(WGN) — Months after reaching a settlement between himself and Northwestern University over a 2023 hazing allegations lawsuit, former Northwestern head football coach Pat Fitzgerald emerged from the ether Thursday and revealed what life has been like for the former Wildcat icon since his departure from the school.
Fitzgerald sat down with ESPN’s Rece Davis and Pete Thamel on the College GameDay Podcast, his first public appearance since a hazing allegations lawsuit rocked Northwestern’s campus two years ago.
In 2023, former football players filed lawsuits alleging sexual abuse and racial discrimination while they were on the team, and similar allegations then spread across several sports.
Fitzgerald, was initially suspended then later fired after an investigation. The school concluded he had a responsibility to know that hazing was occurring and should have stopped it. Fitzgerald denied wrongdoing and filed a lawsuit that ended with a settlement last month.
The trio of Davis, Thamel and Fitzgerald covered a wide variety of topics—everything from coaching his high school-aged sons to a state championship, to his current emotions and memories surrounding Northwestern, what his continued education in the changing landscape of college football has taught him, and how dipping his toes back in the college coaching market has gone.
Vindication
Davis and Thamel began the conversation by asking Fitzgerald about the emotional component of the situation between Fitzgerald and Northwestern. As those who are tapped in with the saga are aware of, Fitzgerald spent more than 25 years at the university—first as a student-athlete and later as head coach of the program.
A little more than three minutes into their conversation, Fitzgerald told Davis and Thamel he felt “vindicated” after his $130 million lawsuit was settled between him and Northwestern.
“I feel 100% vindicated. I mean, you alluded to the statement earlier. I’ll let that speak for itself. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to talk about other things [that are] a part of that settlement,” Fitzgerald said. “But I feel very vindicated. I feel—again, especially for our players and their families—the facts are the facts.
“I’m happy for my guys. I’ve got a bunch of them out there … They’re going to go compete their rear ends off on that defense for Timmy McGarrigle in LA this weekend.”
The statement Fitzgerald alluded to was the one he issued immediately after the lawsuit was settled back in August earlier this year.
“I have agreed to a settlement that resolves my breach of contract, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims against Northwestern University and its President,” the statement read.
“For the past two years, I have engaged in a process of extensive fact and expert discovery, which showed what I have known and said all along—that I had no knowledge of hazing ever occurring in the Northwestern football program, and that I never directed or encouraged hazing in any way.
“Through discovery, I learned that some hazing did occur in the football program at Northwestern. I am extremely disappointed that members of the team engaged in this behavior and that no one reported it to me, so that I could have alerted Northwestern’s Athletic Department and administrators, stopped the inappropriate behavior, and taken every necessary step to protect Northwestern’s student athletes.
“In July of 2023, when Northwestern first summarized to me the hazing conduct investigated by Maggie Hickey, I was eager to address the misconduct with the team and put an end to any improper behavior, just like I had in every other facet of my work during my 17 years as Northwestern’s head football coach.
“The rush to judgment in the media in July of 2023 and the reports that suggested I knew about and directed hazing are false and have caused me, my wife, and my three sons great stress, embarrassment, and reputational harm in the last two years. Though I maintain Northwestern had no legal basis to terminate my employment for cause under the terms of my Employment Agreement, in the interest of resolving this matter and, in particular, to relieve my family from the stress of ongoing litigation, Northwestern and I have agreed to a settlement, and I am satisfied with the terms of the settlement.
“I am proud to say that I ran a world-class football program at Northwestern. I made every reasonable effort to prevent student misconduct, including any hazing misconduct. I continue to love and have the utmost respect for Northwestern as an institution. I love Northwestern’s student athletes, its fans, and the people that I worked with in my 25 plus years at Northwestern. I remain proud of the vast majority of Northwestern student athletes who I had the privilege of coaching—so many of whom have gone on to build incredible lives and careers on and off the football field.”
Fitzgerald reiterated different portions of that statement on the podcast, acknowledging there were times during the discovery process of Maggie Hickey’s investigation that had he been made aware of certain situations, things would have played out differently.
“I feel the same way we did in our program with our administration, with the university. We had a zero-tolerance policy for hazing within the program,” Fitzgerald said. “I educated the guys. We used our resources within the athletic department, within the university. And you know what? As I look back, there were some behaviors by the guys that I’ve seen after we’ve gone through the investigation and then the litigation process that the behavior was inappropriate.
“And just like other issues that arose during my 17 years in leadership, we dealt with those head-on. Guys were held accountable when there were staff issues. They were held accountable because when you didn’t live up to the standard of being a Wildcat man, then you were going to be held accountable. And I was looking forward to doing that.”
Fitzgerald also talked about how he’s reached out to former student athletes to talk about the situations and why they didn’t bring them forward to their head coach. Since those conversations, Fitzgerald said he’s developed plans on how to make sure the same problems don’t slip through the cracks.
“I’ve also got some things that are proprietary that I’m going to bring with me to my next stop,” Fitzgerald said. “I’m actually working with one of my former players. So it’s just not one area. It’s the whole program. I’m disappointed that I didn’t get the information in some areas with some behavior that was inappropriate.
“But I’m grateful for those players because a lot of those guys that I’ve reached out to and I’ve talked to since I’ve moved forward. When I’ve asked them, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ [They said] we didn’t want to disappoint you, that we didn’t think. And those are all reasons that 17 to 22 year olds give.
“And as I look forward to the future, we’re going to be relentless in making sure our guys are about the right things, do the right things, and in enhancing and doing whatever it is that the university, the athletic department and I see fit to make sure we’ve got the right guardrails up if we talked about hazing.”
To hear more of Davis, Thamel and Fitzgerald’s conversation, including how his efforts to return to the ranks of college football coaches have gone, click here.
Want more insights? Join Working Title - our career elevating newsletter and get the future of work delivered weekly.
