Northwestern Fires Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald After Former Players Raise Concern Over Hazing, 'Vile' Abuse

“I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and it’s just absolutely egregious and vile and inhumane behavior,” one player told the school's newspaper

Northwestern University has fired its longtime football coach Pat Fitzgerald following an investigation into allegations of hazing and abuse within the school’s program.

Fitzgerald, 48, was fired Monday after the school first put him on a two-week suspension without pay in response to the investigations on Friday.

A former player claimed the program had allowed widespread hazing and sexual abuse that impacted students’ physical and mental health, which led to Northwestern launching an investigation into the claims in January.

Two players then spoke with The Daily Northwestern over the weekend, detailing the hazing and abuse younger players faced on the team, and claimed that Fitzgerald knew about — and encouraged — the hazing.

“I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and it’s just absolutely egregious and vile and inhumane behavior,” one player told the school newspaper.

Fitzgerald told ESPN he had “had no knowledge whatsoever” about the hazing and that he was “surprised” when he learned he was getting fired Monday. The school said its investigation did not find "sufficient" evidence Fitzgerald and other coaches knew about the hazing, but said there were “significant opportunities” for them to find out.

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"The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team," Northwestern president Michael Schill wrote in an open letter on Monday. "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."

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The players who spoke with The Daily Northwestern described a number of hazing rituals that would take place amongst the team, including one called “running,” which included a player being restrained by eight-to-10 teammates who wore masks and dry humped them.

“It’s a shocking experience as a freshman to see your fellow freshman teammates get ran, but then you see everybody bystanding in the locker room,” the player told the school newspaper. “It’s just a really abrasive and barbaric culture that has permeated throughout that program for years on end now.”

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Players would reportedly be chosen for “running” when another player would clap over their head, according to The Daily Northwestern. The players who spoke with the school newspaper said Fitzgerald would make the same clapping motion during practice when a player made a mistake on the field, though he never spoke outwardly about the hazing.

“Everyone would just be looking at each other and be like ‘bro, Fitz knows about this,’ because you wouldn’t take that action otherwise,” the player said.

Fitzgerald has been Northwestern’s head coach for 17 years after previously playing for the team from 1993-96.

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