Northwestern hazing scandal
News coverage and commentary on the Northwestern University hazing scandal that led to the firing of longtime football coach Pat Fitzgerald.
“Northwestern” isn’t just a name on the schedule anymore. It’s also a code word for what not to do.
Warren Miles Long, a former running back, and John Doe 2 join a growing list of former student-athletes coming forward with lawsuits detailing similar allegations.
Simba Short, who played defense for Northwestern from 2015-2016, and another player filed suits with civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Chicago firm Levin & Perconti.
It would have been nice if he had acknowledged that some former players might have been hurt by the hazing scandal.
Wildcats players decide to not attend Big Ten Media Days.
“This entire situation, it’s distressing,” Gragg said in an interview with ESPN.
Michael Schill fired football coach Pat Fitzgerald only after the student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, published details of the hazing. This week, he granted the newspaper his first public interview on the scandal.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump spoke about the new lawsuit Monday afternoon on behalf of former student football player Lloyd Yates, Last week, Yates said that sexualized hazing was commonplace on the team.
The scandal happened in two ways: slowly, then all at once. The all-at-once part is easy: A football player made a complaint about locker-room hazing, an investigation was done and the dynamite blew up. The slowly part is complicated.
Not lost on some is how convenient that this decades-old pattern and practice is investigated and goes public during Derrick Gragg’s tenure as one of the few Black men overseeing a D-I program.
If the Wildcats are awful — throwback awful, to a time when many questioned if they belonged in the Big Ten — critics will line up to bury them.
A former football player at Northwestern, identified only as John Doe 3, alleges Northwestern University and its leadership fostered a culture of hazing and abuse.
The biggest professional leagues in the U.S. have mostly avoided high-profile hazing scandals over the past decade with the notable exception of the NFL’s Richie Incognito.
Attorneys Parker Stinar and Patrick Salvi Jr. said they have heard from Northwestern athletes who describe abuse that is far worse in women’s sports than in the football program formerly run by fired head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Whistleblowers risk a lot by coming forward.
“We’re talking about probably hundreds, if not thousands of events of abuse, harassment or sexual assault during his tenure,” attorney Parker Stinar said at a Wednesday morning news conference.
Just how twisted are things in the Wildcats’ football program and athletic department? An upcoming press conference by ex-players and their lawyers promises to detail “vast and shocking incidents of abuse.”
The player, identified in the lawsuit as John Doe, alleged Tuesday in the Cook County Court that Fitzgerald, Northwestern University President Michael Schill, the board of trustees and athletic director Derrick Gragg enabled and concealed sexual misconduct and racial discrimination.
Black athletes long have been involved in battles beyond the athletic field. The university’s culture didn’t become toxic overnight.
With lawyers becoming involved, who knows what lies ahead in this scandal?
“Sadly, our research suggests that this kind of abuse of student athletes may be far more common on college campuses than we know, because there is tremendous pressure to keep quiet,” attorney Ben Crump said. “It’s time for a reckoning to protect young athletes.”
It didn’t take long for the fallout from Pat Fitzgerald’s stunning firing to spill over into Northwestern’s recruiting prospects.
The hazing scandal that led to football coach Pat Fitzgerald’s firing has shone a harsh spotlight on the school.
Voters supported the firing by a large margin, despite Fitzgerald’s claims that he was unaware of the alleged hazing in his program that an independent investigation found likely to have occurred.
Does Gragg have any real authority over the football program, or does that authority quietly reside, as some insiders indicate, with the board of trustees and the school’s preeminent benefactor, former insurance magnate and billionaire alum Pat Ryan?
The university had hired Braun as defensive coordinator six months ago. He replaces the former coach after a hazing scandal.
I don’t understand how anyone schooled in journalism can toss aside the press hat they wore for decades while the press covers a story that’s right under their nose.
On Monday, The Score afternoon co-host Danny Parkins reported on his show that Foster “was the subject of an HR investigation that found him to have violated university policy by engaging in bullying and abusive behavior.”
Many of the questions and criticisms aimed at the hazing investigation miss the point.