Getting worse at northwestern - Former Players Allege "Culture Of Enabling Racism"
https://dailynorthwestern.com/2023/07/10/campus/former-nu-players-descr…
EDIT: Cleaned up the title a bit - LSA
having dress / appearance codes isn’t inherently discriminatory in my opinion. but that’s just like …. my opinion, man. just as you saying my take is BS is also just that. your opinion.
and if I were from one of those cultures, I would not play sports at a place where standard rule goes against my culture / chosen religion
Yeah it is important to sort out what-is-what. Grooming requirements applied to everybody on the team is not problematic to me. There are a lot of ways to teach discipline and adherence to certain principles. To say “ok you don’t have to cut your hair but you also don’t have to play” is a coaches prerogative. It’s sounds like this went further though. Either way it is quite clear there are a lot of folks who want Fitz out so he should get in front of it and get out of town, pronto. Coaches don’t come back from these circumstances unless they possess an insane level of value. Fitz does not.
I’m drawn to an older Supreme Court opinion… “I can’t describe it, but I know when it when I see it.”
Personal grooming - applies to everyone, or no one. There’s nothing wrong with standards for appearance and conduct.
There was a story about a college basketball player. His coach said.. “Son, I don’t care if you can fly, you’re still wearing a coat and tie on the plane.” The coach.. Dean Smith. The player… Michael Jordan.
We each have our own compass of right and wrong - it sounds like there was a lot of “wrong” going on in Evanston.
If the biased rules are transparent and clearly presented DURING the recruiting process then ok maybe...but definitely not if this is coming up only after they are on the team.
But culturally biased appearance rules are never ok. Can't be ok to say the kids w straight hair can wear it to any length but the dread locks have to go. Well not unless you want to promote a racist culture and run off black kids..which would be dumb and self-defeating.
Huh?
Having dress / appearance codes is discriminatory definition. It's very point is to discriminate between acceptable/unacceptable appearance.
Now, it might be LEGAL discrimination - but it's absolutely discrimination.
No, it isn’t
The "Wildcat way" and "good clean American fun" definitely have a dog whistle quality to them. It's crazy how quickly this has developed into a full blown scandal.
To be honest, taken alone, neither of those slogans seem to be “dog whistles.” In a vacuum, neither of those things would seem to indicate a racist culture. Obviously there are allegations of specific instances of conduct here, but that doesn’t make things that have nothing to do with race being “retroactively” racist.
Baseball all-star game week has to be the worst time of year for a scandal to hit your school.
holy smokes if those comments are true Fitz is gone
at first I was like “that’s not too bad … oh and ‘microaggressions’ get over yourself”
then kept reading and was like “oh those were macraggressions, what an ass”
Pat Fitzgerald’s career is going the way of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
On the big lake they call Michigami.
Gitche Gumee?
That would be Lake Superior and the Edmund.
The Patrick ran aground much further south.
Wow… that is really insensitive to the memories and legacies of those crew members.
You ask and chatgpt answers:
Prompt: "write a song like the "Edmund Fitzgerald" but about how the Northwestern Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired for enabling hazing in the locker room."
In the shadow of Ryan Field, 'neath the Big Ten's hardened gaze,
Lies the story of Pat Fitzgerald, and his team's darkest days.
Once a beacon of the Wildcats, leader strong and fair,
Now the coach in Northwestern's fall, a scandal that they share.
His charges won on Saturdays, under the autumn sun,
Never knowing that their victories were overshadowed by the wrongs done.
A haze of fame and football pride obscured the inner shame,
Echoes of a locker room where fear was played like a game.
(Chorus)
Oh, the tale of Pat Fitzgerald, where did his morals stray?
In the locker room of Northwestern, where the young men play.
Once a hero of the gridiron, now a figure of dismay,
His reign was marked by hazing, that’s what the victims say.
(Verse 2)
Underneath the Friday night lights, secrets were kept unseen,
In a world where boys become men, the lines can become mean.
Initiations masked as bonding, cloaked in brotherhood's guise,
But these rituals left deep scars, that the world would soon realize.
Players bore the burden, too afraid to speak,
The stronger preying on the weaker, the culture was so bleak.
And all the while Fitzgerald, the captain at the helm,
Allowed this toxic environment, his kingdom overwhelmed.
(Chorus)
Oh, the fall of Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern's pride and joy,
Once a leader on the field, now a man devoid of ploy.
Fired for his silence, for letting torment destroy,
The Wildcats’ faith and trust, this hazing, their alma mater's coy.
(Bridge)
His legacy in tatters, tarnished by the truth,
The end of his era, the innocence of youth.
For every game won under his reign, a shadow was cast,
A dark cloud over Northwestern, a history now recast.
(Verse 3)
Now the tale of Pat Fitzgerald, it rings with solemn tone,
A reminder that in sports, no sin will go atone.
A coach once hailed, now fallen, stripped of his command,
A lesson for the ages, let no hazing stand.
