Northwestern head football coach Pat Fitzgerald fired amid hazing scandal

[canderson]

This is vile, if true.

A former player say hazing rituals included … let’s just cut/paste from the Daily Northwestern

“ The former player said he reported his experiences to the University in late November 2022. He alleges that much of the team’s hazing centered around a practice dubbed “running,” which was used to punish team members, primarily freshman, for mistakes made on the field and in practice.

If a player was selected for “running,” the player who spoke to The Daily said, they would be restrained by a group of 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in various “Purge-like” masks, who would then begin “dry-humping” the victim in a dark locker room.”

The football program called these events Runsgiving and Runsmas.

Fitzgerald is suspended 2 weeks without pay while the school investigates.

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2023/07/08/top-stories/former-nu-football-player-details-hazing-allegations-after-coach-suspension/

 

[SemperFidelisSox]

The part about Fitzgerald making the clapping signal and the players seeing that as him encouraging that player to be “run” is pretty damning.

 

[j-man]

also he went 1-11 last season as well been loseing steam the last few years david shaw wouild be a good replacement

 

[j-man]

also he went 1-11 last season as well been loseing steam the last few years david shaw wouild be a good replacement

after 2023

 

[mauf]

This is vile, if true.

A former player say hazing rituals included … let’s just cut/paste from the Daily Northwestern

“ The former player said he reported his experiences to the University in late November 2022. He alleges that much of the team’s hazing centered around a practice dubbed “running,” which was used to punish team members, primarily freshman, for mistakes made on the field and in practice.

If a player was selected for “running,” the player who spoke to The Daily said, they would be restrained by a group of 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in various “Purge-like” masks, who would then begin “dry-humping” the victim in a dark locker room.”

The football program called these events Runsgiving and Runsmas.

Fitzgerald is suspended 2 weeks without lay while the school investigates.

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2023/07/08/top-stories/former-nu-football-player-details-hazing-allegations-after-coach-suspension/

Great reporting by the student newspaper.

This report is largely a rehash of the student report but contains one more detail — Fitzgerald is in the middle of a 10-year, $57 million contract that runs through 2030. Which probably explains why Fitzgerald hasn’t been fired yet; he needs to go, but the school needs to build their best possible case for termination for cause.

https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2023/07/08/northwestern-pat-fitzgerald-suspension-hazing/

 

[BigJimEd]

Fitzgerald is suspended 2 weeks without lay while the school investigates.

Just one correction. The school concluded their investigation and determined two weeks in July was enough. The suspension and other steps were announced on Friday. They hoped that would end it.

After the investigation concluded, the University placed Fitzgerald on unpaid suspension for two weeks.

Then details got public and Northwestern had to start back tracking Saturday night. .

In a statement emailed to NU community members Saturday night, University President Michael Schill said that he believes he “may have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction for Coach Fitzgerald.”

 

[canderson]

Just one correction. The school concluded their investigation and determined two weeks in July was enough. The suspension and other steps were announced on Friday. They hoped that would end it.


Then details got public and Northwestern had to start back tracking Saturday night. .

I somehow missed this - wow.

 

[soxhop411]

Great reporting by the student newspaper.

This report is largely a rehash of the student report but contains one more detail — Fitzgerald is in the middle of a 10-year, $57 million contract that runs through 2030. Which probably explains why Fitzgerald hasn’t been fired yet; he needs to go, but the school needs to build their best possible case for termination for cause.

https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2023/07/08/northwestern-pat-fitzgerald-suspension-hazing/

And more info continues to come out
—-
The former Northwestern player sent ESPN a screenshot of a whiteboard, which he says was in the middle of the locker room. Image is headlined "SHREK'S LIST" and includes a list of players' names and several bulleted items, including "naked slingshot" and "naked bear crawls."
We are not publishing the photo, but former player said: "That was in the middle of the locker room for all eyes to see throughout my entire time in the program. Every single player in this program from 2020 to 2023 knows what Shrek is and knows about the hazing that occurs."
View: https://twitter.com/espnrittenberg/status/1678081117382152193?s=46
feels like he is going to be fired before sundown

edit: feel like a full on house cleaning is justified here

 

[PedroKsBambino]

New university president is less than a year in so he’s probably still getting his bearings on football at the school.

