I hope I copied this link correctly:
https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/...g-a-mega-million-lawsuit-against-northwestern
https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/...g-a-mega-million-lawsuit-against-northwestern
New Daily Herald article on Fitz
- Thread starter joncat
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It suggests the BOT and admin are basically telling him, "You want the UW job? Don't let the door hit you on the way out."
This is gonna get messy again real quickly, isn’t it?
I find it fascinating that Gragg 1) thinks he deserves an extension and 2) thinks he has a shot at the Washington job. How much money could those of us on these boards offer them to take him off our hands?
Interesting verbiage about the search firm: “Gragg has also reportedly been denied the opportunity to hire a search firm to find a permanent replacement for Fitzgerald.” My thoughts: 1) that’s straight up malfeasance to not have a firm engaged at this point and 2) maybe that’s a sign that the administration would prefer to keep Braun? Could also just be that it’s not worth spending the money if you know you’re going to shit can the AD as well, but I don’t get the feeling that Schill is in any hurry to make that move.
Also interesting that this past Saturday was the first full Board of Trustees meeting since July. The hell have those guys been doing?
My guess is they pay off Fitz sooner than later as the players’ legal cases are much more tenuous.
I'm not so worried about the lack of engagement with a search firm because we're still not to hiring and firing season yet. Another month and I'll start to wonder. I'm more concerned that Gragg stays on as AD because this will greatly impact the HC search.
I find this article very encouraging. The fact that Gragg is effectively neutered means he is dead man walking. Once the lawsuits are settled, he’s gonzo.
NU’s board of trustees has, like, 80 people. An administrative mess, cliques and warring factions and competing goals, just dumb af. (I learned this from that SI article about the cost of this whole ordeal a few weeks ago.)
I like that O’Donnell still uses ‘The Enchanted Lakefront’. Good for him.
Imagine if NU had conducted a real search for an AD all those years ago instead of elevating the Chicago Wolves ticket guy. So many great candidates who got fake interviews for purposes of leaking their names to the press. (Holy sh*t: Polisky is now president of the Association of Pickleball Professionals. Yes!!!!)
Gragg’s sure trying to set the athletic department back.
Polisky was the right hand man of arguably the best AD the school has ever had. Elevating him to AD was not a bad move. Elevating him and then effectively forcing him to resign because of information that was already public was disastrous.
Elevating after a sham search process is the failure. Had he been announced as a successor immediately, then forced out, all those quality candidates would have still been available.
After Polisky’s departure, all that was left was some dude who was so bad as an AD that he was twiddling his thumbs for the toothless NCAA. A shame his trip to Europe was disrupted.
What makes you think the search was a sham? It could be that Polisky had the inside track but the school wanted to interview other candidates.
The epic failure was promoting Polisky only to “fire” him days later. Sounds familiar.
Just a feeling. Particularly the fact that the candidates were leaked to the press, a show of due diligence. I definitely never learned who else was considered a few weeks before Gragg was announced.
Teddy G was an excellent pawn for Fitzy and Phillips.
That would be a terrible idea, because it would make the players’ lawsuits much stronger.
NU is basically in a giant lose-lose situation. I’d expect a settlement with Fitz to come pretty quickly, with the players later. Nobody REALLY wants these cases to go to trials.
What if there are no witnesses who can show that Fitz knew or should have known?
Or maybe read excerpts from the report (that was the result of a 6 month investigation) that showed there was no evidence he knew.
Or maybe wait and see what the facts of the case are.
"The former University of Tulsa athletic director is said to be eyeballing the open slot at the University of Washington. "
Said by whom?
Gragg has also reportedly been denied the opportunity to hire a search firm to find a permanent replacement for Fitzgerald. Since mid-July, David Braun has been Northwestern's interim coach.
Reported by whom?
Is this a high school newspaper?
Said by whom?
Gragg has also reportedly been denied the opportunity to hire a search firm to find a permanent replacement for Fitzgerald. Since mid-July, David Braun has been Northwestern's interim coach.
Reported by whom?
Is this a high school newspaper?
Brilliant. Let’s ignore the fact the school’s own report concluded no evidence exists that FItz knew, which implies your witnesses don’t exist. Assuming they did exist, why would NU want to give the players’ lawyers more ammunition for their lawsuits and in so doing increase the schools potential liability exponentially? What a genius you are. Oh and by the way, [REDACTED]
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Probably they'll settle with Fitz and the players as soon as possible. With Fitz NU is saying he either knew about the hazing or should have known, but with the players they'll have to say it wasn't all that bad or maybe wasn't really hazing. Sooner is better on all fronts to try and control the shit storm.
phatcat has a desired outcome first (fire Fitz) and we can find the justification later.
Exactly. This is a columnist who is reporting statements by interested parties. You can speculate on who told him these things and what their motive is for getting this information out there. But you certainly shouldn't take any of it at face value.
These aren't "Schrodinger's witnesses". They either exist or they dont. If they don't, probaby Fitz get a lot of money and the player lawsuits get bupkus. I think they exist, but would love to be proven wrong, that no harmful hazing occurred for his entire tenure. If so, apologize, pay him and eff the lying players.
I tend to believe victims, especially if there are a lot of them, corroborated by staff members. The truth will come out, and (only if proven true), I don't want Fitz fired, as stated by another poster. I think he belongs in jail.
I don't care if he didn't know. It's his job to know. He told the parents he'd protect their kids. He lied.
He's a disgrace. A poor man's Art Briles
They aren't going to say to the players that it didn't happen. It happened and they have already said that it happened. They can certainly argue about damages.
I would imagine that the source is someone on the board. I think the search firm part and Gragg not being allowed to hire one ring true. He is dead man walking
A post like this isn’t worth rebutting. Go outside and touch some grass.
If Fitz thought he had sufficient measures in place (as detailed by Hank), then he didn't lie.
What additional measures do you believe Fitz should have had in place?
Seems like something a columnist would learn, I don’t know, in Journalism School? Where might I have heard this before… hmm….
If Polisky was qualified to be the AD of a major university, that's what he'd be doing right now instead of administrating a pickle ball organization.
He's a modern day journalist. The job is to write something that gets clicks and drives up revenue. Journalistic integrity doesn't sell.
If it's true that the players' cases are more tenuous then from the school's perspective, it's strategically better to settle with the players first and fight it out with Fitz.
So if someone has a job title , say Athletic Director, does that make them qualified? Asking for a friend…
Not all ADs are qualified people, but all people who are qualified to be ADs (and are interested in the job) are going to be working in an actual athletic department or for a major athletics organization.
Nobody wants to go to trial, but Fitz has been gloves off from the jump. He must be pretty confident after reading the contents of the school’s investigative report.
Don't be surprised if the only issue allowed at trial is what those who fired "for cause" knew or didn't know at the time.
Ok, but why would we then take statements from the whistleblower as factual? The collaborator is the ultimate odd ball. The Daily was eager to get the story out, screw waiting to get more information. Forget about talking to enough current players to get their story.
O’Donnell lives in the same town as me. He has hardly been supportive of NU throughout his career. He has been plenty critical. However, even if he isn’t my cup of tea, he has had a long professional career. He has sources, plenty of them and don’t think he typically throws crap against the wall to see what sticks. I find him way more credible than most of the accusers!
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