but you were responding to my post, expressing disbelief that hazing still exists in the first place.
my read of your comments (that one and a couple others) was that you didn’t think there was fire to the smoke. i still read them that way, but whatevs.
I’d be surprised an administration that went “la la la nothing going on” for as long as they did would fire him for cause. Points the finger at their own culpability.
If firing him for cause means not paying him whatever they would have to otherwise, I think that trumps "their own culpability."
This ^^^
Not only does NW not have to pay him, they have plausible deniability and not extend a scandal long term. It's win-win.
You may be right, but Imma just say, don’t underestimate the capacity for bigwigs to set piles of money on fire just to save a little face. That goes hundredfold when it’s not their own money.
Do those bigwigs answer to bigger wigs? Because the latter might decide to get someone more fiscally responsible.
If there’s one thing that Bigger Wigs don’t appreciate, it’s for Big Wigs to land problems on their doorsteps.
$10M in exchange for NOT having their name associated with this mess? That’s not a question that a billionaire regent or megadonor would need to think about ONCE…
Not bad reaction time from NU.
You know, if you ignore the 6 month “we investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing” time period…
And giving him a two-week suspension in July, on a Friday news drop no less.
That was to gauge the initial public reaction. I suspect termination was always on the table.
One would think that PR folks would learn now that social media has made their weekend and holiday drops meaningless. Make the right decision or someone on SM is going to take that smoke and fan it until more is done. That’s one good thing to come out of this era of hyperdrive information.
The daily northwestern had the story ready to go. When they saw the administrations reaction, they dropped the bomb. Score one for the J students
This is so depressing. I can understand somebody like Ohio State looking, or trying to look, the other way at, say, Urban Meyer's misdeeds. This is mother firetrucking Northwestern though, one of the clearest "Academic Reputation Comes First" schools in the P5. How do they mess up the investigation this badly??
Something something selling the new stadium plan something.
This guy's name is actually David Davis. Wow.
Northwestern Senior Exec. Dir for Neighborhood & Community Relations Dave Davis said that Northwestern is “open to negotiations over hosting 10 concerts, a number it has already whittled from 15”
Meh, for years I've been trying to get Dave Davies to lead on Fresh Air. The way Terry Gross has repressed him is revolting.
While Dave is a great guitarist, Ray is a much more talented songwriter.
(just a little snark--BTW, I am also a 1990 RC grad).
Yeah, it’s a bummer. Even more so as an alum of both Michigan and Northwestern. Pretty embarrassing. Yet one more reason that some of us, definitely including myself, are uneasy about many of the changes to college athletics over the last couple of decades and the potential erosion or distortion of the missions of what are supposed to be first and foremost most centers of higher education. Lately it seems as if they are anything but that and have now inherited or had imposed upon them a range of focuses that were never originally intended upon their founding. Administering minor league sports being one of those distractions.
Another poster linked to a podcast talking about the toxic baseball program. The podcast explains that two former baseball players from the early 80s who are now mega donors (names on buildings) were in charge of hiring the coach.
Sounds like NU has long suffered from bad ADs and a board that’s stuck in the toxic masculinity of the early 1980s.
The guy who hired the baseball coach is new.
But that story is well known around the program and it might get ugly if more details emerge. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't get canned now that it's out.
Everyone that I know at NW calls him an ass, it's been bad since day 1.
At some point, this is going to come back to the AD. It's wild, the guy everyone wanted him to fire (Chris Collins) might be the guy who saves his job (because they made the tournament this year and that is like winning a super bowl at NW).
The new AD “punted” the decision to hire the baseball coach to two donors. The donors hired a coach who killed a kid at a previous school (by making him run too much) because they believed he would toughen up soft NU athletes.
Im supposing these donors/board members have played a bigger role in the culture of NU football, baseball, and other toxic programs for years.
Certainly previous ADs including Philips, the guy from the Washington Redskins, the guy before him, etc. were in charge of programs that had coaches like Gary Barnett (check out his sexual assault issues at Colorado right after NU) Randy Walker (an Urban Meyer disciple in most ways a worse person than Fitz) and the coaches I played for. Not to mention this new baseball coach and the baseball coach a few back who got fired from Oklahoma St. for racism.
the board members/donors who played in the early 1980s and think NU kids need to be “toughened up” are a common denominator to most or all of this.
Barnett’s comment on the female kicker who was raped is one of the ugliest moments in college football history.
"It was obvious Katie was not very good. She was awful," he
said. "Katie was not only a girl, she was terrible. OK? There's no
other way to say it."
And this reminds me that Pat Fitzgerald was the star MLB on the mid-90s Northwestern teams that went to the Rose Bowl, coached by none other than Gary Barnett.
Oh, I know everything you're saying is accurate. Gragg fumbled it from the beginning, but he's a terrible AD who had Ron English *gulp* at EMU throwing around homophobic slurs and then he hired a notorious cheater in basketball (Frank Haith) at Tulsa and that didn't go well.
