Northwestern Football: Pat Fitzgerald has been suspended
By Eric Boggs
Most football people had respect for Pat Fitzgerald. No player or coach has achieved more while wearing the purple and black in Chicago’s suburb of Evanston, Illinois than Fitzgerald. Now the man who had more street cred in the city of Chicago than Al Capone has found himself in trouble.
According to an executive summary released by Northwestern University, an internal investigation has found a hazing problem within the football program. Although the University did not reveal the details of their findings within the report, the incidence was bad enough to warrant a suspension of current head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald will serve a two-week suspension without pay along with anti-hazing training for he, his coaching staff, and all student athletes within the football program. All practices at “Camp Kenosha” in Wisconsin will be stopped and an independent individual will monitor the football program from within the confines of the locker room moving forward.
Fitzgerald responded by stating, “I was very disappointed when I heard about the allegations of hazing on our football team. Although I was not aware of the alleged incidents, I have spoken to university officials, and they informed me of a two-week suspension, effective immediately.”
Despite not being aware of the reported incidents, University officials felt that there was room for the coaching staff to discover and report the hazing conduct to proper university officials, thus prompting the suspension of their head coach.
The timing of the suspension couldn’t come at a better time for Fitzgerald. Most college coaches take their vacations during this time period due to the NCAA rules of not being able to have contact with recruits and before conference media days kick off the summer practice schedule heading into the season.
Northwestern is coming off two consecutive bad years. After representing the Big Ten West Division in the 2020 COVID shortened season. The Wildcats were a combined 4-20 in 2021 and 2022. Some are wondering if Fitzgerald has possibly worn out his welcome at his alma mater. He has been the head coach at Northwestern for 17 seasons and has accumulated a record of 110-101, making him the second longest tenured coach in the conference after Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz.
One has to wonder if Fitzgerald might be ready to move on. He has had opportunities to coach at more prestigious college football schools and even has been rumored to have been connected to past NFL jobs. Every time however, Fitzgerald has stayed true to his alma mater. Will this recent treatment by school officials cause him to wonder what it might be like to coach at a university with better resources and with more of a winning tradition? Will a third consecutive losing season in Evanston along with these hazing incidences be enough for school officials to wonder if maybe it’s time to move on from the football program’s favorite son?
Probably not. Fitzgerald is in year three of what was a 10-year contract extension that was signed after their successful 2020 season. If anyone is going to move on from each other, it would more than likely be Patty Fitz waving goodbye to the windy skies of Chicago and hello to greener pastures of a new school.