Fired Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald files $130M wrongful termination suit
Fitzgerald was fired after he was initially suspended 2 weeks following an investigation into allegations of hazing
Former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald is suing the school for wrongful termination after he was fired in July.
Fitzgerald was suspended for two weeks by the school in early July after an investigation into acts of hazing within the Northwestern football program. After more information regarding the hazing allegations became public, the school fired him days later.
Fitzgerald’s lawsuit asks for $130 million and claims that Northwestern told him that he “would not face any additional consequences” as a result of his two-week suspension following the independent investigation into the hazing allegations.
The lawsuit describes the agreement of no additional consequences as “an oral contract” between Fitzgerald and Northwestern. Fitzgerald was fired for cause, meaning Northwestern believes it’s not obligated to pay his contract buyout.
“However, within four days after the July 6, 2023, oral contract with Fitzgerald, Northwestern made the calculated decision to illegally breach that oral contract,” the lawsuit states. “Thereafter, Northwestern terminated Fitzgerald’s employment contract ‘for-cause’ based on the hazing allegations, even though no cause existed under the employment contract. Northwestern’s illegal conduct resulted in the destruction of Fitzgerald’s outstanding reputation as a college football coach, which he had worked for twenty-five years to develop.”
Report said Fitzgerald had no knowledge of allegations
When Fitzgerald’s suspension was announced on July 7, the summary of the independent investigation into the allegations said there was not “sufficient evidence to believe that coaching staff knew about the ongoing hazing conduct” though investigators also noted “there had been significant opportunities to discover and report the hazing conduct.”
After Fitzgerald was suspended, the Daily Northwestern published a story detailing the allegations of widespread hazing within the program. The story also cited an anonymous former player who said that Fitzgerald was well aware of the ongoing hazing.
Three days later, Northwestern president Michael Schill announced that he had made the decision to fire Fitzgerald. In his letter to Northwestern after firing Fitzgerald, Schill said Fitzgerald’s firing came after “the confidential report concluded that while there was corroborating evidence that hazing had occurred, there was no direct evidence that Coach Fitzgerald was aware of the hazing. In determining an appropriate penalty for the head coach, I focused too much on what the report concluded he didn’t know and not enough on what he should have known.”
Not long after his firing, Fitzgerald made it clear that he would be pursuing legal action against the school.
In the lawsuit, Fitzgerald claims that Northwestern timed his two-week suspension to coincide with a two-week vacation.
“[Athletic director Derrick Gragg] and [Northwestern general counsel Stephanie Graham] stated that though Fitzgerald knew nothing about any hazing activity among the football team and though the Hickey Report did not implicate him, Northwestern still wanted Fitzgerald to accept a two-week suspension without pay and release a statement supportive of Northwestern’s football program because of the findings of the Hickey report,” the suit says. “Gragg also stated that Schill felt that Fitzgerald needed to ‘take a hit’ for the findings summarized in the Hickey Report, even though the Hickey Report concluded that Fitzgerald and his staff did not know about any hazing activities within the Northwestern football program.
“Gragg and Graham told Fitzgerald if he agreed to this plan, Northwestern wanted the two-week suspension to coincide with Fitzgerald’s two-week vacation, so Fitzgerald could attend an important recruiting event on Northwestern’s behalf shortly after his suspension ended.”
Fitzgerald’s contract ran through 2031
According to the suit, the contract extension Fitzgerald signed with the school in January of 2021 lasted through March of 2031 at a minimum annual salary of $5.65 million. Had Fitzgerald been fired without cause over the summer, he says the school would have owed him $43 million.
He is asking for $130 million because of “damages for Fitzgerald’s lost ability to obtain similar employment during the prime of his professional coaching career after March 31, 2031, for a reasonable period of time” and damages for emotional distress.
A former Northwestern linebacker, Fitzgerald coached at Northwestern for 17 seasons. The Wildcats were 110-101 in his tenure, though the program had taken a step back in recent seasons. While Northwestern went 7-2 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the Wildcats won a combined seven games in 2019, 2021 and 2022 and went 1-11 a season ago.
Defensive coordinator David Braun was promoted to interim coach after Fitzgerald was fired and no other coaches were fired due to the hazing allegations. Braun came to Northwestern in the offseason after serving as the defensive coordinator at North Dakota State.
