Sorta OT: NW coach Pat Fitzgerald suspended 2 weeks due to hazing incidents
Apparently Pat Fitzgerald has been suspended for 2 weeks after the school investigated claims of hazing on the team during preseason camp. It doesn't seem that Fitzgerald or the other coaches directly knew of the hazing (though the only reporting around the findings is an executive summary and since NW is a private school it's likely they won't publish the rest any time soon, if at all), but as the head of the program he's still being held accountable.
Fitzgerald is an institution at NW but (a) they've been terrible the past couple of years and don't look to be much better this season, and (b) when off-the-field issues like hazing come up it can be the impetus to move on from a guy. Outside of the COVID season when NW had one of the oldest, most experienced teams in the country and went 7-2, their last 4 seasons have been 3-9, 7-2, 3-9, and 1-11. And while UM won't see them on the calendar until at least 2025 (I think) I wouldn't be totally shocked if he's not there at the helm.
Anyway, interesting bit of conference news on a slow Friday.
What were his alternatives? This very well could be a face-saving gesture for all parties involved.
Here’s the problem: what is YOUR definition of hazing?
“the problem” is most definitely not my definition of hazing. or yours.
If you were to go read my comments a few back - where I provide the definition - you’ll see what I mean (and hopefully where I am coming from). I’m absolutely, positively not defending hazing, to be clear, but rather the subjective difficulty that comes from understanding what it is and isn’t. The definition is quite clear and yet very reasonable people would look at the exact same activity and not understand that it’s actually hazing without that definition. Which is the issue I was responding (that you responded to here).
Hazing will always be a part of football. Football is a culture of overcoming adversity, desensitization, and deindividuation. These all resonate with hazing. The two-deep creates an ingroup/outgroup bias, and newcomers threaten the establishment to boot. All these psychological factors (and there's more) blend with hazing, making football fertile territory for this. If a coach is serious about preventing the culture, it calls for established programs to prevent it and due diligence to adapt and maintain it.
I don't know what Harbaugh does about hazing, or Naurato, for that matter. Sports (especially men's sports since there are added pressures) will only be purged with an ongoing program to prevent it. Even with a solid program, it's whack-a-mole with each new team.
I'm unsure of the damage, and NW is doing the right thing as long as this is taken seriously. Two weeks seems manageable, but the proof is in the practice, and the details we will never see.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the truly horrific nature of the hazing:
Being forced to watch replays of every game from the 1-11 2022 season.
/s
Signed:
A Northwestern (and UM) Alum
And you know what? That IS actually hazing. I know you meant it as a joke, but in reality that meets the standard.
The real hazing was them somehow going 0-11 in the states but still finding a way to beat the fighting Scott Frosts overseas.
I'm curious as to what the alleged hazing was, but not curious enough to do any digging. Better to just imagine what it could have been -- maybe the upperclassmen made the freshmen jump into Lake Michigan in January.
No question that a lot of stuff that could be considered hazing today would not have drawn so much as a cocked eyebrow 20, 40, 60 years ago. We live in different times.
That said, if it was at all serious no way is Fitzgerald getting off with a 2 week summertime suspension. I don't care how much he is identified as Mr. Northwestern Football. If we're talking victim lawsuits serious he's getting a hard suspension or shown the door. With great compensation comes great responsibility.
I don't know much about Northwestern's teams, but Stewart Mandel did mention on The Audible podcast that he had hired an NFL DC after Hankwitz retired and that went poorly. Hired a college guy Mandel thought would be better. Their QB development has been so abysmal though.
So he essentially gets a 2 week vacation in July? Harsh
I actually think there is some value in initiation rituals as long as they don't go overboard, and I know this is an unpopular opinion
The last one I went through was called "prop blast" as part of the 82nd Airborne.... it consisted of having to know all about the unit history, having to go through a ridiculous about of PT (physical training), inspections, oh and a lot of drinking
of course there were some that took it too seriously. But many others were cool about it and it was an excuse to have fun..... having to drink beer from a squirt gun, stuff like that
I know there are draw backs, but in the end, we were all closer
I was one of the last people who experienced it.... there aren't females in the Infantry units, but apparently somehow females were involved from a support unit. Someone found panties in an ruck sac and made a female put those on a stick and walk around with that as her "guidon flag"..... that ended prop blast initiation at FT Bragg pretty quickly
I am glad that I was able to experience life in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's
Northwestern is not firing Pat Fitzgerald. Hell, this two week vacation they just gave him is only for optics.
He was suspended for two weeks. He knew of it, and the administration found the smoke. But it's not pure fire evidence. Or, they simply don't want to fire him or risk all the consequences of litigation against him over this issue.
Therefore they suspended him two weeks without pay and publicly kept his name out of the direct dirt to preserve the institution and the program... for now.
If he was so clean on this issue he would not have gotten two weeks without pay. Staffers would have. And they might have been booted as their buyouts are certainly miniscule compared to PF.
They know he knew.
2 games without pay for PF is nothing. Don’t know if it’s true or not but based on how many corroborating stories, I’d tend to believe it is true.
Makes me appreciate Jim Harbaugh that much more!
The Daily Northwestern has gotten more details. As you would expect from the student paper at a University with one of the nation's best journalism schools.
A former Northwestern University football player told The Daily some of the hazing conduct investigated by the university involved coerced sexual acts. A second player confirmed these details.
The player also told The Daily that head coach Pat Fitzgerald may have known that hazing took place.
“I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and it’s just absolutely egregious and vile and inhumane behavior,” the player, who asked to remain anonymous in this story, said.
The former player said he reported his experiences to the University in late November 2022. He alleges that much of the team’s hazing centered around a practice dubbed “running,” which was used to punish team members, primarily freshman, for mistakes made on the field and in practice.
If a player was selected for “running,” the player who spoke to The Daily said, they would be restrained by a group of 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in various “Purge-like” masks, who would then begin “dry-humping” the victim in a dark locker room.
The details that came out today are unsurprising and disgusting https://dailynorthwestern.com/2023/07/08/top-stories/former-nu-football-player-details-hazing-allegations-after-coach-suspension/