Seems like Fitzgerald knew about the hazing
The former Northwestern player sent ESPN a screenshot of a whiteboard, which he says was in the middle of the locker room. Image is headlined "SHREK'S LIST" and includes a list of players' names and several bulleted items, including "naked slingshot" and "naked bear crawls."
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) July 9, 2023
But why twist or exaggerate that detail?
Wait, this isn't the Mgo account for the ENTIRE team is it?
/s
But I'll do you one better. I, me, myself...I've been in the NW football locker room. It's awesome. There is no white board.
This frankly makes me doubt the veracity of your post. You have the floor plan of their locker room memorized, down to this obscure detail?
I would imagine that somewhere in their football complex there's a board for players to look at.
In any event, if you're a Pat Fitzgerald fan, we're not the people you need to convince to save his job. We're just bystanders.
so this is...unverified voracity?
Actually I do have a floor plan of that locker room, lol.
1. I'm not trying to save his job...but you completely missed that point because you wanted to be a dick and come at me. I think he should be gone. Because he either knew and did nothing...or didn't know when he should've knew.
2. You mentioned floor plan, click here, I even highlighted it for you: https://ibb.co/W2JQNw9.
Maybe don't be so quick to attack someone who could be telling the truth, right? RIGHT?!
3. This doesn't mean ANYTHING, I've said that over and over. Just because this one detail was made up doesn't mean everything was made up. Everything doesn't have to be "all or nothing," that is never the case.
My point was, stop latching on to every insignificant detail to build your position. Quit with added commentary that simply isn't true.
And no, they literally do not have a whiteboard in their locker room. Just Google their locker room, I'm sure you can find photos.
Edit: Screw it, I'll do it for you.
- https://www.shieldlockers.com/project/northwestern-wildcats-football-lockers/
- https://spaces4learning.com/articles/2020/08/27/facility-focus-walter-athletics-center-and-ryan-fieldhouse.aspx
- https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-northwestern-field-house-photos-20180731-photogallery.html
- https://www.dailyherald.com/storyimage/DA/20180802/SPORTS/180809718/EP/1/5/EP-180809718.jpg&updated=201808022028&MaxW=900&maxH=900&noborder&Q=80
And here's a video tour of the locker room that I found in two seconds: https://www.insidenu.com/2018/8/3/17645636/northwestern-walter-athletics-center-tour-video-photos-pat-fitzgerald
Again, this part doesn't matter...but I'm not a huge fan of the snark from people who don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Especially when it is directed at me, happy to provide a response put an end to it. Now, hopefully we can get back to the MUCH larger story...which isn't about how I know the floor plan of the NW football locker room.
I'm afraid you've greatly overestimated my interest in this topic.
I really don't care if the board is removable, or whatever. It's just very odd that a Michigan fan would be this strident in defense of Fitzgerald. I scanned an NU site (Inside NU) and no one was offering anywhere near the level of defense of the guy you've been. (No one there denied that the whiteboard in question exists, incidentally.)
What defense did I give? I said the guy should be gone.
You all are cherry picking bits and pieces.
Which is fine, but don't act like I'm out here caping for Pat Fitzgerald. I couldn't care less about what happens to him.
All I was doing was calling out misinformation, lol.
Then when I got called a liar...I simply proved that I wasn't lying.
And bullshit, you literally made a snarky comment about knowing the floor plan. Turns out, I had one, and shared. I was just calling you out on your bullshit.
...but now you don't care. 😂
This isn't a court of law where we need to compile evidence.
And yet much of your post reads remarkably like a defense lawyer's opening statement.
Because I was dispelling a blatantly false comment by the OP? Yeah, okay.
Under your scenario, it sounds like you think it’s just freshman punishment and that possibly Fitz knew nothing about it? The players just had the white board somewhere and Fitz NEVER saw it or you just simply don’t believe the pictures exist? I’ve been “hazed” and have “hazed” on a small scale that simply the point of it was trusting your teammates and getting to to know them. But this story is taking it to the absolute extreme and you seem to be almost excusing it.
ohhh boy...this could start to spiral fast
Aren't naked bear crawls de rigeur for two-a-days?
My uncle swears that while attending Grosse Point South decades ago the swim teacher had students swim naked.
There was a big article about this in the Wapo recently about something similar in University of Maryland. Apparently back in the day they had single sex swim classes and, men at least, were made to swim naked out of fear of whatever material swimsuits were made of would clog the filter.
Seems like pubes would be more likely to clog the filter.
And those were heavily forested days.
I graduated from Grosse Pointe South in 1971 and yes, we had to swim naked during gym class. It was weird but since everybody was naked it wasn’t traumatic, at least for me. I’m sure it was worse for some other kids, though.
I can’t imagine they’re still doing it that way today.
Boys were required to take swim in Chicago public schools and required to swim naked until about 1982. I can’t speak to GPS high school but boys being required to swim naked in high school was done nationwide and is fairly well documented in the media.
Check out an episode of the podcast “American Hysteria” as one source.
