WGN Reporting - settlements for athletes hazed
- Thread starter T_Levine
- Start date
What WGN reported + statement from Fitz lawyers:
"As previously stated, Coach Fitzgerald committed no wrongdoing."
"He looks forward to having his day in court, where he expects a jury will hold Northwestern and President Schill accountable for the extreme harm done to his personal and professional reputation."
https://wgntv.com/evanston/northwes...uit-over-football-program-hazing-allegations/
"As previously stated, Coach Fitzgerald committed no wrongdoing."
"He looks forward to having his day in court, where he expects a jury will hold Northwestern and President Schill accountable for the extreme harm done to his personal and professional reputation."
https://wgntv.com/evanston/northwes...uit-over-football-program-hazing-allegations/
To me, it means
1. that Dan Webb writes a lot of words, and
2. that the university is paying the players for their suffering, therefore setting the stage for
3. Fitz to be held accountable for the players’ acknowledged suffering
My read of the Fitz contract is that this actually wouldn’t affect whether he could be fired for cause.
Also, it’s one major step closer to over.
Not a lawyer but to me it means very little. Fitz’s suit is not based on proving or disproving that hazing occurred. As the statement from his lawyers clearly states, the lawsuit claims wrongful termination and violation of a verbal agreement by Schill when he reversed course and fired FItz after announcing publicly that FItz would be suspended for two weeks as a result of the internal investigation regarding the hazing. All else is fairly irrelevant.
The most interesting part from the statement was the indication NU tried to delay the start date of the trial. Not something I would expect to see from a defendant that was confident in their case.
Hasn’t it been understood that Fitz wanted to return to coaching only after this was resolved?
Delaying the trial delays Fitz returning to coaching, which makes him more likely to settle.
That also implies NU feels their best path forward is settling rather than feeling they have a good shot at winning the case. They know they have a losing hand. It's just a question of how much they end up paying. Regardless, the judge rejected the extension request. My guess is this thing settles in Fitz's favor over the summer, before football season starts.
Means that school no longer is conflicted trying to have PF as an ally and an opponent. Someone must have felt that the hazing case posed the greatest liability or PF’s demands were too high.
Either way - dynamics have changed and the school has a new allies.
That’s not quite right. Fitzgerald is bringing breach of contract claims regarding the termination AND also tort claims, alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation — specifically, that he was harmed by NU’s statement that said he failed to carry out his responsibilities as coach by allowing hazing to occur within the program.
If there are witnesses who will (1) say hazing did occur and (2) establish that Fitzgerald knew/should have known about the hazing, that would of course help defend against those tort claims.
