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Northwestern fires Pat Fitzgerald

T

ttowncoug

Hall Of Fame
Sep 9, 2001
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Generally think he's a good coach. Not sure why he didn't have a better handle on what his players were doing, but feel like this got out of hand very quickly in the media.

www.espn.com

Northwestern fires Fitzgerald amid hazing claims

Northwestern fired longtime coach Pat Fitzgerald amid allegations of widespread hazing within the football program. Defensive coordinator David Braun is expected to be named the Wildcats' acting coach, sources told ESPN.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
That sucks.

He IS a good coach and that's his alma mater I believe. Damn.
 
ttowncoug said:
Generally think he's a good coach. Not sure why he didn't have a better handle on what his players were doing, but feel like this got out of hand very quickly in the media.

www.espn.com

Northwestern fires Fitzgerald amid hazing claims

Northwestern fired longtime coach Pat Fitzgerald amid allegations of widespread hazing within the football program. Defensive coordinator David Braun is expected to be named the Wildcats' acting coach, sources told ESPN.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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I have a hard time firing someone without any indication they’re aware of the offense. Maybe there’s more to it, but when a six-month investigation can’t show someone knew something, and they get fired over it anyway…that seems like a pretty strong wrongful termination argument.
 
95coug said:
I have a hard time firing someone without any indication they’re aware of the offense. Maybe there’s more to it, but when a six-month investigation can’t show someone knew something, and they get fired over it anyway…that seems like a pretty strong wrongful termination argument.
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What the F. "sexualized hazing?" WTF is that? Were they Butt-fing the younger players? Broomsticks up their butts? Mandatory BJ's? Crazy shit.
 
Loyal Coug1 said:
What the F. "sexualized hazing?" WTF is that? Were they Butt-fing the younger players? Broomsticks up their butts? Mandatory BJ's? Crazy shit.
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Biggs has done all the necessary googling, he will fill you in on the deets.
 
BiggsCoug said:
This poster supports rapists. He is a scumbag same ad jdl.
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Buddy, go to therapy or get on drugs or something. Your constant hate and vitriol for everything and everyone is just getting crazy. Chill the F out and have some beers.
 
There are also some claims of racism in the program that came out today. The two things coming together probably is what really made the decision. Schools cut bait at the first hint of racism now. It’s the new 3rd rail.
 
95coug said:
There are also some claims of racism in the program that came out today. The two things coming together probably is what really made the decision. Schools cut bait at the first hint of racism now. It’s the new 3rd rail.
Click to expand...
Hard to argue against firing the coach. Coaches spend hours every day with these kids. They know who their girlfriends are, what cars they drive (nowadays cuz they give them the keys) and what their parents do for a living. Claiming you weren’t aware for stuff like this isn’t going to cut it.

It’s odd to me how coaching, which is such an alpha profession, can have successful guys like this, along with paterno, briles, etc who turn a blind eye to this kind of nonsense.
 
Remember, their President Michael Schill, just came over there from Oregon. No allegiance to Pat or the program. My suspicion is as more allegations started coming out, Schill wasn't going to let this situation be damning to him on his watch.
 
wsudefense said:
He’s done
dailynorthwestern.com

Former NU players describe racist environment in football program

Three former Northwestern football players described a “culture of enabling racism” to The Daily, recalling multiple racist actions and remarks from both coaching staff and players. All three players, who played for the team in late 2000s, also corroborated some of the hazing allegations...
dailynorthwestern.com dailynorthwestern.com
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This and the report that players and coaches were participating in the hazing events.

I also would think their AD -- again who is not Schill's guy - is on the out as well.
 
wsudefense said:
He’s done
dailynorthwestern.com

Former NU players describe racist environment in football program

Three former Northwestern football players described a “culture of enabling racism” to The Daily, recalling multiple racist actions and remarks from both coaching staff and players. All three players, who played for the team in late 2000s, also corroborated some of the hazing allegations...
dailynorthwestern.com dailynorthwestern.com
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this is about as exciting as a wet fart.

These kids are raised that the whole world should be a safe space, and that anything that makes them uncomfortable is an offense. If you need 10 years of therapy and have PTSD because someone made a remark about a stereotype, you've got bigger issues. Not every comment about race that you don't agree with is racism.

It sounds like the culture was toxic in general, which would explain why they were shitty more often than not. I don't care for the race based comments that were allegedly made, but having heard plenty of them directed at me I can confidently say they never made me question my self worth. Geezus, what ever happened to sticks and stones?
 
