It started, as all things do, with a tweet.
This gorilla photo on Jim Harbaugh’s wall probably isn’t Harambe
An ultra-serious investigation reaches a break.
On Wednesday at 11:38 a.m. ET, Carol Hutchins, the coach of Michigan’s top-flight softball program, sent this playful dispatch of Wolverines football coach Jim Harbaugh, clad in his usual Michigan hat and a Wilson baseball glove.
Seems nice. Just a couple of colleagues hanging out at what appears to be Harbaugh’s office in Ann Arbor. Harbaugh loves baseball and brought a similar-looking glove to Game 5 of the World Series this fall in Chicago. (We don’t think it’s the same one.)
But could there be much more at play here?
Let’s zoom in even closer on that picture in the bottom righthand corner:
Is that Harambe, America’s favorite son and deceased gorilla?
It seems it is not. Rather, it comes from an awareness push by Harbaugh’s daughter. (Click the picture in the top lefthand corner to see the gorilla.)
That’s from February. Harambe’s untimely passing didn’t occur until the end of May, so unless Harbaugh’s daughter had some terrible foresight, it cannot be Harambe.
It’s difficult to say with certainty who the gorilla is. But the timeline doesn’t match up, and the first few Google image results for “Harambe” do not turn up an obvious match.
But when an American public figure in the year 2016 has a picture of a gorilla, people are going to ask if it’s that gorilla. We wanted to believe.
Harbaugh is also conveying an important message here.
His daughter’s drawing of the tiger next to the gorilla says “please help endangered species.” Harbaugh, it seems, is simply trying to draw attention to the plight of animals. It is not another one of Harbaugh’s many recruiting ploys to relate to the youths of today, many of whom were no doubt shaken when Harambe passed away.
We hoped this was Harambe. Even now that we know it is not Harambe and is merely an inter-office clarion call to save endangered species, we’re down with it.
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