Yeah, it was considered more sanitary to swim in the nude than with a swimsuit on, which just might carry microbes.
Or they just were too lazy to clean the pool water often enough.
I think of this often and it seems with greater frequency the last several years.
When I was in the Navy and on an amphibious ship with a Marine unit off the coast of Somalia, the ships would do "gator squares"--essentially sail in rectangular patterns off the coast. One night, at like 3 am, a junior navigator had the duty. The ship apparently got out of the desired pattern and the prop struck a reef and was bent. Divers went down and evaluated the damage. The ship was seaworthy and we completed the 6 month deployment.
Within a week, an admiral from Norfolk arrived bringing a new captain, navigator and junior navigator. The captain and navigator were in bed and had no reason not to be--but they were responsible.
I'm not sure that level of accountability is appropriate or desirable in all walks of life, but I guarantee the salaries of those three officers combined didn't come up to a tenth of what Fitzgerald earns.
In regards to hazing, are you a "shellback"?
Yes I am and carry the card in my wallet just so I never have to crawl around on a non-skid flight deck through garbage and puke again.
Its called: Accountability. Those are in charge must create a rigid environment where everyone knows the consequences of stepping out of line, bc those in charge will be punished as severely for not knowing as they would for complicity.
Thats why the Rick Pitino defense — “I had no idea” — was such BS. Ofc he knew… but its actually worse if he didnt.
Huh? What does this have to do with football hazing?
Guess what I thought was self-evident wasn’t so self-evident.
Organizations have expectations and rules of behavior. Staff and team players (employees in a more general sense, not wading into that debate now) are told to act within certain, pretty non-debatable lines. An organization that has misconduct fester for years is the fault of a leader who either is complicit, or tolerates it, or has not bothered to make sure everyone is acting according to expectations. I see the Pitino recruits-n-hookers escapade as the same sort of problem as team hazing.
More to the point of leaders being held responsible for the actions of those in their charge.
I can't wait for the amended letter from "the ENTIRE team", stating that there is no way Fitzgerald could have known because, in all that time, he has never been in the locker room.
I think that's already in this thread.
Is it realistic Fitz wouldn't know about this hazing if it had been going on for 6 months, particularly in the off-season? Yes. Maybe not probably, but certainly possibly. Since mid-2014? No effin' way.
Northwestern has a problem though. If you send Fitz packing, who do you hire to get through this season? I presume all the other coaches knew something as well. You can completely clean house after the year--players involved included. Hard to do that 3 weeks or so before fall practice.
With its investment into the football facilities recently, NW has become a lot more desirable. If they could lax up on admission requirements, especially for transfers, then it could get even more desirable. I could see a Paul Chryst or someone like that being head coach at NW
They'd probably do something similar to us when we fired Steve Fisher. Fire the head coach, have the assistants ride it out that season, then clean house after.
If the coaches knew.. they should be dismissed immediately. If that means their season record turns out to be 0 - 12, so be it. There’s no other course of action, if the Athletic Department and University wish to maintain a semblance of integrity.
We’re not talking about freshmen carrying out, and returning, practice gear. Nor, shining / polishing boots - as has been customary in soccer.
P.S. - of course, any decision / action taken - should be decided after a thorough investigation.
They've already conducted a six-month investigation, which appeared to corroborate the accusing player's claims. The main issue up in the air is the extent to which Fitzgerald knew what was going on.
Yeah some initiation rituals, involving maintaining full clothing and dignity, are completely fine.
A frat at Michigan made pledges wear pink fanny packs and light every partygoers cigarettes at a party. Fairly harmless but made them "lighter bitches."
I don't understand why teams can't do stuff like that - mildly demeaning and humorous but doesn't harm anyone or degrade them.
The first thing they do is call Sherrone Moore’s agent, if they haven’t already.
Respectfully, no.. please no. I wish the best for everyone associated with Michigan. If they’re going to call.. please call in mid January…
They need to determine the level of Fitzgerald’s awareness and respond accordingly:
Fully Aware: Terminated for cause
Aware But Not Fully Aware: Suspension
Unaware: He receives an apology
Well it seems like Fitzgerald punishment being revisited by the University President and the board. of course it is. Like they have a choice.
It’s just hard for me to understand how anyone could think this makes you a better team.
Their recent W-L record suggests an overall lack of any general understanding of playing successful football.
Fitz is a beloved alum and doubt they could get a better football coach at that program. With that said, they don’t care. Northwestern is a school that doesn’t like its reputation taking a hit. They are an elite academic institution that collects big media rights checks. He gone.
Northwestern stood by Chris Collins when he was accused of running players off the team.
But this? No Big Ten school would let this go.
Even msu?
Wait. Chris Collins was "running" players off the team?? That has an entirely different connotation now.
Where do people get the idea that Fitz is some irreplaceable coach? NU has gone 3-9 (1-8) and 1-11 (1-8) the last two years, and is expected to suck again in 2023. None of which should matter at this point, though.
Pretty bad, but at least they didn't bet on games.
-NFL
Lords of Acid is missing out on a theme for their next album.