Northwestern University yesterday fired longtime head football coach
Pat Fitzgerald after an investigation found hazing was widespread
on the team, including instances of forced sexual acts. The university
received an anonymous complaint from a former player last November
and launched an independent investigation run by the former Illinois
inspector general. It found most players participated in or were
aware of hazing in the football program. The student newspaper the
daily Northwestern also reported that several former players alleged
there were racist comments and attacks by the coaching staff as well.
Fitzgerald has said he was not aware of any hazing. The school has
said it was not aware of any allegations of racism previously. Joining
me now is Jon Greenberg, founding editor and senior columnist at
the Athletic John. Thanks for joining us after that investigation.
Last week, the university president first suspended the coach coach
Fitzgerald two weeks of unpaid suspension, and within days they decided
to fire him. Why is that? What changed? I think part of it was the
public outcry about it, and then quickly the next day, the daily
Northwestern School paper there They had a story with a lot of details
from the whistleblower from from a person. An unnamed source Anonymous
player with the university on the football team, who really detailed
with the hazing was because hazing is a pretty general. Vague term,
right. You could mean anything It could mean like, you know, eating
something it could. It could be carrying bags for someone. This was
like, pretty detailed and really damning things that were going on
there and they had it verified by another player. Who verified the
You know the initial players. He what he said happened, so that really
blew it up. And then you saw more and more stories start to come
out from the daily Northwestern, from ESPN from the athletic, just
different, more details coming out, and I think it really made for
something they couldn't ignore any more. Details from the student
reporting are really stunning. I just want to share with you a couple
of quotes from that former player who came forward. One of them reads
quote. I've seen it with my own eyes, and it's just absolutely agree
GIs and vile and inhumane behavior. There's another Quote that reads.
It's done under this smoke and mirror of. Oh, this is team bonding.
But no, This is sexual abuse. John, I have to ask you. What did you
think? When you read these details? It was pretty shocking stuff,
but also like
If you've gone to college in America, you know what I mean anywhere
around here where there's where there's hazing in fraternities and
sororities and teams like you've seen this stuff before. Some people
have experienced this stuff to me. The story read like they were,
um, profiling and out of control fraternity on campus, You know,
like an old school for attorney that have been doing things the same
way for 75 years 50 years. That's what it felt like It didn't feel
like the stuff you it's here from a football team. Um, it just seems
like a lot of really added control behavior. And even if Pat Fitzgerald
said, Oh, you know this stuff happen in the locker room away from
the I didn't know about it. Well, that's almost just as bad because,
like you're you're the person in charge of it. Show has been there
as a head coach for 17 years and assistant coach before that, Uh,
team Captain before that. You know for him to say he didn't know
it. That's you know, that's pretty egregious Lack of leadership.
There's also no more reporting from the student paper about these
allegations of racism and racist culture on the football program.
Do we know any more about that? No. And you know, you've seen some
players. Some people, especially guys in the NFL, kind of come out
against that, saying I never experienced that not and someone even
said like that's not to mean it wasn't true. You know, some people
have said no. But I, Of course, I believe it. And nothing would surprise
me. John. It's worth noting to the Northwestern baseball team has
been in the headlines because of allegations by players and staffers
of abusive behavior by their coach, Jim Foster, is, is there any
sense of growing pressure in terms of accountability higher up? They
fired the football coach. But is anyone calling for the president
to step down? Yeah, well, that's the interesting part about this
is the president was just inaugurated last month. So he took over
from from a long time president. That was very, um, pro, the athletic
department. He was a booster almost in some ways, so he just took
over. So this is a pretty, you know, interesting start to his, uh,
his tenure there you athletic directors also knew And he took over
from an athletic director that was pushed out because of issues that
had happened in the athletic department when he was a deputy athletic
director is just athletic Director Ghani Mike policy he's pushed
out. They had to hire a guy named Derek Greg. To replace him. So
there's a lot of turnover at the athletic department. But there's
also a lot of problems. I mean, previously we had heard problems
on the cheerleading team. Cheerleaders sued Northwestern for for
some stuff, and we had heard about other issues. There's been, You
know, just some of this in some of the teams. There are great and
some of the teams there's been no issues. We've heard nothing about
it. But these problems Yeah. I mean, this baseball coaches, the first
hire of the new athletic director, the first big higher that is not
a you know, a really good look for him right now that he hired this
person and you know, we've heard like there's been kind of a trickling
out of things of worries about the baseball coach. And the latest
reports seemed pretty bad. Specific to the hazing that the investigation
confirmed happened on the football team. What happens now? I mean,
this is a huge moneymaker for the university. Could it impact support
from the school community from alumni from sponsors? Absolutely.
100%. It was just reported that the athletic director, um told the
consistent coaches on the staff that no one else is gonna be fired,
which is, um Interesting because you don't know what the other coaches
no, I mean. But the way it happened is that being this late with
the season starting soon, they've got to find either an interim coach.
Which I would assume is going to happen for this year. Probably from
someone on the staff already is going to get promoted. Yeah, there's
gonna be. There's a lot of problems with the alumni because there's
some alumni that are really angry that this happened. And then there's
some alumni that are angry that they fired Pat Fitzgerald, who's
been there for a long time for a lot of the former players, especially
guys in the NFL. Who they look at him as a father figure. You know,
they're angry about that. So you're going to have a kind of were
almost between the alumni. So that's going to be a big deal. They're
trying to get a new $800 Million Stadium to replace their old stadium.
Now they build a mold 100 hundreds of millions on new facilities
there already. So it's a really interesting, I guess is a good word
to say time in Northwestern athletics. Certainly a story to keep
an eye on Jon Greenberg, founding editor and senior columnist at
the Athletic John. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me.