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Coug90 said:
Hard to argue against firing the coach. Coaches spend hours every day with these kids. They know who their girlfriends are, what cars they drive (nowadays cuz they give them the keys) and what their parents do for a living. Claiming you weren’t aware for stuff like this isn’t going to cut it.

It’s odd to me how coaching, which is such an alpha profession, can have successful guys like this, along with paterno, briles, etc who turn a blind eye to this kind of nonsense.
Click to expand...

Most of these guys know only one thing...and it's football.(or whatever their sport may be) Their personal skill set and often times moral compass is just absent and why you hear them say things that are just head scratchers.

Recently Bob Higgins comes to mind

I remember how Paterno was often hailed as a good guy...and that guy always gave me the willies. Never bought that bullshit.

We were lucky to have the coaches we have had. While not Perfect they certainly weren't the big steaming piles of shit that others had to deal with.

And as an edit to this post...if anyone hasn't followed the New Mexico State basketball scandal, it makes this look fairly tame by comparison
 
BleedCrimsonandGray said:
this is about as exciting as a wet fart.

These kids are raised that the whole world should be a safe space, and that anything that makes them uncomfortable is an offense. If you need 10 years of therapy and have PTSD because someone made a remark about a stereotype, you've got bigger issues. Not every comment about race that you don't agree with is racism.

It sounds like the culture was toxic in general, which would explain why they were shitty more often than not. I don't care for the race based comments that were allegedly made, but having heard plenty of them directed at me I can confidently say they never made me question my self worth. Geezus, what ever happened to sticks and stones?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure it's relevant, but it's not like this specific player was some kind of a washout. It sounds like he completed his eligibility and the article stated he is a graduate. When you potentially combine what's in the article with the hazing, I have a hard time jumping to "These kids are raised that the whole world should be a safe space, and that anything that makes them uncomfortable is an offense.".

> “Those are two phrases you would hear a lot around the program that referred to the sentiment of ‘fall in line,’” the player said. “If you were not in line with the “Wildcat Way,” Coach Fitz or any one of the coaches will be quick to say like, ‘yeah, check your scholarship.” <

Players are alleging that the "Wildcat Way" only applied to the non-white players. Everything from how they talked, walked, "acted", and cut their hair. Personally, my focus isn't whether the targets were somehow soft or too sensitive. It's on Fitzgerald, the staff, and all the people who knew about it and stood by and watched.

This doesn't appear to be on the level of Penn State, but it's not difficult to see it getting to that point if it was allowed to continue.
 
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Fitzgerald was making $5.7 million a year. ouch!! He gets canned and the other coaches stay. I would fire all of them and start clean but again I’m no lawyer.
 
BleedCrimsonandGray said:
this is about as exciting as a wet fart.

These kids are raised that the whole world should be a safe space, and that anything that makes them uncomfortable is an offense. If you need 10 years of therapy and have PTSD because someone made a remark about a stereotype, you've got bigger issues. Not every comment about race that you don't agree with is racism.

It sounds like the culture was toxic in general, which would explain why they were shitty more often than not. I don't care for the race based comments that were allegedly made, but having heard plenty of them directed at me I can confidently say they never made me question my self worth. Geezus, what ever happened to sticks and stones?
Click to expand...
Bleed …after reading many posts by many people I think I get a grasp on what people don’t believe racism is . Without question the race card has been thrown out in an event that it was inappropriate. Seems to me in this case they were pampered and they should rub some dirt on it from your point of view . Forgive me if I am misrepresenting your position .

But there is a question I do really want to know an answer . What does racism look like to you?
 
SaveFerris said:
I'm not sure it's relevant, but it's not like this specific player was some kind of a washout. It sounds like he completed his eligibility and the article stated he is a graduate. When you potentially combine what's in the article with the hazing, I have a hard time jumping to "These kids are raised that the whole world should be a safe space, and that anything that makes them uncomfortable is an offense.".

> “Those are two phrases you would hear a lot around the program that referred to the sentiment of ‘fall in line,’” the player said. “If you were not in line with the “Wildcat Way,” Coach Fitz or any one of the coaches will be quick to say like, ‘yeah, check your scholarship.” <

Players are alleging that the "Wildcat Way" only applied to the non-white players. Everything from how they talked, walked, "acted", and cut their hair. Personally, my focus isn't whether the targets were somehow soft or too sensitive. It's on Fitzgerald, the staff, and all the people who knew about it and stood by and watched.

