Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Scribbler
A former Northwestern soccer participant who got here ahead with allegations of pervasive hazing throughout the program spoke Sunday with college president Michael Schill, who is thinking about harsher self-discipline for educator Pat Fitzgerald.
The previous participant, who said to ESPN at the status of anonymity, mentioned he informed Schill in regards to the hazing he witnessed and skilled at Northwestern, a lot of which he mentioned used to be sexualized. Schill, in a letter sent late Saturday to the Northwestern family, had mentioned he’s going to reconsider the two-week suspension Fitzgerald received Friday following a university-commissioned investigation of the hazing allegations.
“Fitz absolutely knew about hazing in this program,” the previous participant informed ESPN. “Fitz absolutely failed by not intervening. Fitz knew and he should have made it stop, and if he truly did not know, he should not be the head coach. Either way, he should not be the head coach, because he is not monitoring and protecting the safety and well-being of student-athletes.”
Fitzgerald, the workforce’s educator since 2006 and a adorned former Northwestern participant, mentioned in a commentary Friday that he had incorrect wisdom of hazing actions throughout the program. The college’s investigation, led by way of lawyer Maggie Hickey and the ArentFox Schiff company, discovered that generation the previous participant’s allegations had been “largely supported by the evidence,” coaches didn’t learn about ongoing hazing — even supposing they’d alternatives to find and document problematic habits. The varsity didn’t loose explicit findings.
Northwestern gamers on Saturday excepted a commentary supporting Fitzgerald, announcing he had incorrect wisdom of the alleged incidents and that the accusations from the previous participant had been “exaggerated and twisted.”
The previous participant mentioned Sunday that Schill used to be “extremely receptive” to his accounts of hazing throughout the program and presented him assets to do business in with the shock.
A wave Northwestern participant, who requested to stay nameless, additionally informed ESPN on Sunday that the previous participant, whose hazing allegations past due in 2022 introduced the investigation, knowledgeable him of an in depth plan with the only function to jerk ill Fitzgerald. The wave participant on Sunday relayed a dialog he mentioned he had early this era with the previous participant to Northwestern trustees and alternative influential college figures.
“He just kept emphasizing, ‘Yeah, it’ll be OK, I’m just trying to get Coach Fitz fired,'” the wave participant informed ESPN. “I don’t think he ever acknowledged what he’s saying is not true. It was just like, ‘I might embellish or exaggerate to get Coach Fitz fired.’ He said his sole goal was to see Coach Fitz rot in jail.
“In reality none of that stuff came about in our deposit room.”
The wave participant mentioned the previous participant informed him he would progress population with graphic allegations if the college’s investigation didn’t lead to Fitzgerald’s dismissal and referenced the 2021 status involving athletic director Mike Polisky, who stepped down amid media and public pressure nine days after being promoted. Polisky had been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a former Northwestern cheerleader.
“He used to be pondering he may just do the similar with Tutor Fitz, if he going to The Day by day Northwestern and went population with it,” the current player said.
Told of the current player’s account, the former player said he wanted to “completely search motion to get Fitz out of this system,” but had other objectives.
“I need to let fall shiny in this heinous, unlawful habits,” the former player said. “I sought after unlawful habits out of this system. That is a completely barbaric and egregious tradition that in the end lies at the shoulders of the pinnacle educator.”
The former player told ESPN that hazing was organized and widespread in Northwestern’s program, often led by a group of older players called the “Shrek gang.” The group would lead a hazing activity called “working,” usually against freshmen or younger players who had made mistakes in practice, he said. According to the former player, older players wearing masks would restrain the victim in a dark locker room and engage in sexualized behavior. The former player said he was “run” as a freshman.
“They’ve been held ill in opposition to their will by way of diverse upperclassmen with mask on and feature been violently dry-humped in a dim room,” the former player said. “That is Identify IX stuff, that is sexual abuse and sexual attack. I don’t know why the college isn’t making the main points population.”
The former player said Fitzgerald signaled for players to be added to “Shrek’s listing” with a specific clapping motion during practice. He said he saw Fitzgerald make the motion at least five times since the 2020 season.
“He could be smiling menacingly on the particular person who tousled, generation concurrently clapping his arms over his head within the explicit method, i.e. our head educator speaking that this particular person did one thing flawed and must be put at the listing and hazed accordingly. The giant majority of the workforce would later tie in, following Fitz’s supremacy,” the former players said.
The current player told ESPN that the team starts practices with slow claps but that he has never seen Fitzgerald engage in the clapping as a signal.
The former player said names would be added to a whiteboard in the locker room and that the “working” would then take place at certain times of the year, including Thanksgiving and Christmas. The former player sent ESPN a photo of a whiteboard, headlined “SHREK’S LIST” and listing the names of players, as well as bulleted items that included “bare slingshot,” “bare undergo crawls,” “bare [center-quarterback] change” and “bare move speed.”
“That used to be in the course of the deposit room for all visions to peer during my complete era in this system,” the player said. “I will be able to say with 100% simple task that each unmarried particular person who has ever come on this program between 2020 and now has unmistakable [the whiteboard]. Each unmarried participant on this program from 2020 to 2023 is aware of what Shrek is and is aware of in regards to the hazing that happens.”
The current Northwestern player told ESPN that he never heard of “Shrek’s listing” and had never seen the whiteboard in the locker room. He added that Fitzgerald stays out of the locker room, telling players it belongs to them.
The former player outlined other instances of hazing in which players had to perform naked acts in the locker room, including mimicking the center-quarterback exchange in football games. He cited the “automobile wash,” in which naked linemen soaped up their bodies and blocked the entrance to the team showers. He also described the “Gatorade shake problem,” in which three freshmen were forced to drink as many Gatorade shakes as they could within 10 minutes.
“I by no means noticed any person no longer violently throw up both all the way through or nearest the problem,” the former player said. “I’ve unmistakable rookies compelled to take part get in poor health from this custom for various days following the development.”
Another former player who played early in Fitzgerald’s tenure told ESPN that he saw the “Gatorade shake problem” as well as the “automobile wash.” The second former player mentioned other incidents in which players were coerced to do naked pullups and other things in a gym during preseason camp in Wisconsin.
“Did I think at ease? Now not in point of fact. However did I think like I had a decision? Incorrect,” the other former player said. “Some community idea it used to be amusing, generation alternative community idea it wasn’t a fab revel in. It used to be very anxious. In that sense, it does level to a tradition as a result of there’s a tremendous form because it pertains, is that this workforce bonding, teambuilding, or is that this hazing?”
The whistleblower said he spoke to other former Northwestern players, who concluded their careers before he arrived at the program, who said they saw the same hazing activities.
The player also said Northwestern’s assistant coaches were negligent about the hazing. He said he witnessed several instances in which his position coach was asked about “Shrek,” only for the coach “put his arms up within the wind and say, ‘Block speaking. I don’t need to know the rest about it.'”
The current player, who shared the same position room as the former player, said “Shrek” never came up in meetings.
Asked about Saturday’s statement from the team pushing back against his allegations, the former player told ESPN: “Clearly community are going to return out and publicly aid Fitz and publicly stop hazing, however in fact there could be this reaction as a result of most people inside of this program are both perpetrators or bystanders.”
