More than six months after Northwestern began investigating allegations of hazing within its football team, and two days after announcing that coach Pat Fitzgerald had been suspended for two weeks without pay, the program remains shrouded in uncertainty even with the start of fall practices just weeks away.
The school said Friday that Fitzgerald, a onetime star player and now the Wildcats’ winningest coach, was suspended after an investigation led by attorney Maggie Hickey of law firm ArentFox Schiff did not find “sufficient” evidence that the coaching staff knew about ongoing hazing — though there were “significant opportunities” to find out about it.
The next day, though, The Daily Northwestern published a story detailing allegations from a former play who described specific instances of hazing and sexual abuse. The report also indicated that Fitzgerald “may have known that hazing took place.”