He came form Oregon so that may color his view on trade offs; going to guess broader Northwestern community is going to put a lot of pressure on this

 

[mauf]

New university president is less than a year in so he’s probably still getting his bearings on football at the school.

He came form Oregon so that may color his view on trade offs; going to guess broader Northwestern community is going to put a lot of pressure on this

For me, there’s no trade-off here between doing the right thing and doing what’s best for the football program. Maybe it was different 20 or 30 years ago, but today you don’t hear about this happening in elite programs. You’ll find all sorts of other bad things about the way Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, and others have treated some of the students in their care — but not something like this, because this sort of hazing runs counter to the sort of culture that elite programs are trying to build. I mean, let’s say Fitzgerald survives this somehow; how is he going to recruit? Who is going to choose to play for him?

 

[PedroKsBambino]

I don’t disagree—I just mean there’s a give and take between football and “other stuff” at all those places and I’d guess the president is trying to figure out precisely what that looks like so Northwestern Which I’m fairly confident is different than at Oregon

 

[67YAZ]

As a professor at Loyola Chicago, I’m already in some conversations with colleagues at NW about this. Pedro is right - the pressure is going to be intense, specifically from faculty who have been organizing a public stance and several actions for this coming week.

I did a graduate degree at the University of Miami in the early 2000s. That football team shit was crazy and the faculty response was, “whatcha gonna do?” But NW is very different. They pride themselves on being the only private institution in the Big10 (until USC joins) - a reflection of their elite academics and elite athletics. And while they don’t win much (except women’s lacrosse!), many on campus still have an air of superiority over the rest of the conference.

Specifically, Fitzgerald carried a sterling reputation - a guy so good, he could coach in the NFL but prefers to stay at his alma mater because this place is different. That was the belief until Friday, at least. So all of this is very hard for much of the campus to process, and the lingering sense that everyone has been duped feeds an anger that the administration is going to catch the brunt of.

Also, it is great that they went to Maggie Hickey for the investigation. Her reputation is impeccable. She was inspector general for Illinois - she’s seen some shit - and is currently leading the monitoring team for the Chicago Police Department’s federal consent decree - she’s really seen some shit. Having her lead the investigation is probably the biggest point in Schill’s favor right now.

My guess is that Fitzgerald negotiates a resignation and walks away with a lot of his remaining salary. There will be a massive house cleaning in football and likely the AD’s office. Not sure is AD Gragg survives. He’s been there 2 years, which is long enough to have known better. I’m sure Hickey’s report has lots of details about failures of supervision and reporting.

As for Schill, I doubt the faculty can push him out. My sense of the NW Board is that they have a rather dim view of a lot of the faculty and won’t be so swayed by their public complaints.

But NW recently got financing for and released a design for a new football stadium - all private dollars anchored by the Ryan family making the largest donation in school history. So the institution is particularly sensitive to the feelings of its major donors right now. A few calls from the big boosters and they’ll dump Schill quickly and possibly even retain Fitzgerald.

 

[joe dokes]

I don’t disagree—I just mean there’s a give and take between football and “other stuff” at all those places and I’d guess the president is trying to figure out precisely what that looks like so Northwestern Which I’m fairly confident is different than at Oregon

I hope so. I'm not as confident when it comes to bigtime football (which Nwestern is, regardless of their successes off the field).
My daughter was at Maryland when the coaching staff killed a player during summer drills. The President was 10 years in. He offered up his own resignation and fired the football coach the *next* day. (The firing was against the desires of the Bd. Of Regents). Based on comments in various internet spaces, I have little doubt that the plaid-coated jock-sniffing used car dealers that ran the booster club and had outsized influence on the Board were responsible for an ultimatum that led him to do the wrong thing in exchange for doing the right thing with respect to a footbal team that has been anywhere from shitty to mediocre for quite some time.

 

[67YAZ]

Having chatted some more with friends up in Evanston - the faculty are pushing for Hickey's report to be released in full (retracted appropriately to protect vulnerable individuals). Fitzgerald issued a denial. Members of the football team - "the ENTIRE team" - posted a letter to social media denying events. And Schill is still blowing in the wind here. All of these positions have space because there is no detailed public accounting.

