PONTIAC, Mich. – The group text for the Notre Dame Prep freshman basketball team was created to talk about practice and ride sharing. Vinny Tartaglia was in charge of adding cell phone numbers.
“We were trying to add people, and the last person was Luca, but I was one digit off,” Tartaglia said.
So last week a stranger, not their teammate Luca, was suddenly included in the chat.
The unknown person texted: “Ya’ll meant to add me to this?”
Mark Galle responded: “Yes.”
Unknown person: “You know who I am?
Sam: “Who is that?
Unknown person: “I’m Sean Murphy-Bunting.”
Then the Michigan native and Tampa Bay Buccaneer Cornerback sent a photo of himself.
“Everyone was skeptical, it’s definitely not an NFL player, right?” Tartaglia said.
That’s when Murphy-Bunting Facetimed the group
“Leonard Fournette walked us through the locker room and showed us all the players,” Nate Seaman said. “Sean Murphy-Bunting, Mike Evans, Lavonte Davis, Gronk, Richard Sherman. That’s when we all said, where’s the GOAT?”
A few minutes later, Tom Brady joined the Facetime call and everyone about lost their minds.
“I thought, ‘I should grab my Michigan Brady jersey because I have one and I’m a Michigan fan too,’” AJ Valentine said. “I told him Go Blue! We’re going to beat OSU!”
The Super Bowl champions made these boys’ year in just about 30 minutes time.
“They didn’t have to do that for us,” Seaman said. “They could have easily said, ‘I’m going to leave the group chat and just left, but Murphy-Bunting and Fournette made our day.”
So how did this epic Facetime call end? With Murphy-Bunting telling the Irish: ‘Ball out this season!’