Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh cancelled a recent satellite camp scheduled for American Samoa due to concerns over the Zika virus.
Ever since Jim Harbaugh took over as the head football coach of the Michigan Wolverines, there hasn’t been much that has been able to stop him. The SEC couldn’t in their fight against satellite camps, which Harbaugh has been running all summer. In fact, only Utah, Ohio State and the Michigan Stat punt block team have figured out a way.
You can now add the Zika virus to that list. Harbaugh and his coaches recently cancelled a camp that was scheduled to take place this week in the American Samoa due to the threat of the virus being transported back to the United States by visitors, according to ESPN:
"John Raynar, communications director for the Republican Party of American Samoa, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that Harbaugh was advised by a family doctor to skip the trip because of potential health risks to pregnant women. Harbaugh’s wife, Sarah, is pregnant."
While Sarah Harbaugh was not likely going to be on the trip, it still could be transferred from Jim if he made the trip and given to her. The Zika virus, which has been the reason that more and more athletes are pulling out of the 2016 Rio Olympics (as Brazil was the first country to have the epidemic), can cause birth defects for pregnant woman.
Michigan will open the 2016 season at home against the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors on September 3rd. No word on if the Wolverines will have the men from the island tested for the disease before allowing them in Ann Arbor.
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