Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh takes responsibility for hiring Shemy Schembechler after racist Twitter activity uncovered

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Shemy Schembechler worked in Michigan for three days before Jim Harbaugh announced the man’s resignation. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Michigan’s hiring of Shemy Schembechler, the son of legendary Wolverines head coach Bo Schembechler, for a scouting job sounded like your standard homecoming story, until a group of fans discovered a extremely problematic activity on the man’s Twitter account.

The younger Schembechler has since quit, but Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh explained how his program made the hiring in the first place during a speech at a football camp on Thursday.

According to MLive, Harbaugh said he took responsibility for the failed hire, but noted that a third-party human resources firm cleared Schembechler. Michigan has reportedly since changed companies for its social media verification:

I read the report myself, Harbaugh said. We have a company that checks this social media and they came back and (cleared him). We have a new company doing this (now), but they need to be better.

I will take responsibility for it. If anyone can figure that out in a day, then we must be better ourselves.

Michigan announced it hired Schembechler as assistant director of football recruiting on May 17. Screenshots of Schembechler’s Twitter likes went viral over the next two days, many of which can be seen here. One in particular argued that Jim Crow laws benefit the black community, while another praised fringe presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. “as long as he doesn’t go trans.”

Schembechler, who previously worked in the NFL as a scout for more than 20 years, announced his resignation on May 20. He then released a statement through a PR firm disavowing the views of some of his favorite tweets and saying “I was wrong.”

Harbaugh played under Schembechler’s father at Michigan and knew the younger Schembechler during his football days, but said there was no defense of what the man liked on social media:

Once we became aware of things that were just offensive, offensive to me, offensive to other members of our team, we just didn’t want that mindset.

It’s disappointing. You know? I have known Shemy for a long time. But there are no sacred cows. It’s not who we are. It’s not us.

Schembechler’s Twitter account was also deactivated. It’s possible the same can be said for his time in football.

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