Ex-football coach Pat Fitzgerald sues Northwestern for breach of contract
Three months after he was fired amid a hazing scandal, ex-Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald has sued the university and its president, accusing the school of “callous and outrageous misconduct in destroying his career.”
And Fitzgerald’s attorney said he doubts there was any significant hazing on the Wildcat squad, despite the multiple lawsuits and accusations since the allegations surfaced over the summer. In the wake of a scandal, he said, “people will think there’s a chance to get a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, and they will file lawsuits that are not merited.”
“If you put young men in a locker room, do they sometimes engage in behavior that someone could say on a given day they were being difficult with each other? Players sometimes do that in every locker room in America,” attorney Dan Webb said at a news conference Thursday to announce the lawsuit. “We’ll find out, was there any real hazing at Northwestern? I doubt it.”
In a scathing news conference later Thursday, attorneys for numerous former football players said Fitzgerald’s suit was a cash grab and an attempt to silence those who have spoken out.
“Fitz’s lawyer did not talk to our clients, did not know who our clients were, have not heard our clients’ stories, yet he called them opportunistic liars,” attorney Steven Levin said. “Why would he do this sort of thing? The only thing I can think of is intimidation.”
The university released a statement Thursday saying Fitzgerald “had the responsibility to know that hazing was occurring and to stop it. He failed to do so.”
The statement also noted that “multiple current or former” football players said hazing occurred within the program, “showing beyond question that hazing — which included nudity and sexualized acts — took place on Fitzgerald’s watch.”
“We remain confident that the University acted appropriately in terminating Fitzgerald and we will vigorously defend our position in court,” the statement reads.
The suit filed Thursday requests about $130 million, representing the remainder of Fitzgerald’s contract and his future earnings, in addition to punitive damages and damages for emotional distress. It is scheduled for an initial court date in December, records show.
Northwestern initially told Fitzgerald they would issue no further punishment if he would accept a short suspension, then a few days later terminated him after student newspaper the Daily Northwestern publicized details of the allegations. That amounts to a breach of contract, Webb said.
No new accusations surfaced in between Fitzgerald’s suspension and his firing, Webb said.
“It appears President (Michael) Schill didn’t like the heat, and he read the article, and he said ‘I’m going to breach the contract,’” Webb told reporters.
“The fact they’ve gone out and destroyed his reputation as one of the best football coaches in America, based on no legitimate reason or evidence, it’s disgraceful,” Webb said. “It’s despicable conduct on behalf of Northwestern.”
Northwestern has faced an escalating series of lawsuits related to the hazing scandal, broadly accusing the school of a culture that normalized instances of forced nudity, sexual abuse and racist remarks.
Webb on Thursday downplayed those accusations, saying he interviewed “huge numbers” of former players and coaches who said “they didn’t see any significant hazing other than occasionally horseplay.”
In addition, Webb said, the whistleblower who first reported the hazing last year had a “grudge” against the school and had told other players he planned to make false accusations against the school and Fitzgerald.
Attorneys for the former players said Thursday it defied logic to think so many former players could be conspiring to lie about their experiences.
“(The players) didn’t suffer from horseplay, they suffered from sexual abuse,” attorney Antonio Romanucci said. “Just because you’re considered to be a high-profile corporate lawyer does not make you credible.”
Northwestern commissioned an outside investigation led by former state Inspector General Maggie Hickey after receiving the whistleblower’s allegations last year. Hickey’s full report has still not been publicly released, but the school released a summary that both Webb and Northwestern drew from in their public statements Thursday.
Webb noted that Hickey’s investigation did not find evidence pointing to specific acts of misconduct by a football player or coach. “Without that evidence, I don’t see how there could have been significant hazing,” he said Thursday.
However, the investigation also found that the whistleblower’s “claims were largely supported by the evidence gathered during the investigation,” and that “participation in or knowledge of the hazing activities was widespread across football players.”
Webb flatly denied that Fitzgerald knew of any hazing, and brushed off the university’s claims that he should have known, saying the coach had a “state-of-the-art due diligence program” to identify hazing.
The scandal first surfaced in early July, when the university released a summary of an outside investigation into allegations on the football team. At the time, Schill suspended Fitzgerald for two weeks. Three days later, after a bombshell story in The Daily Northwestern detailed a former player’s account of hazing, Schill removed Fitzgerald as head coach.
Not long afterward, Webb told the Tribune he was exploring breach-of-contract claims on Fitzgerald’s behalf.
Schill released a statement in July noting that the outside investigator found no “credible evidence” that Fitzgerald knew about the hazing, but it was “well-known by many in the program.”
“The head coach is ultimately responsible for the culture of his team,” Schill said. “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.”
Schill’s statement said he reached the decision to fire Fitzgerald “after a difficult and complex evaluation” of his initial punishment for the coach’s “failure to know and prevent significant hazing in the football program.”
The first allegations to surface involved the football team; accusations have included “ambushes” and forced dry-humping at training camp, and forced naked performances in the locker room. One lawsuit alleged Black freshmen players were forced to compete in watermelon-eating contests. One former player, who was the only Latino offensive lineman, has said upperclassmen shaved “Cinco de Mayo” onto the back of his head as the entire football team watched.
In addition, baseball coach Jim Foster was dismissed amid accusations of bullying and abusive behavior. Another lawsuit was filed accusing head women’s volleyball coach Shane Davis of singling out a player for punishment.
Northwestern leaders announced in August that former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch would lead a review of the athletic department’s practices.
