For Fitzgerald’s farewell speech in the locker room, they should consider stripping him down to his nook and crannies and have the senior athletic staff do some “running” on him.
Even joking about it makes me feel gross.
Then don't joke. It's a bad one.
Edited NM
Thamel’s most recent tweet about who Fitzgerald hired for his legal counsel is a doozy. This story has a loooooooooooong way to go before it’s done and Northwestern better be ready to shell out a lot of money defending this one. That is a very telling hire for legal counsel.
And? Winston & Strawn is one of the top law firms in the world and has almost 1,000 lawyers. So what’s his point? That some of the other lawyers lost a case that everyone knew the NCAA was going to lose? That doesn’t (1) have anything to do with this lawyer or (2) bear any reflection on how well those lawyers lawyered that case. Look at the individual lawyer, his accomplishments, and his expertise and you can actually learn something. This is crap “journalism” by Thamel.
Edit: I am going to leave this here, but apologize sincerely for misreading the Tweet as saying something it isn’t.
Two things:
1) The tweet referencing the law firm and the NCAA was from Andy Staples, not Pete Thamel.
2) Unless I completely misread multiple articles, said tweet is stating that the law firm represented the winning side, i.e. not the NCAA.
Well… I guess (1) I can’t read and missed who wrote what and (2) when I did read, I misread what he was saying about the NCAA case. My apologies and thanks for pointing it out!
I get wanting to protect yourself and your reputation but he's expressed little concern publicly for the players. Maybe that's a legal calculation, but so far, I believe his only statement has been that he didn't know about this, as well as about the character of the university. More of a self-protective stance than anything else, and no real repudiation of what's been alleged. I don't know how to take that given the legal ramifications of this potential case.
He issued an additional statement last night: https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/ncaa/big-ten/northwestern-wildcats/pat-fitzgerald-issues-statement-retaining-legal-counsel-after-firing/494620/?amp=1
He has the Hickey Report is his back pocket and would be an idiot to say anything else publicly. Northwestern is in a heap of trouble and this will likely cost them a fortune, win or lose.
Sacked during his forced holiday...
In all seriousness though, at this point, this is now quite overdue. It's amazing that a school with a highly touted communications curriculum couldn't communicate when it mattered most to their institution.
Well...
Jeebus. One step ahead of the revenuers, as we used to say in the illegal whiskey biz.
Which is what the federal government calls 'illegal activity,' but what we call 'just a man tryin' to make a livin' for his family sellin' moonshine liquor,' according to Lt. Aldo Raine.
Paul is one of the best in the business. Congrats to him.
A+ timing out the backdoor, lol.
Otoh, some of their journalism students did some strong work these last 72 hours.
Some of them probably used the last few days to line themselves up for pretty damn good jobs when they graduate.
Uh? Most media outlets aren’t interested in actual investigative journalism. I mean, consider why they beat mainstream outlets to this scoop as well.
You think the mainstream media doesn't report the news well? You're obviously a conspiracy theorist.
Could you repeat that, please? And this time, try to speak directly into the lamp.
Certainly, local Evanston and Chi outlets wouldn't be wild for this news. Not good for already bad business. Sounds like this one has been bubbling along beneath the surface for a LONG time, though. I only wonder what might happen if mistreated kids around the country all felt impelled to speak up? What percentage of programs would be left reeling?
But where were they before that? In all seriousness.
I'm not sure, but they had a different editorial staff. Their current editor-in-chief just took over for the summer term. (If they're like the Michigan Daily, they have a reduced staff over the summer, too, which makes this all the more impressive.)
Like JMBlue responded, each semester equals a new staff.
This kind of story doesn't happen in a week. It's possible it was worked on by multiple classes. If your question is why didn't they report on the rumor of these activities, the players willing to speak about it, changed how they could approach this.
God speed we need more of those kids with conviction and integrity.
Their journalism students at the daily northwestern are proving to be exceptional
Yes, and I sure Fitzgerald will land an analyst spot for Hugh Fucking Freeze or DJ Fucking Durkin or Brian Fucking Kelly. The SEC doesn’t bat an eye on hiring meathead degenerates
Fucking right.
He'll wind up in Tuscaloosa. Raback that shit.
Coaching carousel starting early.
This wasn’t a carousel; it was a garbage chute.
This might be a ridiculous thing to ask but is this an attractive job to any of our “4 potential HCs on staff?” NW loses some shine with the Big Ten West dying next year but it’s still a P5 job in the strongest conference in CFB with a track record of being okay with a terrible football program. The bar for Fitzgerald was literally “don’t get caught in a massive hazing scandal and otherwise you’re good.”
I don’t really think assistants leave UM this late in the game because you’re essentially locked in to a bad first 2 years at this point vs probably going to the CFP, but that job has to be really attractive to some dudes if the boys in Evanston come calling
Nobody is leaving until after the year. NU is going to appoint an interim coach.
It's gotta be Braun, right? But if they broom most of Fitz's longtime assistants, they'll still have trouble assembling a complete staff.
That whole staff has to go
I understand the sentiment, but you can't wipe out the entire staff at this point, two months before the season. That does a disservice to the current student-athletes. Maybe you don't promote someone from within, but you can't lose 10 other coaches (plus other staff members) and all their connections to the players, knowledge of the program, etc.
If they do promote from within, Northwestern has a new defensive coordinator (David Braun) and a new running backs coach (Chris Foster) who would seemingly not be that tainted by the scandal.
Maybe you don't promote someone from within, but you can't lose 10 other coaches (plus other staff members) and all their connections to the players, knowledge of the program, etc.
I mean you can when faced with cleaning up a massive sexual abuse scandal.
Colorado did a whole staff makeover with Deion Sanders after a 1-11 season for entirely football-based reasons. Why can't Northwestern do something similar for massive scandal reasons on top of trying to turnaround a 1-11 program?
Timing. 1st game is w/i 2 months. Deion had 6-7. It's also past the portal period*
Okay, so they go 1-11 again this season only win against Howard. Like, there's incoming freshmen who would have been subjected to this -- some things are bigger than football, especially at Northwestern.
...and?
They don't have some legal duty to the members of the football team to field a competitive squad.
Actual data; always so refreshing here in the vacuum! :)
...and if the investigation identifies the players that carried out these acts, those players should be dismissed/expelled.
Shhhh!
I always assumed part of Fitz' job security was being an NU guy. Plus the occasional great year, which even just accomplishing that is far from a given there.
Maybe though.
No way I would take that job.
Evanston is a nice college town on the lake.
Chicago is a great city right around the corner.
Expectations are not high there, and after this scandal they will be even lower.
The job is a good bump up in salary and exposure for any coach from a mid major, you live in a nice place, and there's no real pressure to win big. It's an attractive gig for some imo.
I would take that job. B1G football coaches get paid way more than me.
guess it wasn’t just “vague assertions,” like you said to the first post.
The wording they used for that particular post was absolutely vague assertion. Read it again if you disagree.
That does not mean it was without truth - simply that it was vague and without specifics or citations (which true journalism would have).