Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh will stop at nothing to put his program on the map. He’s being paid over $9 million to do just that, so Harbaugh better be out there stopping at no cost to promote Michigan and draw attention to it in as many ways as possible. Since Harbaugh has taken over as head coach in Ann Arbor, the program has aligned itself with a who’s who of stars from Tom Brady and Derek Jeter to Michael Jordan and Ric Flair.
And try as he might, Harbaugh has unsuccessfully lobbied to bring former President Barack Obama from The White House to The Big House to serve as an honorary captain for a Michigan home game.
“The President and the First Lady both were as gracious as they could be,” Harbaugh said in a radio interview, according to a Detroit News report. “They worked very hard to try to come. They’re not going to be able to, unfortunately, make it this year.”
Harbaugh said they will make an official ask of President and Michelle Obama to be an honorary game captain
— Mark Snyder (@Mark__Snyder) June 17, 2017
This past weekend, ESPN NFL reporter Adam Schefter was in Ann Arbor to be an honorary captain for the Wolverines for a game against Cincinnati. The team was treated to a speech from Schefter, a Michigan alum. With all due respect to Schefter, getting a pep talk from a former Commander-In-Chief would be something else. And Harbaugh tried to make it happen.
And we can probably guess Harbaugh is not done trying to get Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama to Ann Arbor for a game. We all know Obama is a noted sports enthusiast, but the only notable college football game Obama has been seen visiting has been the Army-Navy Game. Michigan is hosting Air Force this weekend and Army is due for a visit to Ann Arbor in 2018. Perhaps the Obamas’ schedule will open up enough in 2018 to make the trip, supposing Harbaugh is still patrolling the sidelines and berating Big Ten officials by then.
In the meantime, we’re just waiting for Judge Judy to show up in maize and blue to be an honorary captain.
