“Tone Deaf”
- Thread starter PURPLE Book Cat
- Start date
It's honestly incredible. Doesn't have the courage to go talk to the team, or show up to any of their practices / team events. Or engage with them directly regarding the t-shirts that have supposedly been worn for multiple weeks now by the team if he had been paying any attention. But then after media notices he decides to put out a Twitter statement criticizing the players and staff. Writes it in such a way that it's spoon fed for national media to put out another negative headline and article critical of NU. Just what we need at this stage, another stroke of PR brilliance from the dynamic duo.
The coach stands by his players in a press conference. The players go speak to the media and back up their own actions with borderling defiance. The AD hides in his office and puts out a cowardly Twitter post.
The t shirts in no way are condoning or supporting hazing. And by implicitly accepting the flawed premise that somehow they are supportive of hazing, he is pandering to the media mob and accepting the debate on their terms. Which is to say, automatically losing the debate, because you can't win it if you accept the flawed premise that "Cats Against The World / 51" is supportive of hazing.
Hope they come out wearing them again today (or next practice). What is he going to do - fire the coaches after he said no one would be fired this season? Or start cutting / suspending players? What a hapless and impotent leader. You are the one who is "tone deaf" Gragg.
The ‘51’ *is* inherently supportive of hazing.
51 was fired because of the hazing.
I would have preferred ‘CATS AGAINST THE WORLD
with
KCUF GGARG
below it.
Because everything that has happened in the last month is entirely on Gragg and Schill. From the penalty-less penalty to the frenetic effort to catch up to what they ignored, to the ‘may have erred’ letter to letting the interim coach be the first one to talk to non-student media.
This team should feel like their athletic department and university has let them down far more than the world is against them.
The world mostly doesn’t care about a one-win team. The world lays about 33 against NU, and then covers while playing backups in the second half.
It’s the incredible mismanagement of the investigation and subsequent PR that has made this happen.
(There are two more investigations now happening, right. I presume one concludes “Schill and Gragg are total dolts.)
I believe that Pat Fitzgerald took steps that were beyond what a reasonable and similarly situated head coach could and should have taken to advance the interests of individual players.
I also believe that the complaints were motivated in part by retribution for lack of playing time and financial gain incentives encouraged by plaintiffs lawyers.
I disagree that placing the entire blame for the alleged hazing incidents on Pat Fitzgerald is at this point appropriate. I also disagree that suggesting that a likeness of Pat Fitzgerald should be a likeness of hazing is appropriate.
If additional facts are made public, then I might consider those and change my mind.
The black eye on the program does not come from young adults who are understandably upset about the situation choosing to publicly voice support for Pat Fitzgerald. The blame is far more accurately placed upon the unfair edicts without the appropriate level of due process made by the current President and AD.
Even worse, Gragg was supposedly at the practice yesterday but decided his only course of action was to make a public statement rather than, ya know, talk to anyone.
I agree with a lot of what you’ve written, and I think ultimately Fitz no longer has a job because he, Gragg, and Schill (and perhaps Ryan, and perhaps other athletic department personnel or other board members) wildly miscalculated how much information would come out if they tried to bury it.
Covering it up, rather than releasing the report, was just so colossally stupid. But Fitz’s 🙈🙈🙈 approach to the interviews, rather than acknowledging he should have known something, is the reason that they chose to bury it.
As I said, an anti-Gragg message is far more powerful and far more relevant than a pro-Fitz message. Gragg has proven incompetent just about everywhere.
I’m no fan of Gragg. But I don’t think that posting his picture is helpful. You are just asking for someone to respond that criticism of him is based on his skin color. Which I know that I and many others here have lots and lots of other reasons we are pissed right now. But i sincerely hope that is not one of them for any of us.
I shared it because it’s from his NCAA days; it highlights his awkward grin, seemingly devoid of confidence. Remember that he had this job for about 9 months before we hired him out of desperation.
Plus, I was hoping someone could prove that’s a clip on tie. Curdog already noticed the jacket doesn’t fit (I’m a big man too; clothes are hard to come by).
Why is his race the first thing you thought of? I honestly didn’t consider it at all.
A man should be judged by his actions, not his appearance.
Choosing what to wear and then getting dressed are actions we all take every day.
