With Dan Webb at his side!
Northwestern is going to lose a lot of money.
Northwestern is going to lose a lot of money.
Fitz fights back
- Thread starter Pulmocat
- Start date
Yeah this will end up with a $30-35 million settlement or something in that range given the length of time left on the contract (around 8 seasons/7 years).
Fortunately, money is the one thing we're not short of, but it's a good thing the Big Ten's new TV deal kicks in now and starts escalating next year with the addition of USC/UCLA and the expanded playoff.
Fortunately, money is the one thing we're not short of, but it's a good thing the Big Ten's new TV deal kicks in now and starts escalating next year with the addition of USC/UCLA and the expanded playoff.
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At the age of 48, making 7 mil roughly a year, and his damaged reputation hindering future employment along with his well known market value prior to this defamation it is probably going to be between 300-500 million dollar lawsuit.
Hard to argue you are firing someone for cause, when just two days before the University signs an agreement that the sanction is a two week suspension.
The story...
WildcatReport - Fitz hires attorney to fight firing
It looks like fired Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald is not going down without a fight.
northwestern.rivals.com
Webb doesn't take losing cases of this nature. Part of the settlement will likely include Shill's(sic...on purpose) termination.
Northwestern has good lawyers too, and Fitz will want this to go away after he gets his big check of $30-35 million.
Fantasy land to be talking $300-500 million dollar lawsuit; the University would fight it and release basically all the ugly details of the hazing incidents while putting it squarely on him for not knowing what he should have known.
Not when new allegations come up.
Problem is that Schill should have ordered a proper re-investigation as opposed to succumbing to media pressure.
Even if the end result would have stayed the same, would save the school a good sum of $$ (speaking of which, that ridiculously long-term contract looks even dumber now).
While Fitz may care about money to some extent, the money is probably secondary to restoring his name and reputation.
Schill and the daily have implied that everyone associated with nu football for the last 20 years has either been a sexual predator or complicit in sexual predation. It is outrageous and irresponsible and Fitz needs to exact a price for it. And Schill needs to be fired for it.
Good luck. Fitz is responsible for not controlling the program and letting this happen under his watch; some of the behavior alleged would be considered criminal sexual abuse under Illinois law. He won't get more than he's owed on the remainder of his contract (somewhere around $50 million) and likely will accept less to get his money quietly.
The details from the investigation are likely worse than what Schill has said. Maybe the Daily's version is exaggerated but little of the defense of Fitz has been that hazing never happened here.
Dan Webb is 78, his legal expertise wasn’t good enough to keep former Gov. Ryan out of jail. And in spite of his prowess Fox paid over 750 million to Dominion this year.
He’s past his use by date. While NU will want to keep Fitz’s employment case out of the news and will probably settle, their lawyers won’t fear Webb.
He’s past his use by date. While NU will want to keep Fitz’s employment case out of the news and will probably settle, their lawyers won’t fear Webb.
Had this happened two years ago, Fitz probably would have sat out a season and then been hired at a pretty good FBS HC job. But after a terrible season followed by a horrific season and then this, he will probably have to wait longer and take a bigger step down and try to work his way back up. I'm honestly not sure he has it in him. He has no experience as a coordinator. If this had gone more quietly, NU might have hired him back as a PR rep.
Had NU had another season like the last two, I think a lot of this board’s population would have supported Fitz’s firing as head coach, and elevation to athletic director.
He could join Nick Saban’s staff as an analyst, rebuild some things, and get a fresh start in a few years.
Based on the information as released so far, his career is not near done.
Hiring Dan Webb does not at all indicate that Fitz simply wants this to go away. You don’t hire that guy unless you’re ready to go to war.
What would he bring to the table that would make Nick Saban bring him on as an analyst? Fitz's strength has always been getting the most out of previously unrecognized talent. That is exactly the opposite of Alabama's situation. Saban has brought in analysts that have fresh ideas in the Xs and Os. That is not Fitz's strong suit.
Dan Webb won’t be the one grinding out hours on this one. It’s a “name drop” hire indicating that Fitz ain’t going quietly.
“Analyst” in the context of former P5 HCs is mostly “guy who’s paid to hang out and be a sounding board for the head coach.” It’s not like Paul Chryst is cutting tape for Sark at Texas.
A re-investigation after they just completed a six month investigation? They interviewed Richardson as part of the investigation. What new information could have been obtained in a re-investigation??
Agreed. And NU will settle. But no need to fear Webb. To see another well known over the hill attorney in action watch Melvin Belli in The Rolling Stones documentary, Gimme Shelter. He successfully strong arms the local officials into allowing the Stones to use the Hells Angels as security for their Altamont concert.
The cowed local officials should have told him to go f… himself.
A speechless Mick Jagger later sees footage of his security thugs knife to death a fan right in front of the performing Stones during the concert.
If this goes to trial, would not all of the facts finally come out and become a matter of public record? This would include the confidential report, all the emails/texts and communications relating to the decision to fire Fitz, and the communications relating to the original agreement between Fitz and the School.
If the report shows no evidence that Fitz was involved, then the University would have to explain the reason for the firing, as well as the way in which was carried out.
While the University has the right fire whoever it wants, the sudden rescinding of the agreement and the rapid firing gives the impression that Fitz and his staff were found guilty, and that permanently damages their reputations and could ruin their careers.
It is clear that hazing occurred.
What is not clear is the extent to which Fitz knew about it.
It also appears that the University's upper management was waffling and inconsistent during this entire sequence of events: they commissioned an outside investigation, followed through on its recomendations, reached an agreement on penalties, and then rescinded it without warning, not because the facts changed, but because of the media attention, which they should have expected all along.
If the report shows no evidence that Fitz was involved, then the University would have to explain the reason for the firing, as well as the way in which was carried out.
