SportsCenter in Rome

Submitted by JMo on

Marty Smith interviewing Wilton Speight in Rome, Italy.  Nothing too exciting, they talk about the trip, meeting with and teaching American football to refugees, custom Jordan brand gear and shoes (while juxtaposing that against the difficult life of the refugees), the fabulous opportunity that Michigan provides athletes with trips like this, they're going to play paintball and watch Gladiator, Harbaugh is getting baptized, then the team came over and mugged for the camera.

 

Pretty much all fluff, but the fact that ESPN is doing regular segments all morning promoting their Rome trip is a nice little advertisement for what the program is doing.

 

http://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/19224220/categoryid/5595394

 

EDIT: Attempted to embed ESPN video. Won't let me. If anyone has a trick for embedding non YT video here, feel free to share in replies. I know as a reader, I prefer when I can just click on an embedded video in the post, so I like to provide the same convenience when possible.

MichiganMAN47

April 23rd, 2017 at 11:11 AM ^

This is what being a student athlete is all about. Emphasis on the student. I hope this tradition continues as it gives kids a chance to learn about world history and cultures. This Rome trip is genius on so many levels. And now we are getting great publicity out of it? Awesome. I think it's great that we are ahead of the curve on this, but I would not have a problem if other schools do the same, the kids should get that experience if they can.

LDNfan

April 23rd, 2017 at 11:21 AM ^

This is such an unbelievable opportunity for these young men and their families. Many of these guys probably didn't even have a passport until now...many have never experienced the feeling of being in a place where almost no one speaks their language. And now this happens...this is life altering. And something that their institutional peers do much more often. Now they will have something in common with the students across the campus and from vastly different backgrounds. 

And you just know their families are living this with them every step of the way. Just unbelievable what Harbaugh is doing for this program and these young men. Talk about creating life-long memories..... 

Lil boy blue

April 23rd, 2017 at 11:30 AM ^

All the pundits and analysts who said Harbaugh was too big time to recruit obviously know nothing about him. It was his idea to take this time to develop his players shoulder up on this trip and him and the staff have just knocked this out of the park.

The essays to meet the Pope, the whole itinerary - sight seeing, volunteer work and the educational / life lessons they are providing is really phenomenal.

Kudos to ESPN for jumping on it. Glad they sent Marty to capture the moments.

SD Larry

April 23rd, 2017 at 3:12 PM ^

Thanks for posting.  For some reason, couldn't play your link, but went to ESPN site, found this and 4 other videos about the trip.  Very happy for the guys having this experience and bonding opportunity.  Great interview with Wilton about his visit with a Syrian refugee.   Also noted Wilton mentioned Coach may have his baby baptized by Pope.  The whole trip is just epic in so many unique and excellent ways.  Wow.