So is deciding to lack confidence and a backbone.
All these are easy to judge when someone is getting paid well and doing such a terrible job.
Gragg’s handling of the baseball coach, interim coach Anderson not being hired, and the lack of communication with players should be the final straw for him, but I’m sure Schill won’t do it.
Just imagine if we had this guy as an AD instead… 😔
Great post. The blind squirrel has found a nut!
Jason would be an excellent choice as our next athletic director.
Go wear one of those stupid T shirts. I’d rather focus on constructive solutions to our problems instead of supporting a regime that failed at all aspects.
Football drives the vast majority of our revenues. If is the lifeblood of our athletic department. And it has been an absolute mess since January 2021.
I’ll wait for you to list our successes over the past two years.
Why focus on only the last two years?
This is Northwestern. The last 2 years have been tough. But 2 B1G west championships, 2 B1G Championship Game appearances, and 3 Bowl wins, in the last 5 years, while graduating nearly 100% of our players???? With our admissions restrictions and now NIL it’s not going to be a consistent baseline. Not to mention 3 First round draft picks and 4 guys drafted from a 1-11 team last year? If not for a shitty DC hire and lack of QB consistency, we probably would’ve maintained a higher level.
No one is disputing the dismal performance of the last two years. Fitz made a big mistake in hiring JON. So the "regime" that you refer to, which really means Fitz, had a very bad two year period. But most of us aren't willing to just throw out the previous 15 years as though they don't count at all.
People who want to wear the "Cats Against the World/51" T shirts should certainly do so. Right now the world, meaning mainly the sporting press, is having a field day with dragging NU through the mud. So f-k them. Wear the T shirts. I think they are great.
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I'm glad that it's something you didn't consider at all. I just thought that by you posting his picture it could become something that other people might consider, that's all.
So I guess it makes sense that you are blaming Northwestern's gross mishandling of the investigation on Pat Fitzgerald, who had absolutely no impact on how it was conducted.
This is consistent with all of your other statements.
But it is also really dumb.
Sorry, who said what? No link and no reference. Seems it refers to Schill or Gragg but nothing as to what was said or posted. Did they get things wrong. I'd bet on it as they habve not done anything right yet. But as to what this is referring to, I do not know
Gragg is definitely not up to the job, but It takes a real assh%le to do what Schill did.
You become CEO of a thriving business because the person slated for the job dies of cancer... and you fire the widely-respected CTO, the face of the company, because there were departmental parties that tended to get out of hand. The stock plummets. Victims come out of the woodwork and start suing the firm.
Real leaders do the ethical things and try to fix the problem before wreaking havoc.
You become CEO of a thriving business because the person slated for the job dies of cancer... and you fire the widely-respected CTO, the face of the company, because there were departmental parties that tended to get out of hand. The stock plummets. Victims come out of the woodwork and start suing the firm.
Real leaders do the ethical things and try to fix the problem before wreaking havoc.
Why do I get the feeling there was no crisis communication plan in place before the announcement? Were players who stepped forward provided counseling? Were there ongoing discussions with these players so that they felt heard?
It is a business alright.
In what other business in America can employees be dryhumped and subjected to other humiliations on the job?
Fitz would have been fired at any business. And this is a business, plain and simple.
1. Did Fitz approve of dry-humping? There's a story that the OL players were instructed to dry-hump and when Fitz learned about it he put a stop to it.
2. Did you witness dry-humping of the sort alleged? If not, how can you be so confident that you know what happened?
Okay troll. In which job or job(s) were you held down by more experienced employees and dry humped?
Your last sentence is spot on and is where the tone deafness really lies.
I need to write and post but have been too busy.
As a member of my reunion committee this year, the NAA had an all reunion committee call in the past two weeks.
It started with the reading of a note from one of the heads of fundraising at the university. The reference was to alumni being upset with the football program issues but we should still encourage people to come back for homecoming and the game.
THE UNIVERSITY DOESNT GET IT.
of course there is displeasure of any hazing and compassion for anyone who fees wronged. BUT RHE OUTCRY IS ABOUT THE SHIT SHOW the university has birthed, nurtured and grown starting the the BOT and Schill to Graag.
It is unreal.