While the University has the right fire whoever it wants, the sudden rescinding of the agreement and the rapid firing gives the impression that Fitz and his staff were found guilty, and that permanently damages their reputations and could ruin their careers.
It is clear that hazing occurred.
What is not clear is the extent to which Fitz knew about it.
It also appears that the University's upper management was waffling and inconsistent during this entire sequence of events: they commissioned an outside investigation, followed through on its recomendations, reached an agreement on penalties, and then rescinded it without warning, not because the facts changed, but because of the media attention, which they should have expected all along.
The story...
WildcatReport - Fitz hires attorney to fight firing
It looks like fired Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald is not going down without a fight.
Goodness Louie. You are one busy bee. God bless you. We sure are glad to have you with us for this .... hazardous, broken down roller coaster ride.
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I doubt either side would want to actually see this get to the courtroom
Dude, the hazing occurred. It was Fitz’s job to know about it. Period.
I think Schill was derelict in duty. I think he didn’t probe enough. I think that the investigation and subsequent summary were was designed to minimize what had happened. And I think Gragg, who should have led in this process, is a doof who had no power over Fitz.
And I think if Fitz had been suspended from direct contact with the football program through the CFP playoff, that this would have blown over, that Fitz would have used the time to visit and learn from other programs, and that NU would have been stronger for it. But Schill and Graff whiffed, hugely. They really didn’t consider the Daily would get the story. Geez.
I don’t think that, at any time in the last six months, anybody said to Fitz, “Why didn’t you know?”
The Rolling Stones get a lot of heat for hiring the Hell's Angels but I thought it was the Grateful Dead who told the Rolling Stones that they should hire them.
Pat Fitzgerald doesn't come across as a coach who would tolerate hazing but he is responsible for the program and the direction it goes in.
This is not the 'nature' of the George Ryan, Kwame Kilpatrick, Dan Rostenkowski cases. Not the Dominion case either which were all loser cases to generate publicity for the firm.
This is the Joan Espositos husband killed himself because she is carrying Horace Grants baby case, the Danny Bonaduce and his wife are having a crack baby case. The playbook he runs in these types of outrageous accusations cases is rock solid. He will win big in settlement and heads will roll at NU.
NUs best chance is going to be to look at how he defended Oprah in the Texas Cattleman are causing an epidemic of mad cow disease case.
Those are the nature of this case and why I carefully wrote that Webb wouldn't take a case of this nature of it was a loser
And yet Webb took the Dominion case on Fox's side of the bench...; that was a huge loser.
Obviously, Fitz will get a big settlement, that is without question. This isn't anywhere near the Briles case (which made him untouchable in FBS). Fitz will be hire-able after a perhaps short time.
He can claim that he didn't know anything that happened, and somebody (FCS level or Group of 5 level) will hire him either as HC or DC.
You are delusional if you think FItz is taking a DC or even head coaching job at the FCS level. I am not sure FItz will coach again but if he does, I think it’s more likely to be at the NFL level. I doubt Fitz wants anything to do with College kids ever again.
I can't agree with that, the one part of the statement that felt like authentic Fitz (cutting through lawyers' sanitized writing) was the part about making a difference in raising young people and that 99% were better off by their own admission.
Yes, some ruined it by running this hazing situation, but Fitz knows and believes he made a positive difference in hundreds of young men's lives.
He's at his best as head of a program/community.
The NFL which he may try, is very different. Everyone is just there for a check, he wouldn't be anywhere near able to affect his players' lives as holistically as he can in college. It's just about x's and o's and managing egos.
Of course, I'm sure he may take a few years off after this whole mess, but still I think his heart will always be in the college game.
It wasn’t Carl Richardson who took him down. It was the feeding frenzy of the mob led by NU’s very own at The Daily. They are crowing about it online right now. As if this is something to be proud of. They got one of few coaches in colleges football who actually gave a damn about his players fired yesterday. That’s nothing to be proud of . FItz first and foremost loves football. The NFL is all about football 24/7. I can easily see him going back to his roots and taking a LB coaching job at the NFL level just to get back to his roots and focus only on football. Eventually he may come back to college football as a head coach but it won’t be for a while and it certainly won’t be at the FCS level.
By all accounts, what the Daily initially brought into the light was the same stuff that was in the report which Schill had either not read on Friday or had read initially and thought he could sweep it under the rug. His letter to the community yesterday confirmed the main details from the Daily's first article, so if you want to claim it was a feeding frenzy of the mob, I guess you can, but the fact is that all of the details were seemingly available to Schill at the time of the 2-week suspension.
Even if all that is true, and candidly at this point I am going to be highly skeptical that the behaviors substantiated by the report and the account fed to The Faily by Richardson are one and the same, the initial reaction by the University to suspend FItz rather than fire him was the right one in my opinion. Nobody disputes that there is no evidence Fitzgerald knew, no one disputes that the accusers number a handful out of hundreds of players that have matriculated at NU under Fitzgerald and no one disputes that even if the accusations are true, the good done by FItz for his players and the program overwhelmingly outweighs the bad from this incident. The end result is a very good coach, mentor and person Got fired yesterday. I highly doubt that NU is better off for it and I highly doubt they will find someone better to replace him.
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They’ll settle and Fitz will get paid. S hill may stay or eventually go, but this won’t be the reason.
Neither side wants a trial, and neither will want a public airing of any discovery. This will ultimately result in a financial settlement and both parties will then move forward. It won’t be the blockbuster you think it is. Not even close.
The issue was the suspension was a joke based on what was known. 2 weeks in July is less than nothing. First 4 games of the season? Maybe he still has a job today.
Sounds like anything short of firing for Fitz and CR still would have taken the same objections public with demands for firing.
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