This doesn't appear to be on the level of Penn State, but it's not difficult to see it getting to that point if it was allowed to continue.
Click to expand...
I'm not endorsing anything that was going on there, but its one thing to say "I was exposed to this behavior and it sucked and those people are dicks" and a completely other to shrivel into a ball and claim that being asked if you knew how to clean a house gave you ptsd for 10 years. Also interesting that this all came out AFTER the other allegations came out.

Again, I'm not justifying the behavior and it sounds like there needed to be a house cleaning (including the assistants), but I personally know a lot of millennials who look at the world as one big perpetrator and they are the victim. Or to put it another way : when you're wielding a hammer, the world is full on nails. Most of the kids they interviewed chalked it up to "coach sucks" or "car wash sucks" and got on with their lives, because in general a lot of the world sucks, so you can either deal with it or let it control you. Maybe some of them had prior trauma, who knows.

As I write this I think the thing that I am probably feeling the most is disappointment that these institutions that are supposed to foster camaraderie and brotherhood violate the trust of some of their membership and ruin it for them. Cam Cleeland comes to mind. In theory I don't mind the idea of an initiation or "hazing" per se as it shows conviction and loyalty to the group, but you can't trust a bunch of 18 year olds and knuckle-dragging coaches to not take it too far, so you end up with a dick slapping your thigh as you try to enter or exit the shower.
 
BleedCrimsonandGray said:
I don't mind the idea of an initiation or "hazing" per se as it shows conviction and loyalty to the group, but you can't trust a bunch of 18 year olds and knuckle-dragging coaches to not take it too far, so you end up with a dick slapping your thigh as you try to enter or exit the shower.
Click to expand...
Agree the whole staff should be gone.

Personally, I don’t see hazing showing loyalty or conviction. It seems more about the price of admission to certain organizations. They always seem to get out of control. I never understood it let alone how it could get to the point of a “car wash” or “running” scenario. Then again, I do remember the whole UW frat hazing deal that involved goats & peanut butter.
 
SaveFerris said:
Agree the whole staff should be gone.

Personally, I don’t see hazing showing loyalty or conviction. It seems more about the price of admission to certain organizations. They always seem to get out of control. I never understood it let alone how it could get to the point of a “car wash” or “running” scenario. Then again, I do remember the whole UW frat hazing deal that involved goats & peanut butter.
Click to expand...
It was sheep. Get your facts straight. Baaahhh!

You know what time it is in Montana when you find a sheep caught in the barbed wire? Mounting time. Hahaha
 
Loyal Coug1 said:
It was sheep. Get your facts straight. Baaahhh!

You know what time it is in Montana when you find a sheep caught in the barbed wire? Mounting time. Hahaha
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Yeah, I guess a goat would cross the lines of decency? ;) As a former GDI, I don't have much of a reference point for these types of "activities".
 
Last edited:
SaveFerris said:
Yeah, I guess a goat would cross the lines if decency? ;) As a former GDI, I don't have much of a reference point for these types of "activities".
Click to expand...

Th sheep weren't a thing when I was in a frat in the early to mid 90's

We just had to clean a lot. Hell week just amounted to getting woken up a few times to go clean.

My friend had a birthday during hell week and got a bottle of Mr. Clean for his birthday.

Ahh the good ole days
 
spongeandshoot said:
Th sheep weren't a thing when I was in a frat in the early to mid 90's

We just had to clean a lot. Hell week just amounted to getting woken up a few times to go clean.

My friend had a birthday during hell week and got a bottle of Mr. Clean for his birthday.

Ahh the good ole days
Click to expand...
Are you ok?

Do you need me to recommend a therapist? Is your self worth destroyed?
 
BleedCrimsonandGray said:
I'm not endorsing anything that was going on there, but its one thing to say "I was exposed to this behavior and it sucked and those people are dicks" and a completely other to shrivel into a ball and claim that being asked if you knew how to clean a house gave you ptsd for 10 years. Also interesting that this all came out AFTER the other allegations came out.

Again, I'm not justifying the behavior and it sounds like there needed to be a house cleaning (including the assistants), but I personally know a lot of millennials who look at the world as one big perpetrator and they are the victim. Or to put it another way : when you're wielding a hammer, the world is full on nails. Most of the kids they interviewed chalked it up to "coach sucks" or "car wash sucks" and got on with their lives, because in general a lot of the world sucks, so you can either deal with it or let it control you. Maybe some of them had prior trauma, who knows.

