Fired Northwestern coach wants to move up trial, return to football soon
Northwestern Hazing
An attorney for former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald urged a judge Tuesday to move up the trial in a dispute over his firing, saying he can’t get another major job until he puts a hazing scandal behind him.
An attorney for former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald wants to move up the trial date in a dispute over his firing. Dan Webb says Fitzgerald can’t get another major job until he puts a hazing scandal behind him.
An attorney for former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald urged a judge Tuesday to move up the trial in a dispute over his firing, saying he can’t get another major job until he puts a hazing scandal behind him.
“It has decimated his career,” lawyer Dan Webb said.
Fitzgerald was initially suspended for two weeks and then fired last year after 17 years as head coach of the Wildcats. Northwestern said he had a responsibility to know that hazing was occurring and should have stopped it.
Fitzgerald denies wrongdoing. He responded by suing the school for $130 million, claiming he was wrongly fired.
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A Cook County judge has set an April 2025 trial date, but Webb wants it moved to December 2024.
“If we get a trial in December and he’s exonerated, he will still have January to get a coaching position” elsewhere, Webb said. “But if he misses three seasons in a row, it’s going to be significantly different.”
Judge Daniel Kubasiak acknowledged that timing is important to Fitzgerald, but he added: “I’m not sure I can necessarily allow that to dictate.”
Reid Schar, an attorney representing Northwestern, said dates and deadlines in the case so far seem to be aggressive. He noted that documents number in the thousands.
Fitzgerald has “chosen to pursue this litigation,” Schar said. “And so we have to pick a schedule that’s actually achievable, not one that’s defined by what he might want to do for the rest of his life.”
The judge set a status hearing for April 2. He hopes the lawsuit can be settled.
“I don’t think any party wins if this matter goes to trial,” Kubasiak said.
NCAA vs. Tennessee, Virginia
A federal judge said Tuesday he will rule “in short order” on a preliminary injunction requested by the states of Tennessee and Virginia to stop the NCAA from enforcing its rules governing name, image and likeness compensation for athletes as part of an antitrust lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker originally had a four-hour window blocked off for the hearing in Greeneville, Tennessee. The hearing for the states’ request lasted less than 90 minutes.
An orange power T flag representing Tennessee hung from a construction lift in the parking lot facing the courthouse.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti attended and spoke to reporters outside. He said in a prepared statement the NCAA’s “arbitrary and illegal rules” are keeping athletes from making important decisions.
“Meanwhile, everybody else involved in college sports is getting rich at those student-athletes’ expense,” Skrmetti said. “That is not legal, not right and it needs to change. Antitrust law in this area is clear, and as the Court has previously said, our case is likely to succeed on the merits. We are happy with the case’s progression and look forward to litigating it fully if necessary.”
Corker denied the states’ request for a temporary restraining order last week, noting they failed to demonstrate recruits would be irreparably harmed if it was not granted. But he also wrote the states were “likely to succeed on the merits of their claim” under the Sherman Act.
UCLA: DeShaun Foster was introduced as UCLA’s head football coach on Tuesday and is ready to bring some much needed energy to a stagnant program. The Bruins went 8-5 and won the LA Bowl last season under Chip Kelly, who resigned Friday before becoming the offensive coordinator at Ohio State. But fans rarely filled the Rose Bowl for home games in Kelly’s sixth season in charge or donated to the program’s preferred collective for name, image and likeness compensation, which hindered recruiting and player retention. Foster was a standout running back at UCLA from 1998-2001 and was part of the Bruins’ last Pac-10 title team.