(Chorus)
Oh, the end of Pat Fitzgerald, the tale they now recount,
Once a figure of inspiration, now a man of doubt.
For the price of silence, his reputation's surmount,
In the annals of Northwestern, a story they can't discount.
(Outro)
And so ends the story, in the halls of Wildcat lore,
Of a coach named Pat Fitzgerald, whose reign is no more.
His tale is a stark reminder, for all who dare to dream,
That the true measure of a leader, is not always what it may seem.
Too soon to drag Gordon Lightfoot into this.
First Shrek, now Gordon Lightfoot. This outrage must end.
I have always felt that Fitzgerald is a childish prick ever since he reacted to one of his players getting hit out of bounds by jumping up and down like a 5 year old who just got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas.
Or getting on the Price is Right
Spectacular gif.
And so much better that we still won the game.
There was a time when I felt slightly bad for Fitz over the fact that we kept beating his teams in comically fluky fashion under Hoke.
That time has passed.
I cleaned up the title a little bit, as it is actually multiple players who have brought this to light.
Each hour, I find myself thinking more and more that Pat Fitzgerald may have coached his last game at this level anywhere.
Thank you LSA
Shameful behavior.
Whoa, now there's an ex-staffer trying to defend Fitz who actually names the whistleblower (or at least one of them) in his open letter.
Hi Twitter, I’m Eduardo Soto and I worked at Northwestern Football for 5 years from 2016-2021. I wrote this letter to President Schill and AD Gragg this morning. pic.twitter.com/KCRRrObgov
— Eddie (@EduardoES97) July 10, 2023
Ugly. Probably also not going to accomplish anything. They've passed the "shoot the messenger" stage.
I can relate to this letter too. I wasn’t even a football player but Fitz sought me out and made himself available when my roommates stiffed me on a cable bill. There were other times that Fitz gave me the impression that he deeply cared about how his players conducted themselves on and off the field.
Just like this staffer, I had no indication that Fitz would ever allow, or wouldn’t immediately shut down, any hint of the crazy stuff being alleged now.
Then again I had upperclassmen rub their genitals on me, pressure me to perform a naked dick trick, and minority teammates of mine told me my coach made racist jokes too. So maybe it was a wider culture of NU athletics or even college athletics and none of us (Fitz included) could see how wrong it was. Except that Fitz has always been a grown adult and the rest of us were teenagers and 20somethings.
If one does not see that hazing as described as sexual harassment but rather as a "tradition" or a "rite of passage" then one sees nothing wrong with it. If one sees nothing wrong with it, one goes about their day being a good person and doing all of the things that Eduardo says. One also could have had it reported to them and not considered it a big deal (see above) and therefore wouldn't do anything about it.
What I kept thinking when I read Eduardo's note is that Pat Fitzerald could be all of the things that he described, and still enable locker room assholery. It just requires a myopic view of what is acceptable in the world these days, and a sport where testosterone is king is probably not the place that shines a light on that with any regularity.
I also kept thinking that every player that voluntarily participated is probably in charge of something somewhere, and this behavior has been taken from the locker room to the board room.
As more comes out about NW it really makes me question the effort put in by that law firm in their initial report. It sure seems like they did the bare minimum to cash those checks but didn't talk to nearly enough people if these stories are coming out from a lot of sources so quickly.
Or worse, were told by the school what to report and not report likely driven by who they were allowed to talk to and who they could not
As a person who regularly hires law firms, this is the least shocking part of the story for me.
Agree. I remember when the fact that the Torture Memos were written by "a lawyer" (John Yoo) was put forward as somehow signifying their accuracy and dependability.
Frankly, I think we're all aware these days that even judicial rulings are heavily influenced by politics and ideology, but at least theoretically courts are accepted as unbiased and objective. Lawyers, by contrast, by their very nature, are "arguers" and "advocates," not arbiters of truth, and the fact that a particular statement is made by a lawyer is no more a guarantee of its accuracy or reliability than one put forward by a mechanic or a farmer.
Northwestern told the firm (either expressly or subtly) what kind of results would satisfy it and keep the firm in its good graces for future work. Doesn't mean the firm's research and findings were by definition flawed, of course. But ... yeah. Doesn't mean they're gospel, either.
I guess this also explains why Fitzgerald also hates cell phones.
Does the newly hired DC get the interim tag? Can't imagine they'd want to give it to someone who's been around the program a while...
Looks like the beginning of the end.
They didn't find this out during their six-month investigation ... but the student newspaper came up with it in like two days?Spokesperson Jon Yates said NU not aware of the racism allegations:
— Nicole Markus (@nicolejmarkus) July 10, 2023
"The alleged “racist commentary and behavior toward non-white players” by Coach Fitzgerald and members of his staff would be entirely unacceptable and inconsistent with our culture and values, if true." https://t.co/3t0gTaOZKn
it's almost as if the students actually give a shit about facts and right vs wrong, as opposed to covering the university's ass from a PR standpoint. Also, if (heaven forbid but I think at this point we know we can never 1000% rule this out) Michigan was guilty of this or worse, I would hope and expect the Daily to be all over it.
As do I, thought the hatred posters on this blog continue to direct towards the Free Press for reporting on the infractions (minor as they may have been) committed by previous Michigan football head coaches seems to suggest not everyone shares that view.
I think Fitz could've made it out alive with the initial report of hazing being a "head-in-the-sand" moment far enough away from full-blown scandal. That wasn't the case but I'm sure he could've pleaded some type of ignorance and got away with it.
After the larger, systematic program-wide news broke, administration had to be drafting his firing papers.
With this news, I wouldn't be surprised if former players are encouraged to bring legal action against the university and/or Fitz himself since there is clearly mental and physical trauma at play.
Really hope any victims involved in these allegations receive the help they need to move past it. Fitz always came off like an ego-obsessed jock who would likely either turn a blind eye to uncontrolled locker room behaviors or even encouraged it as well. I don't see how anyone on the team or at the university would welcome him back.
Chicago sports radio program is now reporting some bad nastiness happening with Northwestern baseball, too: https://www.audacy.com/670thescore/authors/parkins-spiegel-show
Yep, it was pretty obvious back in February that something was wrong with the baseball program there. The top 2 assistants plus the Director of Operations had all quit by the end of the first week of the season.
Now I hear that they have 18 players in the transfer portal--including at least one (their top slugger) announcing that he is coming to Michigan. They were 10-40 this year, and honestly I don't see how they can even scrape a team together in 2024 if they really do lose all 18 of those players.
The part I don’t understand is the dry humping. Why would this be the chosen method of disciplining players for mistakes instead of sprints or something after practice? And how does this tradition get passed on over the years? Do older players tell incoming freshman that “When someone makes a mistake in practice Fitz makes a clapping gesture over his head. Later in the locker room we get naked and wear Shrek masks and hump on the guy for a while” — and the new players just do it without questioning the validity or ethics of it all? It seems like something right out of Anthony Burgess
The objective of ritualized behavior such as described by the players is (semi)-public humiliation. In effect it is both punishment for failing to follow the program's (supposedly) high performance standards and reinforcement of a culture in which sub-par performance will not be tolerated.
If that sounds familiar it's because this is how abuse gets normalized and perpetrated within cults and other toxic groups. It's old school bad stuff that remains disturbingly common even in this day and age.
It seems to me like you’re also punishing the upperclassmen by having them dry-hump the frosh. I don’t get it either.
Of course it doesn't make logical sense because you are presumably a normal person. Within toxic and abusive cultures like this appears to be, the upperclassmen are expressing superiority and dominance as a reward for upholding the program's standards. F*ed up, of course, but within the distorted norms of the culture it's viewed positively.
Not surprised, he seems like the type. This shit is getting as old as the growing contingent of mfs that deny these things happen, and decry all things "woke." When will they evolve past this predictable caveman bs? Starting to think, never.
And of course NW had no idea this has been going on in Evanston for almost 20 years, because that privilege most of them enjoy doesnt generally have to account for the fuckery. Micro-aggressions and covert racism are invisible to them. Thus, they're completely blindsided time and again. Of course. Yawns hard asf. Typical.
Well, the plan had been to tear down Ryan Field and replace it wiith an (even) smaller stadium in next few years, but who knows how much the primary donor for that who is , umm, Ryan, feels about pressures on Fitz right now.
Somehow, once Fitz is out, this'll end up with NU playing in a casino in Arlington Heights or something.
Northwestern might have trouble filling the stadiums at New Trier or Loyola Academy.
Isn't it ironic that this situation has "festered" for 10+ years?
I'm not victim-blaming - just think the timing of the allegations is odd.
I mean, somebody is in therapy for 10 years and they never tell their story to the media?
It never "leaks"? I can understand somebody having PTSD and therapy but after 5 years+ it would seem like the story would somehow get out into the media.
It's almost like EVERY football program has "evil" within it - yet, people live with it for decades.
Why?
Go Blue.
PS - (Except osu, they can do ANYTHING and NEVER pay a price except to keep winning/making the playoff, etc., cuz, like ohio) /s
Victims of abuse don't talk about what happened to them for many years--if ever--because they blame themselves for being in the wrong situation and/or putting up with the abuse in the first place. This is not the kind of stuff that leaks, either, because for the perpetrators it's part of a secret culture of dominance that they find rewarding and therefore want to uphold.
Why is the timing odd? Not meaning to be contrary -- I just don't understand the point you're making. The allegations came out "now," as they always do, instead of "earlier" or "later." Why is now an "odd" time for these allegations to come out?
Also, yeah, sure, I believe lots of people prefer to keep the traumas they experienced when younger secret. Until the day they decide, for whatever reason, to make them public. Do you think otherwise? Maybe you're right -- maybe it's uncommon to wait 10 years. But ... that's not the understanding I've had.