Bears' Special Teams' Coach Dave Toub, NFL Network's Steve Mariucci Visit Italy to Teach

It's good to take a break from the current NFL animosity and watch NFL folks do some good things especially when it has international consequences.

For the second straight year, Chicago Bears special teams' coordinator Dave Toub traveled to Milan, Italy, to hold football clinics fort Italian coaches and players. According to all sources the Italian football people are very eager to learn.

Larry Mayer has posted an article at the Chicago Bears' website titled "Toub enjoys special teams' clinic in Italy."

The trip was initiated by an Italian coach by the name of Brock Olivio. Olivio attended the University of Missouri in the mid-1990s and was coached by Dave Toub. Because of Toub's coaching and Olivio's desire, Olivio became a very good special teams' player for the Detroit Lions through the 1998-2002 seasons. Olivio and Toub have remained close friends all of these years.

Brock Olivio is the head coach of Italy's national team as well as the head coach of the Lazio Marines that is a team in one of Italy's "top American football league" as our reference material tells us.

As aforementioned, the football "people" in Italy are hungry to learn the way that football is played in the United States. They want to know playing techniques including special teams play.

Of course "American Football" is broken down into many facets including offensive, defensive and special teams. However, it doesn't stop there. Offensive line play, defensive line play, defensive secondary and receiver play are all sub-categories that are coached (and there are more). Further something that is unique to all American sports is communication. Offenses and defenses all have an incredible number of plays and ways to put those plays on and take those plays off.

NFL star announcer and former Super Bowl coach Steve Mariucci was one person who accompanied Toub as did his wife, Cheryl. Italy is too important with respect to such incredible places as Vatican City and the Coliseum to make the trip solely one for work.

For the Bears not only is this a good will trip but it keeps the line of communication open for finding potentially good players who specifically want to play for Chicago.

It's a winning situation for all involved and, well, it just makes me feel good.

Reference:

Chicago Bears' Website, Larry Mayer, "Toub enjoys teaching special teams clinic in Italy"