A year after taking his program to Italy, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is continuing the tradition of Europe trips in 2018, this time in France. ESPN reporter Marty Smith was there to help document the team’s trip all weekend. He provided a pretty in-depth look at the trip with his ESPN.com article.
The first day involved a stop in the country’s lovely capital city of Paris. Of the three days documented, this one was the most touristy as the team took in their surroundings. Of course, this also included a trip to the Eiffel Tower.
Now the second day is where things began to get a little more interesting. Michigan actually participated in a football game. Remember this is Europe, so it was the other kind of football. The kind where the foot is actually a significant part of the game (we know it as soccer). Harbaugh took his Wolverines to a football clinic with over 300 participants at the INSEP Olympic facility. After the two-hour event, the team then competed in a game of soccer against refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Afganistan, Chad, and Guinea. Marty Smith included a good line in his article regarding the game; “It was a beautiful reminder of the power of sport.”
As for the third day, it was similar in theory to the first in that the players toured a certain area. However, it wasn’t just a fun walk around and take pictures kind of thing. There was much more of purpose for visiting this site. The place I’m referring to is that of Normandy, France As many know, this region of northern France is famous for Omaha Beach, the site of the famous D-Day landing in World War II. Harbaugh took his players to the American Cemetery Memorial to pay their respects. A quote made by the Michigan coach from that aforementioned Marty Smith article reads; “It’s truly a blessing, an honor and a privilege for our team to come here and pay our respects to those who fought so courageously — and won so much — for the cause of freedom,”
Bottomline, what does this trip say about Harbaugh as a coach? He’s doing what he does best, thinking outside the box to teach, inspire, and give his players a different perspective. Personally, I hope to see this work for the Michigan Wolverines in the form of a 12 game winning streak and a Big Ten Conference championship!
The photo used for this article is courtesy of thecomeback.com