Michigan receiver Darboh ascending from the depths

(Photo: David Guralnick / Detroit News)Ann Arbor — You knew about his past. Superficially, anyway.

The early childhood in Sierra Leone, a southwest African country filled with metal-roof huts and ever-present poverty. With corruption, a nation rich in diamonds made only more corrupt and susceptible to rebellion. A land perhaps familiar to Americans because of a 2006 movie, “Blood Diamond,” in which Leonardo DiCaprio gave big-screen evidence of real-life horrors beyond imagination.

You knew his name. How many times it required double-checks to make sure it was being written accurately: Amara Darboh.

And so you imagined a scene Tuesday evening at the University of Michigan’s Schembechler Hall.…