College Football Fans React To Pat Fitzgerald Getting Fired Amid Hazing Scandal

Pat Fitzgerald, the head football coach at Northwestern, was let go on Monday after numerous former players disclosed information about hazing within the football program and days after an outside inquiry found that hazing was “widespread among football players.” Fitzgerald’s dismissal was revealed by university president Michael Schill in an online letter to the Northwestern community.

College Football Fans React To Pat Fitzgerald Getting Fired Amid Hazing Scandal

“The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team,” university president Michael Schill wrote in an open letter to the school community. “The hazing we investigated was widespread and clearly not a secret within the program, providing Coach Fitzgerald with the opportunity to learn what was happening. Either way, the culture in Northwestern Football, while incredible in some ways, was broken in others.”

Although there were “significant opportunities” to learn about the continuous hazing, the school said that the inquiry, which was started in January and was carried out by an outside law firm, did not uncover “sufficient” evidence that the coaching staff were aware of it.

The “investigation team determined that the complainant’s claims were in large part supported by the evidence gathered during the investigation, including separate and consistent first-person accounts from current and former players,” according to an executive summary made public on Friday.

The National College Players Association, which assisted the football players at Northwestern in their attempt to organize, is urging more inquiries into the claims of hazing and racism.

After The Daily Northwestern published an article with charges from the former athlete, who revealed specific incidents of hazing and sexual assault, the institution subsequently changed its position.

Nudity, coerced participation, and “sexualized acts of a degrading nature” were allegedly all a part of the hazing, according to Schill.

Some athletes, he claimed, did not believe the hazing to be damaging, while others “viewed it as causing significant harm with long-term consequences.”

On the issue, there is disagreement among many in the college football community. The reports stunned many who knew and interacted with him.

Clay Travis of Outkick said, “Either Pat Fitzgerald is an awful human being and tons of people affiliated with the program are still lying to cover up for him or isolated instances of alleged hazing may have happened, and someone is trying to get him fired by exaggerating them. I vote the latter.”

In fact, one report asserted that the accusations were exaggerated.

Former FSU QB Danny Kanell posted, “I hate this. Pat Fitzgerald is a good human who cared about his players deeply. He ran his program the right way and has a stellar reputation. I have never heard anyone have  a bad thing to say about him. This feels wrong.”

In a statement to ESPN, Fitzgerald claimed he was “surprised when I learned that the president of Northwestern unilaterally revoked our agreement without any prior notification and subsequently terminated my employment,” in reference to the agreed-upon two-week suspension.

Fitzgerald continued in his statement by saying that he has trusted his trial lawyer Dan Webb and his agent Bryan Harlan “to take the necessary steps to protect my rights in accordance with the law.”

 

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