Hickey, as a former IG and current consent decree monitor, definitely knows how to investigate wrongdoing in the context of an organization's complex power dynamics. Presumably, the report is very detailed about who knew what, who remained willfully ignorant, who did what, and who did nothing. The university's statement that the report did not find “sufficient” evidence that the coaching staff knew about ongoing hazing though there were “significant opportunities” to find out about it just serves to feed the uncertainty.

Today, NW announced they'll continue to investigate (read "buy more time") while the Daily Northwestern published a new piece with corroboration on the some hazing allegations from 3 players from the late 00s as well as new, detailed allegations about a "culture of enabling racism."

 

[Awesome Fossum]

The gap between "Every single player in this program from 2020 to 2023 knows what Shrek is and knows about the hazing that occurs" and "Members of the football team - "the ENTIRE team" - posted a letter to social media denying events" is pretty gigantic. Seems like it should be pretty easy to figure out which one is closer to the truth.

I agree with @PedroKsBambino -- the give and take is different at Northwestern than it is at Oregon, Miami, or even Maryland*. For a program like Northwestern, the expectation is to just not field an embarrassing team while the university cashes checks from the Big 10. If even half of this is even half true -- and I bet it is if they slapped his wrist in the first place -- Fitzgerald has failed on that criteria. I bet he's out by Week 1.

*Maryland fired alumnus Ralph Friegden after a 9-4 season where he won ACC coach of the year. Big time football programs don't employ 1-11 coaches.

 

[kenneycb]

Friegen was 2-10 the year prior to his firing.

 

[Awesome Fossum]

With a win over Clemson and James Franklin as the coach in waiting. What a world.

 

[Nator]

He's done.
https://wgntv.com/sports/northwestern-fires-head-coach-pat-fitzgerald-report-says/?fbclid=IwAR3lkF4V2J7SgAdKhYttiEyrzRIqFPN8L9gaDAGSuTQeiIIHcrrPwlN3pYk

EVANSTON, Ill. — A hazing scandal surrounding Northwestern University’s football team has led to the ouster of its longtime head coach.

According to numerous reports, the first from Pete Thamel of ESPN, Pat Fitzgerald has been fired in the wake of the release of an investigation into alleged hazing in the program on Friday, and then more details coming out over the weekend.

 

[TomTerrific]

He's done.
https://wgntv.com/sports/northwestern-fires-head-coach-pat-fitzgerald-report-says/?fbclid=IwAR3lkF4V2J7SgAdKhYttiEyrzRIqFPN8L9gaDAGSuTQeiIIHcrrPwlN3pYk

I, for one, am glad to see him go. Mainly because I’ve always thought he’s a horse’s ass, and doubly so with these latest stories. And because NU shouldn’t be further tarnishing itself trying to lose a little less badly to the Michigans and OSU’s of the world.

 

[canderson]

All credit to the Northwestern student paper - without their reporting he’d skate free.

I had something similar in my days on a college campus and an editor for the paper.

 

[67YAZ]

Good. Now do Kirk Ferentz.

 

[Tangled Up In Red]

I had something similar in my days on a college campus and an editor for the paper.

Do tell?

 

[canderson]

Do tell?

Not as scandalous.

Dean stealing money from university accounts. Was friend with prez so they trie to sweep under the rug. Got wind, stories led to his firing, arrest and jail time.

I did help get a football coach fired but that’s because he sucked, nothing like this.

 

[Kliq]

Half of all journalism jobs are filled by Medill grads so this is a massive story today.

 

[joe dokes]

All credit to the Northwestern student paper - without their reporting he’d skate free.

I had something similar in my days on a college campus and an editor for the paper.

Also of note, at some football-factory schools, reports like this -- or any criticism from a student paper -- often lead to the coach ripping the students, with little immediate pushback from the school. (I specifically recall Oklahoma State, but I'm pretty sure there are others). While I suspect there are some Northwestern jock-sniffers (and perhaps jocks) that will be going after the students here, it will be less severe than at other places.

 

[mauf]

It seems increasingly clear that the initial decision to suspend Fitzgerald for just two weeks wasn’t some kind of legal jujitsu to stall for time while the administration sought evidence to support a for-cause termination, but instead reflected a judgment that such a short suspension was an appropriate sanction. That judgment had to be rooted in an assumption that the details would never see the light of day. I wonder if the President and the Athletic Director survive this.

 

[canderson]

It seems increasingly clear that the initial decision to suspend Fitzgerald for just two weeks wasn’t some kind of legal jujitsu to stall for time while the administration sought evidence to support a for-cause termination, but instead reflected a judgment that such a short suspension was an appropriate sanction. That judgment had to be rooted in an assumption that the details would never see the light of day. I wonder if the President and the Athletic Director survive this.

Fitzgerald had hired high-profile counsel. We’ll find out.

 

[Eric1984]

My brother is a Northwestern alum (and Northwestern Daily sports section alum) who graduated shortly before the program started to get good in the mid 90s. He bleeds purple and has been a Fitz fanboy since he was a player. But he was disappointed with the suspension when it was first announced, thinking he should have been fired right away (either Fitz knew about it and allowed it or he didn't know about it but should have -- either way is bad). I don't know how representative he is, but being included in some of the group text he's had with his college friends, they all feel the same way. I can't imagine there will a groundswell of support for Fitz based on that small sample size. Also, Fitzgerald hired a high profile trial lawyer off the bat, not a labor and employment lawyer who concentrates on disputes over executive compensation packages (not that Winston & Strawn wouldn't have some of those), so I'm wondering how much of the lawyering up part of it is bluster, though this isn't my area of expertise, really.

 

[Sille Skrub]

Updated the thread title

 

[Rick Burlesons Yam Bag]

I, for one, am glad to see him go. Mainly because I’ve always thought he’s a horse’s ass, and doubly so with these latest stories. And because NU shouldn’t be further tarnishing itself trying to lose a little less badly to the Michigans and OSU’s of the world.

tOSU’s.

 

[troparra]

I, for one, am glad to see him go. Mainly because I’ve always thought he’s a horse’s ass, and doubly so with these latest stories. And because NU shouldn’t be further tarnishing itself trying to lose a little less badly to the Michigans and OSU’s of the world.

It's sort of a myth that they lose badly to Michigan and OSU. This is partially why Fitz was highly regarded.

Here are the scores of the games against those two since Fitz was there:
2006: Mich L 17-3; OSU L 54-10
2007: Mich L 28-16
2008: Mich W 21-14
2011: Mich L 42-24
2012: Mich L 38-31
2013: tOSU L 40-30; Mich L 27-19
2014: Mich L 10-9
2015: Mich L 38-0
2016: tOSU L 26-20
2018: Mich L 20-17; tOSU L45-24
2020: tOSU L 22-10
2021: Mich L 33-7
2022: tOSU L 22-7

They have obviously lost badly several times, but there are a lot of close or relatively close games. They only have 1 win in these 16 games, so they LOSE to Michigan and OSU, but it's not like they are getting obliterated every year. Quite a few one score games in there. If the next coach can do better than Fitz, he may end up having a few more wins against those teams.

-I have no idea why they play Michigan so much more frequently than tOSU. They were in the same division in the Legends & Leaders era, but that was just 3 years (2011-2013)
-I know Michigan is better now than they were pre-Harbaugh.
-NW does not play either Mich or tOSU this year

 

[Awesome Fossum]

I think that's his point. If what $57M buy you is a decent margin of defeat against UM/OSU and stories about naked bear crawls, it's not really worth it.

 

[bigq]

Busy week for the Northwestern AD, HR and legal.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/38007877/northwestern-fires-baseball-coach-jim-foster-sources-say

A source told ESPN that Foster likely would have been fired earlier, but Northwestern's legal and human resources departments were focused on Monday's firing of football coach Pat Fitzgerald in the wake of a hazing investigation into the program.

 

[canderson]

I watched a game NW played this year. No hyperbole, they might have been the worst college baseball team I have ever seen.

 

[Jason Bae]

I watched a game NW played this year. No hyperbole, they might have been the worst college baseball team I have ever seen.

56 runs allowed in 3 games against Texas State. Back-to-back 20+ run games.

 

[Van Everyman]

Busy week for the Northwestern AD, HR and legal.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/38007877/northwestern-fires-baseball-coach-jim-foster-sources-say

How does that passage saying he would’ve been fired earlier if not for Fitzgerald square with the fact that they wrapped up the investigation into Foster before the baseball season started, found bullying had taken place and let him coach anyway?

Foster had been investigated by the university's human resources department before the season. The probe found evidence that Foster "engaged in bullying and abusive behavior," according to a document obtained by the Chicago Tribune, and made an inappropriate comment about a female staff member.

The document was set to be shared with athletic department leaders to "take remedial action" against Foster, but he coached the season without any formal discipline, according to the Tribune.

This almost certainly feels like they only fired him because it was just a matter of time before it came to light that they’d done nothing.

 

[PedroKsBambino]

Seems like this is the university president trying to keep his own job by showing that this time he's really serious about doing an investigation and actually doing something.

My advice? Hire a legit lawyer and law firm, not a mouthpiece joke like Ted Wells or Maggie Hicks. You need this one to be real, to be credible and then to act on it---you've got one shot, make it count. See whether Mary Jo White will take the case, or Beth Wilkinson, or a credible recently-retired federal judge somewhere. You tried "mouthpiece for hire" before---you need a different approach this time. You need someone who people know will actually say no to you, and then to act on what they tell you was going on.

 

[bigq]

Seems like the president’s seat may be getting warmer.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/38035812/ex-qb-lloyd-yates-others-seek-damages-northwestern-scandal

 

[Bleedred]

My brother is a Northwestern alum (and Northwestern Daily sports section alum) who graduated shortly before the program started to get good in the mid 90s. He bleeds purple and has been a Fitz fanboy since he was a player. But he was disappointed with the suspension when it was first announced, thinking he should have been fired right away (either Fitz knew about it and allowed it or he didn't know about it but should have -- either way is bad). I don't know how representative he is, but being included in some of the group text he's had with his college friends, they all feel the same way. I can't imagine there will a groundswell of support for Fitz based on that small sample size. Also, Fitzgerald hired a high profile trial lawyer off the bat, not a labor and employment lawyer who concentrates on disputes over executive compensation packages (not that Winston & Strawn wouldn't have some of those), so I'm wondering how much of the lawyering up part of it is bluster, though this isn't my area of expertise, really.

My son graduated from NU in 2021. He wasn't an athlete but he's a massive NU sports fan and loved going to games (hoop and football) notwithstanding their mediocre standing. He went to Indianapolis for the Big 10 championship v. OSU in 2018 and had a blast. He took pride in Fitz being a different type of coach than other D1 coaches. I was with my son and 4 of his fraternity brothers last weekend in Chicago for Red Sox/Cubs and took them to dinner. To a man, they all were disgusted with what they heard and felt "duped" as alum and what they were sold about Fitz. They all favored his firing.

 

[Eric1984]

My son graduated from NU in 2021. He wasn't an athlete but he's a massive NU sports fan and loved going to games (hoop and football) notwithstanding their mediocre standing. He went to Indianapolis for the Big 10 championship v. OSU in 2018 and had a blast. He took pride in Fitz being a different type of coach than other D1 coaches. I was with my son and 4 of his fraternity brothers last weekend in Chicago for Red Sox/Cubs and took them to dinner. To a man, they all were disgusted with what they heard and felt "duped" as alum and what they were sold about Fitz. They all favored his firing.

Took a lot to be an NU diehard pre-1995. He came to visit me when he was an NU sophomore and I was a Michigan senior. Michigan won 59-14. But he sang "Go You Northwestern" at the top of his lungs the two times they scored. And now he's saying they should just shut down the program.

 

[Bleedred]

Northwestern has hired former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to lead an investigation into the culture of its athletic department and its anti-hazing procedures following allegations of abusive behavior and racism within the football program and other teams.

The results will be made public.

https://apnews.com/article/loretta-lynch-northwestern-hazing-f8f19d4066e88bc7bf5705b42dae6e40

 

[joe dokes]

"Tone deaf" is too kind.

Northwestern AD pushes back on 'tone deaf' T-shirt worn by staff - ESPN