome his “better” older brother in the record books.
The Surfer Bros
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| Clean Andy, Wild Bruce |
Andy and Bruce Irons – Andy’s the surfer who temporarily replaced Kelly Slater, a big-wave charger from Hawaii whose loose and unpredictable style quickly bettered Slater’s automatic wave rides. Bruce came out and went for something different – instead of pushing forward with comps like big bro, he left the tour to concentrate on surfing big waves with heavy steez and big airs, getting his own superstar movie while Bruce collected world championships like pre-hooker Tiger Woods. And their parties at the Volcom house in Hawaii are legendary. Andy died last year, though, and it’ll be interesting if Bruce tries to step forward and fill in for his brother, competition being something it seems like he'll never pursue again – because Kelly’s taken pro surfing back.
The Power Players
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| The Politico on the Agent's Back |
Ari and Rahm Emmanuel – One’s the only talent agent whose name most people outside Hollywood know, thanks to his doppelganger “Ari Gold” in Entourage. The other was Obama’s first Chief of Staff and is currently the mayor of Chicago. With one practically running Hollywood (as head of tied-for-first-place super-agency
WME) and the other on his way to leading the free world, look for these guys to go on to define the world.
The L.A. Businessmen
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| Sam, Alec, and Tom Gores |
Alec, Tom, and Sam Gores – Perhaps you haven’t heard of these guys. Sam is technically the 3rd most successful – he only runs a top-tier Beverly Hills talent agency with a worth somewhere in the hundred-millions. Both Tom and Alec are billionaires. Israeli immigrants who started with practically nothing, they define the American dream – that you can go from a small (but influential) country in the desert to dominating the worlds of finance, real estate, and entertainment, America’s 3 top industries.
The Extreme Brothers
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| Jeremy |
Jeremy, Steve, and Todd Jones – Again, if you’re not in the snow world you might not have heard of these guys. But years ago Todd and Steve, the elders, moved to Jackson Hole where they witnessed the burgeoning backcountry freeskiing movement. They followed this up to Alaska where modern big mountain riding was essentially being invented. Then younger brother (and snowboarder) Jeremy Jones comes to visit them both in Jackson and in AK and extreme history was made.
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| Todd and Steve Jones |
The older brothers co-founded Teton Gravity Research, considered by most to be the top big mountain skiing video company on the planet, having founded the careers of such American snow luminaries as Travis Rice, Micah Black, Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Erik Roner (from Nitro Circus) and Jamie Pierre (
whose record-setting cliff huck was shot for TGR) and, of course, brother Jeremy.
Jeremy Jones has gone down as the godfather of big mountain riding, starting his own
board company and pioneering snowboarding as an accompaniment to mountaineering and now at the forefront of the green movement with such seminal movies as
DEEPER (a movie guaranteed to give you a newfound respect for what “extreme” really means).
The New Money Bawlers
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| Playboys Living the High Life |
The Maloof Brothers – Sure, they have help from all over the family. But Maloof brothers have come to define high-end “cool” in the 20th and 21st century, leading the family’s buys into sports teams, Vegas hotels, special-interest sporting events – all while seen by every media outlet simply “living the good life”
The Comedians
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| Marlon, Shawn, Damon and Keenan Ivory in Gucci Linens |
The Wayans Brothers – Led by Keenan Ivory, who founded In Living Color with his brothers Damon, Marlon, Shawn (and sister Kim) this group of brothers have been one of the most influential groups in modern comedy.
Read this article for a little more about these guys and how they’ve single-handedly redefined funny. Like them or not, and even if maybe you're too young to have seen them at their prime, the next time you laugh at something you should tip a drink to these brothers.
The Writers
The Ariano Bros – Maybe you haven’t heard of Ryan and Kyle Ariano but, well, you are reading their blog. That’s a first step, sure enough.
- Ryan
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