Northwestern University has parted ways with head football coach Pat Fitzgerald, just days after it placed him on a two-week unpaid suspension following an investigation into hazing allegations.<\/p>\n
According to an executive summary released by the University, a staff member received an email on November 30, 2022 from an anonymized address alleging hazing within the football program. ESPN identified this staff member as Kristina Minor, Senior Associate Athletic Director for Compliance, and alleges the email came from a former player who has since left the school.<\/p>\n
The executive summary explains that the university immediately retained Maggie Hickey of ArentFox Schiff LLP to investigate the allegations. Hickey\u2019s investigation included interviewing more than 50 people affiliated or formerly affiliated with the football program, reviewing hundreds of thousands of emails, and reviewing player survey data dating back to 2014.<\/p>\n
The team determined that the complaints were \u201clargely supported by the evidence.\u201d However, they did not find evidence pointing to an individual player or coach, concluding instead that knowledge and participation in the hazing was widespread across the football players. Additionally, while the investigation failed to uncover evidence that the coaching staff knew about the problem, it did find that there were \u201csignificant opportunities to discover and report the hazing conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northwestern responded to the investigation by implementing recommendations set forth by Hickey, including hiring a staff member who does not report to the football coaching staff to oversee the locker room, discontinuing football practices at \u201cCamp Kenosha,\u201d creating an anonymous reporting tool specifically for student-athletes to report incidents of hazing, and placing Pat Fitzgerald on a two-week suspension without pay.<\/p>\n
However, on July 8, The Daily Northwestern, the on-campus student newspaper, released an article that included allegations by a player further detailing the hazing behavior and alleging that Fitzgerald may have known that hazing was taking place. The player, whose details were corroborated by a second player, characterized the behavior as \u201cabsolutely egregious and vile and inhumane.\u201d He says that the hazing was centered on a practice referred to as \u201crunning\u201d which was used to punish players, primarily freshmen, for on-field mistakes. \u201cRunning\u201d consisted of 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in \u201cpurge-like\u201d masks who would dry-hump the victim in a dark locker room. The player said the tradition was especially common during training camp and around major holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, otherwise referred to by the team as \u201cRunsgiving\u201d and \u201cRunsmas.\u201d Team members identified players to run by clapping their hands above the head of the player, a practice they referred to as \u201cthe Shrek Clap.\u201d The player alleges that Fitzgerald also made the signal during practices. The article further outlines additional hazing behavior prevalent within the team including, but not limited to, being forced to strip naked and bear crawl or slingshot themselves across the floor using exercise bands.<\/p>\n
That same day, roughly 11 hours after the release of the Daily\u2019s article, University President Michael Schill emailed the Northwestern community stating that he \u201cmay have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction for Coach Fitzgerald.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite a letter of support by the \u201cENTIRE Northwestern Football Team\u201d on behalf of Fitzgerald on July 9, President Schill announced that Fitzgerald was being relieved of his duties effective immediately on July 10. In his statement, Schill released additional details regarding the investigation including that \u201celeven current or former student-athletes acknowledged that hazing has been ongoing within the football program\u201d and that \u201cthe hazing included forced participation, nudity, and sexualized acts of a degrading nature.\u201d President Schill reiterated that the investigator \u201cfailed to find any credible evidence that Coach Fitzgerald himself knew about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fitzgerald has since retained high profile attorney, Dann Webb to explore his legal options. While Northwestern believes that they fired Fitzgerald for cause, Webb alleges that Northwestern has committed two major breaches of contract. Webb believes that the school breached Fitzgerald\u2019s employment contract as well as a verbal agreement between the parties. Under Illinois law, an oral agreement is a contract, according to Webb, and Northwestern made an oral agreement when they handed down the initial punishment of a two-week unpaid suspension. Neither the school nor Webb have addressed the issue of Fitzgerald\u2019s remaining salary on his 10-year deal, which was originally signed in 2021.<\/p>\n
Additionally, just days after Fitzgerald\u2019s firing, Northwestern announced that they parted ways with first-year head baseball coach, Jim Foster. Foster was investigated by the school\u2019s human resources department and was found to have harbored a toxic environment and \u201cengaged in bullying and abusive behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Northwestern fires longtime head football coach Pat Fitzgerald following initial two-week suspension amid hazing scandal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"audience":[],"coauthors":[1051],"class_list":["post-6893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\r\n