Page 13 - IAV Digital Magazine #535

Wrong-Number Text Gets High School TeamA Video Call With The Buccaneers
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
By Ben Hooper
Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A Michigan high school basketball team's wrong- number mistake in a group text led to the team get- ting an unexpect- ed video chat session with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Vinny Tartaglia, a player for the Notre Dame Preparatory School basketball team, said he was in charge of adding numbers to the team's group text, and he made a mistake while putting in one of the num- bers.
"We were trying to add people, and the last per- son was Luca, but I was one digit off," Tartaglia told WDIV-TV.
The group soon received a mes- sage from the owner of the wrong number, who wrote: "Ya'll meant to add me to this? You know who I am?"
The number belonged to Sean Murphy-Bunting, a Michigan native and cornerback
for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the defending Super Bowl champions.
Murphy-Bunting sent the students a selfie, but they were skeptical.
"Everyone was skeptical, it's defi- nitely not an NFL player, right?"
Tartaglia recalled.
The team's skep- ticism was laid to rest moments later when Murphy-Bunting initiated a FaceTime call from the Buccaneers' lock- er room.
"Leonard Fournette walked
us through the locker room and showed us all the players," team- mate Nate Seaman said. "Sean Murphy- Bunting, Mike Evans, Lavonte Davis, Gronk, Richard Sherman. That's when we all said, where's the GOAT?"
The question was answered a few minutes later when Tom Brady entered the locker room and chatted with the students.
"The boys were losing their minds," P. Jason Whalen, whose son is on the bas- ketball team, said in a Twitter
thread recounting the incident.
The basketball team said they are grateful for the kind gesture from the Buccaneers play- ers.
"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."
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/11/30/Tampa-Bay-Buccaneers-Notre-Dame-Preparatory-School-wrong-number/5791638309033/
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine