More details on the hazing at Northwestern (ESPN link)
it’s really bad.
The Daily Northwestern has some excellent reporting on this, but be forewarned - it gets rather graphic: LINK
Fitzgerald really should be sacked.
Agree. After reading that article, it's almost impossible to believe the coaches didn't know this horrible behavior was going on. And even if they have these monitors in place at regular team activities, there'd be no guarantee that the hazing will completely stop if the current staff is left in place. They obviously allowed it to happen and didn't take the anti-hazing training seriously.
Yea, I went from thinking that two weeks suspension was a bit too much for Fitz because he didn't know anything, to now wondering we he isn't fired already.
If he truly didn't know anything, then that is a clear sign he doesn't have control of his program. If he did know something, he let it continue on or didn't put proper guardrails in place to prevent it from happening again after he found out.
Either way, it's not what you need from a guy running a college football program, and he should be let go or resign.
Not just ‘allowed it,’ but that he was signaling what players should get hazed by clapping with his hand over his head during games. If true, that’s a crazy black eye for a school like N.W.
That part blew me away more than any. Fitz was thinking about this during games! Movie villain crazy if true. That’s some John Kreese shit.
None of the Hassan Haskins, “hey, he made a mistake” people have checked in yet.
I think he’s gone by Monday. For cause.
If it's for cause, ZERO percent chance he is fired Monday (IMO).
I bet they let him step down. He is a legend at Northwestern.
But zero percent because unless they can prove he knew...lawyers will need to dig deep. He signed a 10-year contract at like $5M/year.
I can't imagine he is the coach when they report in late July. But unless there is proof, he is not going to leave all that money on the table.
Or, I guess he can be fired for cause on Monday...and Northwestern will be sued by Tuesday.
I'm sure they're combing every line of his contract trying to find something that says he can be fired, even if they can't prove he knew.
I think he steps down, never admits to knowing anything, but takes responsibility as "the leader of the program" on some man of principle bullshit, as if he's being noble.
They work out the money in the background and he never gets the official red mark on his legacy. He fades away and find an NFL job in a couple of years.
Northwestern wins 3-4 games with an interim, they fire everyone and beg Mike Kafka to come back.
That said, if I was the AD. I'd see Fitz out (figure out a settlement) and hire Paul Chryst or Jim Leonhard next week.
You lost the bet.
Especially after winning what, 1 game? What is the reason to keep him...that's a shit coaching job any way you cut it
Fitz proved you can win there. Personally, I just think the game passed him by.
He reminds me so much of Brady Hoke. Clapping with no headset.
They've been in B1G Championship Games, they boatraced a good Auburn team in the Citrus Bowl. They have a beautiful new facility and they're building a new stadium.
Admissions will always be a hurdle, but there is no reason they can't win 7-9 games each year. It'll probably get harder with no divisions, but still. Expectations there are, "Make A Bowl Game."
Northwestern went to 5 bowl games in 50 plus years before Fitz and 10 since he arrived. The portal has probably hurt him but he's put one of the best left/right tackles in the game in last few years and was just in the B10 chip where they almost beat an excellent OSU team.
They will probably be awful without him and he will be good wherever he lands. At least, in my humble opinion.
Randy Walker and Gary Barnett both won at NU right before Fitz. Fitz didn’t invent NU playing for BT championships. Those guys were already doing it and they directly preceded him. Fitz played for Barnett and was on Walker’s staff.
there is no reason they can't win 7-9 games each year.
Respectfully, that might not even be true of Nebraska, let alone the hardest school to win at in the Big Ten. Northwestern hasn’t had more than 4 straight winning seasons since 1901.
Yeah, when the "dry humping" ended up being the least shocking allegation it was clear he needs to be fired.
As Brian has said (I think in regards to Bo and Anderson) it's his job to know.
Did the article get changed or something? It has zero details beyond old players doing something called 'running' to younger players. WTF is 'running.'
People are fucking weird
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Don't get me wrong, this is fucking disgusting. But I'm like, what would possess people to do this crap? Never in a million years would I think this is bonding, team building, or cool. It's creepy.
Harbaugh needs to get the team together and talk about this stuff. Just like that Canadian hockey story, these aren't isolated incidents. Don't bury your head in the sand with the "bad apples" bullshit. Address it and make sure everyone knows this crap will NEVER be tolerated. And educate the team on how to report it IMMEDIATELY.
But yeah, people are fucking weird.
"Bad apples" isn't bullshit; it's apologists being stupid and wrong. The full quote is, "A few bad apples spoil the bunch." It literally means exactly the opposite of what they mean. It means if you detect scumbags you need to get rid of them immediately, not dismiss them as exceptions.
And that very much applies to this scandal. Whom you let into your community, defines your community. The HC has full control over every single person in his program, coach, assistant, and player. So this kind of sick shit went on under Patty Fitzy's nose for no other reason than he was relating to and welcoming just the sorts of people who'd engage in this sick shit. It is never coincidental. It is a symptom of NW's program being rotted entirely through.
Agreed and fitz wasn't the bad apple he was the damn rotting apple tree bearing the fruit.
He actively encouraged it, he was calling out players to be hazed.
Why drag Shrek into it?
Well in fairness it was runmass, people celebrating in different ways.
Seriously though:
1. Fitz should be fired NOW. If he didn’t know (and I’d bet anything he did), he definitely should have. If he did, my opinion of him as a person just dropped exponentially.
2. Why do these “hazing” incidents always seem to incorporate homo-erotic behavior? That’s the part that baffles me but I’m sure a psychologist could have all sorts of theories on why they always include that.
It's a power thing.
One of my cats "lost" his alpha status to his long-lost-then-reunited brother, who outweighs him by several pounds (think Aidan Hutchinson vs. CJ Stroud). The funny thing is the big brother don't care; he's not asserting anything, he's just crazy big and skrong and that intimidates the other cats. To this day we'll occasionally see alpha brother mounting big brother; they're both fixed so it's 100% a power play (as explained by our vet).
That's not a metaphor, BTW. It's a relevant use case, because the instincts are just as primitive. There's basically no difference between human and non-human here. In the case of humans it's petty assholes going full lizard brain, resorting to primal urges to assert pack dominance. And while I can't reason with a cat, it has no place in civilized society.
Just odd sadistic stuff. Why even sexualize it? There’s some for-sure rapists in that group - just acting it out bc it’s “fun”. Pretty sure you’re a budding sadist/rapist and will act out the first chance you get (full blown rape). Warning signs are there.
I don't want to trivialize any of this and I hope that isn't how this comes across. I don't see how any of this is team building, paying your dues... I don't even see how this is hazing. This is really weird at best and much more at worst.
"Hazing" and "team building" have been around forever in the form of carrying equipment, or filling the water jugs, or pranks... real, legit, "we took your stick and hid it somewhere in the school"-type pranks, nothing involving showers or broomsticks or anything.
I think even at 18-19 years old, this would've been an enormous red flag if presented to me as "team building" or even "Hazing." I don't see how any of this creates a bond between teammates.
Yup. I've read a few books on hazIng (specifically male) and it always seems to center around homosexual activity. At some point someone will suggest they add that element.
Why? One of the main thoughts is secrecy. The idea that you can trust the man across from you in the organization if you've both had to XYZ in front of each other. It's like mutually assured destruction of social status or whatever they want to create.
It's just weird and it almost always gets to a point of sexual humiliation in the form of homosexuality.
In Skull & Bones they famously have the ceremony where you have to masturbate in front of everyone. Another where you lay naked in a coffin and tell secrets. Another where you lay in the same coffin and the members "relieve themselves" on you (both ways). Etc.
It's insane. If I'm at any program and anything near this weirdo BS is suggested, I leave IMMEDIATELY. I get some lighthearted hazing. Make the rookies buy dinner, make them pick up the pads, make them...whatever. As soon as someone wants to whip out their junk or make you rub on their junk...no. I'm out. That's crazy.
Don't see Fitz surviving this if he actually knew about what was going on. The players that were involved should be, at the very least, kicked off the team. There's hazing, and there's fucked up shit that shouldn't be tolerated.
How does he not? Micromanaging assistants and others are around all the time. The NU leadership loves fitz to a fault. Anyone else would have been fired for their record the last 2 seasons alone much less this
He's been the coach for nearly 20 years. If he didn't know it was going on, he damn well should have. Either he knew, or he is incompetent. Either way, time for NW to move on. Clean house (assuming these allegations are in fact true).
Not just coaching there for 20, he played there as well. Maybe this strain of hazing dates back to his playing days.
This.
The question in my mind, given the quote in the article the it’s been going on “like, forever”, is if Fitzgerald was engaged in this when he was a two time captain in the mid-90s. I can see him as a ringleader and thinking it’s just good clean fun.
[Edit:] missed getting my comment in by ‘that much…’
Llama packs do that when a new "outside" llama is introduced into a barn.
Kind of amazing to see 10 llamas running down and humping the new llama. If you ever get the chance, definitely bucket list.
If I were a llama, I'd definitely be a loner. The Lone Llama...
Clarence, weren’t you involved in a similar hazing incident involving a gorilla suit?
That's Clarence Beeks. I work for Dick Jones; Beeks works for the Dukes.
That crop report debacle still sticks in my craw.
your craw....?
Remind me to never look for a new pack....
Yeah, you definitely feel sorry for the new llama.
They spit too.
Holy shit - they should shut the down the football program. Idk, maybe not forever but shut it down and fire everyone for at least a season or two and bring in a entirely brand new staff and group of people. Even the AD, I'd be looking at firing him too, it's just unfathomable.
If I found out something like this happened at Michigan I would say the same thing.
That would be a bit of an overreaction, but overreaction is very fashionable these days.
I'm sorry sexual abuse makes me overreact.
Ngl, I was thinking that if this were a fraternity then at a minimum it would be placed on probabtion but in today's atmosphere it would be shut down.
Not saying you disagree, but IMO "today's atmosphere" is the right way to react to something like this and yesterday's atmosphere leads to things like Bo ignoring Robert Anderson molesting football players for years and years.
This is absolutely correct. Any fraternity or sorority would be already shut down. Talk about a double standard.