We’re only just seeing the tip of the Northwestern iceberg in the wake of Pat Fitzgerald’s firing. It will be months before we get a full picture of the alleged hazing, racism and assault inside the football program — that’s if it ever truly comes to light at all, with the school choosing to keep everything behind closed doors.
Pat Fitzgerald doesn’t need to be defended by his media pals
Coaches involved in scandals don’t need your defense.
Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
There is a time to speak and a time to listen. Right now everyone should be taking a step back, accepting we don’t know the full story, and most importantly listen to victims who are coming forward to tell their stories. What none of us should do is blindly support the man at the center of the scandal for no other reason than a personal relationship.
It’s a short tweet, but there’s a lot to unpack here — so it requires a close reading:
“Pat Fitzgerald is a good human”
Good humans make terrible choices all the time. They can also have implicit biases and flawed approaches to situations based on their upbringing. This horrific hazing scandal doesn’t immediately erase everything else Pat Fitzgerald has done positively in his life, but it can’t be glossed over by saying “he’s a good guy.” If the allegations are true, at some point in his brain he decided that brutally hazing football players was fine. Maybe he thought it would make them tougher, mold them better for a harsh world — but it was a grotesque decision that ignores mountains of psychological evidence about the long-term damage and trauma that comes from hazing.
“He ran his program the right way and has a stellar reputation.”
This is simply ridiculous. Even if we assume there was hazing happening without Fitzgerald’s knowledge, then he wasn’t running his program the right way. If a whiteboard existed with a list of players to be hazed, and the culture in the locker room was to foster this as acceptable, then he absolutely was not running the program correctly.
Also, the funny thing about reputations is that they have to be maintained and preserved. You build a positive reputation based on trust, honesty and reliability. It has to be cultivated. Also, it’s really, REALLY easy to fool people on your reputation when they don’t see what’s happening behind closed doors.
“I have never heard anyone have a bad thing to say about him.”
This is completely meaningless. Hell, all you need to do is watch a single documentary about a serial killer and you’ll see a laundry list of people who say “he was such a nice guy.” Obviously that’s hyperbole, but honestly it’s a bit of a red flag if nobody ever says a bad thing about you. Some people are very good at putting on a public face and hiding who they are.
It’s not just Kanell who quickly jumped to the defense of Pat Fitzgerald. Almost as soon as the news broke Darren Rovell was there with sword and shield to protect his friend.
Rovell tries to walk a line between defending his friend and pretending he cares about the allegations, but all it does is diminish the allegations and blame the dreaded specter of “Cancel Culture.” I’m so sick of everything being attributed to people being “cancelled,” as if there’s a shadowy internet cabal that meets and decides who to take down next. It’s become a pathetic buzzword used as a crutch when most people were just stunned by the Northwestern news, shocked by the school’s tepid response, and wanting serious answers to the questions that lingered.
The situation with Kanell and Rovell with Fitzgerald is a tired refrain. Every time allegations come out against anyone in a position of power there is a small army waiting outside the situation jumping to their defense. This happens with coaches a lot. It naturally comes with the territory of sports success that individuals stop being viewed as humans and get deified as perfect infallible beings.
The investigation is ongoing, and when the dust settles we’re going to learn one of three things:
- Brutal hazing was happening at Northwestern without Pat Fitzgerald’s knowledge, showing he lost control of his own program.
- Brutal hazing was happening at Northwestern and Pat Fitzgerald supported it, showing he has no business being a college football coach.
- The numerous claims against the football program were fabricated.
We can all take a step back and let this play out, because it’s not going anywhere any time soon. This will be argued in the legal system with Fitzgerald challenging his dismissal, the school will likely have to answer to the NCAA, and it could be years before we ever get answers at all.
To handwave away student-athletes coming forward and saying they were abused inside a program because you’re friends with the coach is absolutely ghoulish. The pursuit of answers and truth should always come before friendship, especially if you’re a member of sports media who’s gotten far too close to a subject.
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