A Double Standard At Northwestern

And a Happy Bastille Day to one and all …

In yesterday’s rant, I mentioned that the two once-meaningful newspapers in Chicago had been scooped and hung out to dry by the Daily Northwestern in coverage of the hazing scandal at Northwestern.  Today, I want to return to the hazing scandal itself and not the journalistic achievements of those who covered – or did not cover – it.

As a backdrop here, you have to realize that Pat Fitzgerald was a revered figure as the head coach at Northwestern.  He had been a star player there; he took the coaching job 17 years ago and would have been happy to spend the rest of his days in that job; he was a Northwestern Wildcat to his core – – and fans loved that.  Northwestern University itself was in a happy place with him too because – truth be told – Northwestern is a backwater football program in the Big-10.  But with Fitzgerald in the job, the school never had to think about doing some hard work – – and spending some BIG dollars – – to hire a new coach because Fitzgerald was going to stay there “forever”.

So, when the university president got an investigative report that corroborated the existence of hazing in the football program, he tried to do something without really doing anything.  He issued Fitzgerald a two-week suspension without pay and that suspension would have ended before training camp commenced.  That does not even rise to the level of a slap on the wrist.  So, when the reporting in the Daily Northwestern hit the streets, the president became somewhat complicit in the whole mess.

There is still controversy as to everything that happened in the locker room related to hazing incidents.  The full extent of the hazing is not so important here; the fact that any hazing involving involuntary simulated sexual acts took place is sufficient to conclude that they should not have happened at all.  And so, the university fired Pat Fitzgerald not for condoning the hazing nor for participating in the hazing but for not being fully aware of the hazing activities when he should have been.

Up to that point, I can see how the situation has moved from Point A to Point B.  It is a little odd that the punishment level rose from a love-tap to a death sentence, but I can rationalize that the original under-reaction forced a final over-reaction.  But now comes the buried lead in the story:

• The Northwestern defensive coordinator, David Braun, will be the interim head coach at Northwestern for the 2023 season.  Braun was hired into that job in January 2023, so he was not involved with the team at the time of the hazing activities.
• At the same time, Northwestern will retain all its assistant coaches for the 2023 season.

Excuse me.

• If Fitzgerald is being fired for not being as aware of hazing activities as is sufficient in 20/20 hindsight, then how can any of the assistant coaches be allowed to continue in their jobs?
• If they were “sufficiently aware”, then their failure to put a stop to it is damning.
• If they were “not sufficiently aware”, then they fell short of the standard set by the firing of Pat Fitzgerald.

Lest anyone misinterpret here, I have no problem with the university decision here. I do think that the university is applying a double standard here and needs to be called out for that fact.

Moving on …  Two days ago, ESPN.com had an investigative report done by Don Van Natta, Jr. and Seth Wickersham.  Investigative reports always rely on unidentified sources and usually take the reader through leaps of logic of varying length.  Having said that, both Van Natta and Wickersham have plenty of credibility in the field of investigative journalism; so, one must approach this piece with an open mind.  Here is the headline from ESPN.com:

“’He was free and clear’: How the leak of Jon Gruden’s email led to the fall of Commanders owner Dan Snyder”

This is a lengthy report; it probably took me 25 minutes to read it because the timelines involved are complicated.  Here is a link to the report; I suggest you refill your coffee cup – – or any adult beverage you may have in hand as you read this – – and dive in.

For those of you who choose to ignore the opportunity to peek behind the curtain that obscures NFL executive actions and NFL owners’ behaviors, let me summarize what comes out of the report:

• Roger Goodell is a weasel.
• Mark Davis is a wimp or a simp – – or maybe both.
• Jon Gruden is not nearly a loveable naïf.
• Dan Snyder is a loathsome creature.

Even if only half of this investigative report is correct – – and I am confident that much more than that is correct – – the contents here are sufficient to make me root heavily for Gruden and his lawyers in the lawsuit against the NFL.  Currently, that case is before the Nevada Supreme Court.  Gruden filed his suit in state court in Nevada; the NFL tried to get it thrown out and remanded to arbitration where the NFL never really loses AND where all discovery and testimony is shielded from public view.  The NFL lost at the first level of Nevada courts and then again at the appeals level; the NFL is the plaintiff before the Nevada State Supreme Court, and I really want the NFL to lose there so we can experience the following:

• Release of those 600,000 emails that were culled to result in the “Gruden leak”.
• Testimony and cross-examination under oath of all the players here – – Goodell, Snyder, Gruden, Davis and potentially other owners

Finally, harkening back to the apparent double standard in existence at Northwestern University today, let me close with this famous observation by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.  With consistency, a great soul has simply nothing to do. … Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………