As of writing, Northwestern University has fired head football coach Pat Fitzgerald for swirling allegations of hazing under his watch. He had held the position consecutively for 16 years after his hire in 2006. He also played at Northwestern from 1993-96. The head baseball coach is also under scrutiny for hazing so severe that half of his team sought therapy.

At the bottom of this article I will leave some screenshots of tweets from journalists defending Fitzgerald.

Also, I will not detail the hazing described by former Northwestern football players in this article. Know that it is grotesque and sexual in nature and players have reported suicidal ideation as a result. You can read the original story in The Daily Northwestern if you so choose, but it will turn your stomach.

Hazing? Ha, Zing! Definitely No Hazing Here.

Whenever allegations of wrongdoing or corruption come out, I will admit, I tend to side with the accuser. That said, I will work from that perspective backwards, trying to prove myself wrong. I tend to doubt myself, it’s sometimes annoying, but it typically means I’m sure I’m right before I’m speaking.

I don’t have privileged information, and I won’t act like I do. I read what comes out and make my own inferences. Some key things I believe are:

• People in positions of power for too long will eventually abuse it.
  • This can be prevented with proactive monitoring through a third party.
• Student Athletes are regularly taken advantage of.
  • See literally any economic report on the value of players to their university, consider what they get in return. Business Insider determined the average FBS FB player was worth $123K/yr to their school.
• Membership in a group should not require an oath of secrecy. Extra demerits for some implied punishment or excommunication for leaking secrets. Exceptions apply for intellectual property.
  • If this isn’t nefarious why would it exist?
  • We worried people might find out we foster puppies?

Hazing is an issue on college campuses everywhere. It’s not exclusive to fraternities, sports teams, or even the colleges themselves. It happens to some degree in every social community where there is any level of exclusivity. Hazing is a way to sort through people who you don’t want in the social circle by seeing what they will or won’t do or submit to.

Sometimes hazing is making fun of each other to see if everyone has a sense of humor. Sometimes, it’s far more gross, to see if you will do anything to be a part of the group. The latter is where hazing becomes a problem.

The Student Athlete as the Captive Participant

Consider for a second the perspective of a student athlete at a school like Northwestern. You are not at Northwestern because you are a standout athlete. The player who spoke to media said that he reached out to NU staff in November 2022, in the midst of the Wildcats 1-11 season, the worst they’ve had since 1989, when they went winless.

Sidebar: It would make sense to fire Pat Fitzgerald for that alone, by the way. His only win this season was over Nebraska, and it happened in Dublin, Ireland. He had zero wins in the United States this season. What the hell are we doing here? Okay, back to it.

You are the student athlete, you’ve come to be a part of this team because you want to advance your career outside of football, but football is your ticket to this world-class education (by nearly any measure, NU is a good school). You walk off the practice field at the end of the first day and into the locker room. You see a player who fumbled during drills is taken into a side room. Upperclassmen don masks and follow. The lights in the side room turn off. You hear things you wish you didn’t.

The player who made the mistake comes back out, shaking, barely himself, but he doesn’t say a word.

Do you ask him what happened? Do you hope you don’t make a mistake and experience the same thing?

Most people would choose to ignore it, pretend they didn’t see it, and hope their turn doesn’t come. But everyone’s turn comes.

These Tweets Are Real.

Screenshots taken at 2:55 PM EDT, 07/11/2023. The story broke in the Daily Northwestern on 07/08/2023. All of these tweets come from after Fitzgerald’s firing with the exception of Darren Rovell, who’s only tweet after the firing is a single word, “Sad.”

Charlatans like these swoop in to make sure there’s a “both sides” argument to be had. They serve idiots. Anyone with deductive reasoning skills can figure out that the president of the university had his hand forced. Multiple players have come out to corroborate the story of the anonymous player, and even add more. Players ALSO described an environment rife with racism and unfair treatment.

Northwestern graduate, alleged impartial journalist, Darren Rovell everyone:

If you have more screenshots of journalists’ poorly thought-out tweets about Pat Fitzgerald, please share them with me, I’ll keep any of them on another post.

If you take issue with my stance, go ahead and reach out. But if you’re defending the coach who just went 1-11, consider your motives.

Anti-Standom

(Noun) Resistance to becoming overwhelmingly enamored or obsessed with a person or thing.