Northwestern fires coach Pat Fitzgerald amid hazing scandal
Northwestern fires coach Pat Fitzgerald amid hazing scandal
Northwestern has fired coach Pat Fitzgerald amid a hazing scandal that called into question his leadership of the program and damaged the university’s reputation after it mishandled its response to the allegations.
"We've investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong."
Players come forward with corroborations.
"We've hired private outside investigators and found someone did something wrong, but the coach didn't know about it. He's an honorable man so we've only given him a slap on the wrist. We consider the matter settled."
More players come forward, with photographic evidence, and say the coaches knew and it was far worse than anyone imagined, especially the threats to anyone reporting hazing.
"We've looked within ourselves, and realized we can blame everything on one evil, shitty coach who we have now fired. He was clearly and solely responsible for all of it, and we expect this should be the end of the bad publicity, thank you and good day."
"Death penalty for Mizzou" -NCAA probably
Not without a hint of irony, this is far less severe than the actions of fellow Big Ten member Michigan "doctors raping children" State.
So, who coaches them now? Do they run with an interim for the year then try an actual search later?
That would be my guess, it’s way too late to do a traditional coaching search. But I’m not sure who in his staff will survive the firing and want to stay and be the interim.
Sounds like he was “old school” in that toxic way that coaches can be. Building a sports team by traumatizing teenagers is some retrograde bullshit, and hopefully the “leaders” who condone it are a dying breed.
I will say I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this is finally coming out in the Portal era. It’s almost like it was a terrible idea to give petty megalomaniacs complete control over a dedicated athlete’s athletic and educational options.
"Fitzgerald was 4-20 the last two years"
Good opportunity to make a change if you ask me.
So sad to see a union buster go out like that