For 19 weeks, Bimbo proved she can compete against humans picking football winners, so it?s time to see how she?ll fair against her own species. Bimbo, meet Armani.
He?s a capuchin monkey who was returned to Elyse Gazewitz of Rockville last month after spending more than six months incarcerated at a zoo before a Montgomery County court ruled she did not violate a state law that prohibits owning wild animals as pets.
But as the 20-month-old, three-pound Armani became a national story as he was locked up in a Frederick County zoo, Bimbo was relaxing and watching football games with monkey friends Oogie, Zoey and Cocoa at Frisky?s Wildlife & Primate Sanctuary in Woodstock.
Armani, however, also is a football fan, Gazewitz said. When Armani was not behind bars, he watched as many as three NFL games a week on television, often wearing his Redskins jersey and a diaper with a hole cut out for his tail.
“He absolutely loves football,” Gazewitz said. “Whenever they show a football player, like, just him by himself, a close up or something, he?ll run up to the TV and put his hand on the TV and make his ?hoo, hoo, hoo,? noises. He gets very excited. He likes watching the football fly.”
Gazewitz said Armani is a fan of the Redskins, but also likes the Giants, which explains why he picked them to defeat the Packers in the NFC Championship and face the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
Bimbo, 37, agrees the Patriots will beat the Chargers, but predicts Green Bay will defeat the Giants. Bimbo wasn?t going to pick the Giants this week, especially because she cried after watching them defeat the Cowboys last week, said Colleen Layton-Robbins, Bimbo?s owner.
Bimbo went 1-3 last week and was defeated by Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., as the Iron Man beat the Iron Monkey by going 3-1. For the season, Bimbo is 164-100 (.621), but Armani has never picked a football game.
Examiner staff writer Andrew Vitelli contributed to this report.
