College Football World Stunned By Pat Fitzgerald’s $130 Million Lawsuit Against Northwestern

Pat Fitzgerald stunned the college football world on Thursday, announcing that he was suing Northwestern University and its president Michael Schill for over $130 million over his firing in July.

The wrongful termination lawsuit claims Northwestern unlawfully fired Fitzgerald for cause amid a hazing scandal that rocked the university.

“The fact that he was terminated based on no rational reasons or facts whatsoever, the fact that they’ve gone out and destroyed his reputation as one of the best football coaches in America, based on no legitimate reason or evidence, is disgraceful,” said Pat Fitzgerald’s attorney Dan Webb, a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

“It’s despicable conduct on behalf of Northwestern. My client and his family are entitled to their day in court for justice.”

Webb also claimed during his press conference on Thursday that he doesn’t believe that “any significant hazing occurred” under Fitzgerald during his time as Northwestern’s head football coach.

Fitzgerald, university president Michael Schill, athletic director Derrick Gragg, the university, its board of trustees, and former president Morton Schapiro were all named in a lawsuit over allegations of hazing filed by an anonymous former player in July. The player stated that he was a member of the Wildcats football team from 2018 through 2022.

“It seems like the athletic department as a whole was culturally tainted in a way that permitted hazing, sexual harassment, [and] racial discrimination,” the plaintiff’s attorney Parker Stinar said.

Webb claims he has interviewed dozens of former Northwestern players and coaches.

“They’re going to say they didn’t see any significant hazing other than horseplay … between young men in the locker room,” he claimed.

According to the lawsuit documents obtained by ESPN, “Gragg also stated that Schill felt 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 [Northwestern general counsel Stephanie Graham] told Fitzgerald that if he agreed to this plan, 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.”

“It will be interesting to hear Dan Webb try to convince a jury that the HC shouldn’t have “reasonably known” of the repeated hazing his team was engaging in, in that team’s locker room,” another fan wrote on X. “Especially given the ‘code red’ signaling during practices. Because that’s the contract.”

In related news, a separate report revealed in July claimed Northwestern head baseball coach Jim Foster created a “toxic workplace environment.”

Later that same month, an anonymous former Northwestern volleyball player filed a lawsuit against the university, its athletic department, volleyball coach Shane Davis, the school’s last two presidents and its last three athletic directors regarding a 2021 hazing incident.