I'd have to check if he was around for Todd Graham.
The donors and board members run everything at NW (which was Fitz's only shot to keep his job).
I think Phillips was a great AD for NW, it's been a trainwreck since he left.
I don’t know about Phillips, I’m sure you are correct, but the 2 ADs before him, this stuff was going on. At least in my team’s locker room.
Before this week, I had never even considered the board at NU athletics. I don’t recall them ever being mentioned when I played there. I wouldn’t know if I ever met one. Glad you could confirm my new suspicion that this group has been too much in control.
Doesn't help when you have the Ryan Family who've given BILLIONS to the school.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
On one hand..you get all of these new facilities. On the other, two of the most power people and their buddies basically run your school.
(Now I'm not saying this hazing stuff is the Ryan's fault...we are talking at a macro level about a larger issue at Northwestern, just don't want anyone reading this to get confused)
Quite frankly, NU more than many places that I’ve seen, places an inordinate amount of influence in the hands of their wealthy donors. The Board of Trustees is huge and reads like a who’s who of wealthy and influential donors. While this is true at many private schools, it seems outsized at NU relative to peers. There is nothing wrong with having wealthy trustee alums per se, but it probably should be balanced out with other voices that are not solely trustees because of their generosity to their alma mater. It would certainly make a difference to have a broader set of interests and perspectives represented in their governance structure and I‘m sure that they could find some prominent alums more than happy to contribute and bring a different approach to each challenge that they encounter. My impression is that the current administration and the trustees seem to view ever issue through the prism of money. Hence, why they have run deficits the last couple of years and seem more inclined to throw money at problems in search of brute force solutions rather than well thought out strategies. The hazing scandal along with numerous controversies over admissions and free speech on campus seem like symptoms of this broader issue.
Do they get their money back from the firm that did the initial investigation?
obviously, a conclusion was reached before they hired the firm. they just had to find a firm that would take the $ and sign off on that conclusion.
Why? The firm did exactly what they were hired to do.
How long until he works again?
Nick Saban will bring him on as an analyst I'm sure.
Someone's gonna bring him on as an analyst next year. Who knows maybe he's a position coach in the NFL
Yeah, he'll resurface as a linebackers coach for the Broncos in 2024.
Bears next week
Fitzgerald will be working somewhere next year, but will he ever be a HC again? Personally I don't think so, his time at NW wasn't good enough to look past the baggage he now has.
This also just in from the newsroom: they are gonna suck again this season.
They were going to suck with or without him. But there might be less hazing now.
it will just be a different kind of humiliation on the field.
That they’re used to. They went 4-20 (2-16) his last two years. Thank goodness for Scott Frost or they would have gone winless last year.
If the last 2 seasons of NW football turn out to be the world's most elaborate weed joke, I'll be extremely impressed.
Now that you mention it I wouldn't mind Scott Frost taking over at NU. I miss watching him nearly win 9 games a season and only win 3.
I can watch him turn even redder than he already is when his duo concepts fail because his OLinemen all weigh less than 250 lbs.
At this point it had to happen.
I'd again ask what the fuck that law firm did in their investigation to conclude there wasn't a lot there considering what has come out since. And then NW administration apparently didn't question any of it. Just crazy.
When I saw tweets about allegations of racist activity this morning I knew he was done. African American athletes having to have specific haircuts as well as coaches. Hispanic athlete having Cinco de Mayo shaved into his head and told by a coach that he bets him and his family know how to clean. That should be enough to get anybody canned.
Should be. Isn't. Ask Fitzy's old neighbor, Ferentz. They had the same thing happen a couple years back at Iowa. Another alumni with the occasional great season with a blank check to stay.
Alleged program-wide racism towards minorities. Accusations of forced haircuts, and hostility towards identities different from the white "American" male.
They got the free-pass "soul-search" to improve the culture of the program and a fine for Ferentz, if I recall. Does anyone really think there was a major change in the culture at Iowa football with a 95 year old coach?
Check that program next for unchecked hazing..
The two programs and their coaches were too similar to avoid comparison.
And I don't think Ferentz is capable of real change. His program (like the Bowdens and Paternos) is completely structured around him and his inability to evolve.
Ferentz isn't an Iowa alum. He played at UConn. But he certainly has been at Iowa a long time.
One would imagine. Sadly, only so if it gets recorded, and even more unsurprising, only if it then gets covered, and enough people react to it.
Based on a comment in another thread, this exact hazing and assault existed in other Northwestern teams. You have to believe the AD knows. I wonder if this will turn into a wider investigation or if they will contain it. I would hope the whole damn thing gets exposed and rooted out.
Great thought. I hope they go deep and find it all. Never was a place for sexualized hazing and racism and we finally have reached a moment in society where enough people agree to that.
Well said.