By 5 GOATs,Chandler Vessels

Copyright yardbarker

Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh have met many times before on the NFL and college stage and will clash again Monday night. Carroll’s Las Vegas Raiders are set to play Harbaugh’s Los Angeles Chargers in a divional battle in the AFC West.

Both teams enter the matchup with 1-0 records, and the winner will take early control of the lead in the divisional standings. Speaking pregame on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown, Carroll spoke on the perceived rivalry between he and Harbaugh, saying he views it in a different light.

“Well I don’t see rivalries in any of this, but I know other people do,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of opportunities to play against each other and so, over the years, we just had our battles and took our turn winning ’em.”

Monday night is also Carroll’s birthday, with the legendary coach turning 74. Harbaugh made some comments earlier this week about not sending a Christmas card to the coach, leading to Carroll being asked whether he had gotten a birthday card.

The coach responded that he had. He followed up with another jab for his longtime rival.

“Oh he always does. He always does. Yeah. Somebody said he didn’t send me a Christmas card or something like that. I don’t know about that. But he yeah always does,” Carroll said, shaking his head. “…I’m just getting after him because he said he doesn’t send me a Christmas card. So I just want to remind him we’re still battling.”

Monday will mark the first meeting between the two teams since the 2014 season, after which Harbaugh was fired from the San Francisco 49ers. Carroll and Harbaugh are two of the most decorated coaches of this era, with both having won national championships in college at USC and Michigan, respectively. The two first faced off in 2007 when Carroll coached the Trojans and Harbaugh was the coach at Stanford. Harbaugh and the Cardinal pulled off a 24-23 upset win.

The two played once more in college, with Carroll and USC getting their revenge with a 45-23 victory in 2008, but Harbaugh punched back with a 55-21 win in 2009. Carroll left to become the coach of the Seattle Seahawks after that season and Harbaugh followed him to the NFL in 2011, when he became the coach of the San Francisco 49ers.

There they met nine times in an NFC West rivalry over the next four seasons. Carroll owns a 5-4 record in the NFL against Harbaugh, including winning 23-17 in the NFC Championship in 2014. Seattle went on to win the Super Bowl later on that year.

That sets the stage for what should be an intriguing matchup between the two head coaches when the game kicks off at 10 p.m. ET. As far as a Christmas card this year with the pair being division rivals once again, Carroll isn’t counting on it.

“I don’t think he will,” the coach said with a laugh.