Fitzgerald suspended after Northwestern inquiry

• Adam Rittenberg, ESPN

  • Senior WriterJul 7, 2023, 09:51 AM ET Close College football press reporter.
  • Signed up with ESPN.com in 2008.
  • Graduate of Northwestern University.Northwestern is carrying out numerous

  measures to suppress hazing within its football program, consisting of a two-week suspension of coach Pat Fitzgerald after an investigation discovered evidence to support a claim of troublesome conduct.Fitzgerald, the Wildcats’ coach given that 2006, will start the unsettled suspension Friday.

  Northwestern is not set to start preseason practices till early August.Other steps consist of no more off-campus practices in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the group held preseason training for several years, and the monitoring of the football locker space by somebody who does not report to Fitzgerald or his staff.Fitzgerald stated in a declaration that he was”really disappointed” to learn of the hazing claims.”Northwestern football prides itself on producing not simply professional athletes

  , but fine boys with character befitting the program and our University,”he said. “We hold our student-athletes and our program to the greatest standards; we will continue to work to exceed those requirements moving on.”The university-commissioned investigation, released in January, found that a person claim from an anonymous whistleblower was supported, even though player accounts differed and there was not sufficient proof that coaches understood about the conduct. According to an executive summary, the hazing incidents occurred in the group locker room and potentially started at”Camp Kenosha, “where Northwestern had invested about a week of the preseason till 2020. Editor’s Picks 1 Related” The examination did not uncover

evidence indicating specific misconduct by any individual football player or coach, participation in or understanding of the hazing activities was prevalent throughout football players,”the summary reads.Attorney Maggie Hickey of the ArentFox Schiff LLP company led the examination,

that included more than 50 individuals currently or previously affiliated with the program. The individual who made the allegations talked with investigators in December.”Hazing in any kind is undesirable and breaks our core worths at Northwestern, where we aim to make the University a safe and inviting environment for all of our trainees,”university President Michael Schill said in a statement.”Our athletics programs are held to the greatest standards, and in this case, we stopped working to fulfill them. I anticipate that today’s actions will prevent this from ever taking place once again. “Northwestern has produced an online tool to report supposed hazing activities and will require all coaches, players and personnel to go through anti-hazing training with a concentrate on how to report claims.