Harbaugh, Wolverines Kickoff Tour Of Italy

METRO DETROIT, MI — Leave it to University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh to think outside the box, as in somewhere in the stratosphere. On Saturday, a contingent of about 150 U-M players, coaches and family members arrived in Rome for a week of practice and taking in the sites. Holding practices and camps around the United States was so 2016 for Harbaugh, he decided to take the Wolverines on a 5,000-mile road trip.

The first stop on Harbaugh’s Magical Mystery Football Tour? The Villa Borghese gardens, a nearly 200 acre park in Rome. After a nine-hour flight from Detroit, players took some time to relax in the park, play a little catch and hang out with other tourists and assorted locals. The Wolverines will spend the week in Italy, touring and holding three practice sessions.

Harbaugh and U-M officials are billing it as a once-in-a-lifetime trip for players, a chance to get them out of their comfort zones. Others are more skeptical, saying it’s a recruiting ploy in the ever expanding one-ups-manship that is major college football. Whatever the case, players seemed to be thrilled to be in Italy, most actually putting their smartphones away long enough to take in the scenery.

“It’s nice,” quarter back Wilson Speight told the Detroit Free Press. “I feel like we are always walking around, with our heads down, looking at our screens. But we can’t do that now. Nobody is on their phone. Everyone is kicking a soccer ball or throwing a football or having conversation. That’s definitely unique on its own.”

An unnamed University of Michigan donor is paying for the trip. “This is something they will remember forever,” assistant coach Mike Zordich told the newspaper. “This is a heck of a memory. Rome is beautiful. The whole country is beautiful. I think, hopefully, they will see how other people live. And the goodwill we are doing, as a university and as a team, I hope they take some of that home and hopefully they will spread some goodwill later in their lives.”

Over the eight-day trip, the U-M group will see The Colosseum and other ancient Roman ruins as well as The Vatican. There’s even a chance the Wolverines could meet the Pope Francis.

Upon arrival, Harbaugh wore his trademark khakis and a sweater. About 20 refugees, mostly from Africa and the Middle East, were bused to the park to hang out with the Wolverines Sunday. “We have some gifts for you,” Harbaugh told the refugees, according to the Free Press.

Players and coaches handed the refugees Michigan backpacks with sweatshirts, a hat and T-shirt. Harbaugh kibitzed with Ade Wale, 31, a refugee from Nigeria, who didn’t quite get the gist of American football. “They throw it by hand,” Wale said, the Free Press reported. “Why do they call it football?”

“Ah, I don’t know,” Harbaugh said. “Good point.”

“Throwball,” Wale said.

“You are right,” Harbaugh said, the newspaper reported. “I don’t know why they call it football.” Harbaugh called for his father, Jack, to explain. The elder Harbaugh, himself a legendary coach, explained that football evolved from soccer and rugby.

“American football came through that route,” Jack Harbaugh told Wale, according to the Free Press. “When we first started the game, way back in the late 1800s, you kicked the ball.”

Harbaugh plans to make these international trips an annual affair, according to ESPN. The sports network said the trip is something few other schools can afford to offer. ESPN said the trip was also a way of pushing boundaries to seek a possible competitive advantage over other college football programs. “Rome may be his splashiest move to date, but it fits the mold,” ESPN wrote.

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