As I write this I think the thing that I am probably feeling the most is disappointment that these institutions that are supposed to foster camaraderie and brotherhood violate the trust of some of their membership and ruin it for them. Cam Cleeland comes to mind. In theory I don't mind the idea of an initiation or "hazing" per se as it shows conviction and loyalty to the group, but you can't trust a bunch of 18 year olds and knuckle-dragging coaches to not take it too far, so you end up with a dick slapping your thigh as you try to enter or exit the shower.
Click to expand...
You mean like in (ahem) women's sports these days?
 
spongeandshoot said:
Th sheep weren't a thing when I was in a frat in the early to mid 90's

We just had to clean a lot. Hell week just amounted to getting woken up a few times to go clean.

My friend had a birthday during hell week and got a bottle of Mr. Clean for his birthday.

Ahh the good ole days
Click to expand...
Pretty tame in comparison. I don't know where the line, but I think I can determine when it's crossed.
 
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spongeandshoot said:
Th sheep weren't a thing when I was in a frat in the early to mid 90's

We just had to clean a lot. Hell week just amounted to getting woken up a few times to go clean.

My friend had a birthday during hell week and got a bottle of Mr. Clean for his birthday.

Ahh the good ole days
Click to expand...
You were after the Theta Xi sheep incident at uw.

Three times a year the ole frat house sparkles (to the extent it can): rush; initiation; and Mom's weekend.
 
dgibbons said:
You were after the Theta Xi sheep incident at uw.

Three times a year the ole frat house sparkles (to the extent it can): rush; initiation; and Mom's weekend.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think it was a year or two before me I think. I remember it when I was in school and it was a running joke when I was there
 
Yeah, Theta Chi. So Gibby, I was a GDI. Was your house the wife beaters or the date rapists? Can't remember after all these years. Pretty sure it was one or the other.

www.chronicle.com

Fraternity Disciplined Over Incident With Sheep

Seattle, Washington -- The University of Washington chapter of the Theta Xi fraternity has been disciplined for a hazing incident in which police found members and pledges dressed only in underwear and in possession of two stolen sheep. The fraternity has been expelled from the institution’s…
www.chronicle.com www.chronicle.com
 
Loyal Coug1 said:
Yeah, Theta Chi. So Gibby, I was a GDI. Was your house the wife beaters or the date rapists? Can't remember after all these years. Pretty sure it was one or the other.

www.chronicle.com

Fraternity Disciplined Over Incident With Sheep

Seattle, Washington -- The University of Washington chapter of the Theta Xi fraternity has been disciplined for a hazing incident in which police found members and pledges dressed only in underwear and in possession of two stolen sheep. The fraternity has been expelled from the institution’s…
www.chronicle.com www.chronicle.com
Click to expand...

Geezus dude...if you're not making off the charts generalizations about certain groups of people, you are talking about women you banged 40's years ago and the status of your junk...which I can assure you nobody gives a shit about.

Quit being such a creeper
 
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spongeandshoot said:
Geezus dude...if you're not making off the charts generalizations about certain groups of people, you are talking about women you banged 40's years ago and the status of your junk...which I can assure you nobody gives a shit about.

Quit being such a creeper
Click to expand...
F-off spongy. Why are you picking fights with me? Leave me the F alone. Put me on ignore. Pretty sure you and bro and I were sort of buds back in the day. What happened? If your point is that frat boys are the pinnacle of society I could do an internet search and find you a zillion examples of why they are not.
 
Loyal Coug1 said:
F-off spongy. Why are you picking fights with me? Leave me the F alone. Put me on ignore. Pretty sure you and bro and I were sort of buds back in the day. What happened? If your point is that frat boys are the pinnacle of society I could do an internet search and find you a zillion examples of why they are not.
Click to expand...

Its because you post shit that pisses off or offends an entire group of people. One day its republicans, the next day its people from Idaho, the next day its people from frats. Are you not aware those groups make up a decent portion of the posters here?

I mean its kinda like going to a party and telling 50 percent of the people to go F themselves.

We got along better 20 years ago because you didn't post shit like this back in the day...or at least that I can recall...and you weren't pissed off all the time.

Pretty sure the Idaho killer, Ted Bundy and others were GDIs. You don't see me going around making stupid generalizations.

If we are gonna go there, I would be willing to bet that football players have a much higher rate of assault and sexual assault than fraternity members. And believe me, I'm not a fraternity apologist. I know how annoying they can be.
 
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