Michael Phelps Is Teaching Ravens Players to Swim

The Baltimore Ravens are one of the NFL’s elite franchises. They are not, however, elite swimmers.

Several Ravens players recently made a video from their team’s new swimming facility. In the video, the players admitted they don’t know how to swim and asked Ravens fan Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer and greatest Olympian of all time, to come teach them how to swim.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and Phelps did indeed make the trip to the Ravens’ facilities to teach his favorite team how to swim and survive in the water.

“I didn’t know what I was getting into. I had no idea what their comfort level was,” Phelps told the Ravens’ website. “When I see the guys in there and some of the guys who are literally working on floating and breathing, and they’re focused on paying attention to those details, it shows their vulnerability, especially when they’re uncomfortable. It was a special day. Racing some of the fellas in the 25 [meter]. My son raced some of the guys. It was a great day. I truly hope they learned something, hopefully got some confidence, and hopefully can transition into something else.”

“If I have to swim less than 20 yards, I could survive somehow because I could doggy paddle,” said Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith. “But as far as actually swimming and knowing how to breathe and things of that nature, honestly, it was my first time. It was really cool. It was really solid, some of the lessons they gave me. I feel a little more confident.”

After his retirement from competitive swimming, Phelps, the 23-time gold medal winner, runs the Michael Phelps Foundation, an initiative aimed at teaching people to swim for both exercise and survival, Pro Football Talk reports.