Northwestern FB Hazing

#51
#51
Seriously though, when the Schiano thing happened here at UT there were a TON of people clamoring to call Pat Fitzgerald.
Just amazing how the football gods and UTAD might have finally gotten one rith with the Heupel hiring.

Is it?

Fitz probably would have been better than Pruitt and I doubt this grabass **** would've followed him.
 
#52
#52
Is it?

Fitz probably would have been better than Pruitt and I doubt this grabass **** would've followed him.
Pat Fitzgerald is a good football coach, I have serious doubts that he was very aware of what allegedly has happened. He was Northwestern football. I think he would’ve had a hard time making that jump from the bubble of Evanston to the pressure cooker of Knoxville and the SEC.
 
#53
#53
Pat Fitzgerald is a good football coach, I have serious doubts that he was very aware of what allegedly has happened. He was Northwestern football. I think he would’ve had a hard time making that jump from the bubble of Evanston to the pressure cooker of Knoxville and the SEC.
If it is true what the school newspaper's article said, which is that Fitz would do the "Shrek clap" at practices after guys made mistakes, then he almost certainly knew about it.

Thing to remember about this story too is that this is Northwestern, not Tennessee or UGA or Alabama. They aren't going to go to the ends of the Earth to defend a football coach there. This probably flys at most football schools, especially if said coach has been recently successful. Given the school's journalistic chops, the school newspaper is probably more influential there than Pat Fitzgerald is and once that article came out, it was over. Even though there really wasn't any new information in it from the school's initial announcement. You can't say that about too many other P5 schools.

I do agree with you that it could be a somewhat coveted job, more than you might think, but the next couple of years could be really rough. If the right coach is hired though, it doesn't take as long as you might think to turn programs around after scandals (see Penn St and Baylor), although N'western's resources aren't at the same level as theirs.
 
#55
#55
In HS football, you did not want to be the last guy on the bus walking to the back. You had to carry all your equipment through that narrow corridor and block all the pokes to the crotch and b-hole. WTF was wrong with us?

It’s very, very weird. I mean stuff like that happened at my school and we were a Christian school. And that was 15 years ago. “Boys will be boys” has always been a dangerous idea.
 
#56
#56
It’s very, very weird. I mean stuff like that happened at my school and we were a Christian school. And that was 15 years ago. “Boys will be boys” has always been a dangerous idea.
My wife watches a lot of documentaries about similar incidences.
These situations tear small towns apart all the time.
I would imagine Northwestern is like a small town, in this instance.
 
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#57
#57
If it is true what the school newspaper's article said, which is that Fitz would do the "Shrek clap" at practices after guys made mistakes, then he almost certainly knew about it.

Thing to remember about this story too is that this is Northwestern, not Tennessee or UGA or Alabama. They aren't going to go to the ends of the Earth to defend a football coach there. This probably flys at most football schools, especially if said coach has been recently successful. Given the school's journalistic chops, the school newspaper is probably more influential there than Pat Fitzgerald is and once that article came out, it was over. Even though there really wasn't any new information in it from the school's initial announcement. You can't say that about too many other P5 schools.

I do agree with you that it could be a somewhat coveted job, more than you might think, but the next couple of years could be really rough. If the right coach is hired though, it doesn't take as long as you might think to turn programs around after scandals (see Penn St and Baylor), although N'western's resources aren't at the same level as theirs.

I wasn’t aware about the “Shrek clap” thing. I’m not really sure what that means, but I’m surprised that he would participate in this. So dumb if he did know and participated.

I feel like given their notable grads that write and talk for a living about sports, that the student newspaper would much rather get the accolades for their work than ever trying to defend their football coach from being drug through the mud. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes, If they pursue the actual student athletes that were doing the “hazing” or if they just stop at Fitz. I brought up the possibility of ACC Commissioner Jim Philips being brought into this. The last the thing the ACC needs is instability right now. There are a lot of moving pieces with this.
 
#58
#58
I wasn’t aware about the “Shrek clap” thing. I’m not really sure what that means, but I’m surprised that he would participate in this. So dumb if he did know and participated.

I feel like given their notable grads that write and talk for a living about sports, that the student newspaper would much rather get the accolades for their work than ever trying to defend their football coach from being drug through the mud. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes, If they pursue the actual student athletes that were doing the “hazing” or if they just stop at Fitz. I brought up the possibility of ACC Commissioner Jim Philips being brought into this. The last the thing the ACC needs is instability right now. There are a lot of moving pieces with this.
Former NU football player details hazing allegations

According to the former player, team members allegedly identified players for “running” by clapping their hands above their heads around that player. The practice, the player said, was known within the team as “the Shrek clap.”

The Daily obtained a video of a player clapping his hands during a game, which the anonymous player said was the same motion taken to signify “running.”

According to the player who spoke with The Daily, Fitzgerald repeatedly made the signal during practices when players, specifically freshmen, made a mistake.

The player believes some players interpreted Fitzgerald making these signals as knowingly “encouraging” the hazing to continue.

“Everyone would just be looking at each other and be like ‘bro, Fitz knows about this,’ because you wouldn’t take that action otherwise,” the player said. “Everyone joins in, because he’s the head coach.”

I guess it is possible that Fitz did the clap because he saw his players doing it, and joined in thinking it was funny or something, not knowing what it means. But regardless it's a bad look.
 
#59
#59
I wasn’t aware about the “Shrek clap” thing. I’m not really sure what that means, but I’m surprised that he would participate in this. So dumb if he did know and participated.

I feel like given their notable grads that write and talk for a living about sports, that the student newspaper would much rather get the accolades for their work than ever trying to defend their football coach from being drug through the mud. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes, If they pursue the actual student athletes that were doing the “hazing” or if they just stop at Fitz. I brought up the possibility of ACC Commissioner Jim Philips being brought into this. The last the thing the ACC needs is instability right now. There are a lot of moving pieces with this.
I think our buddy Christine Brennan has to have a piece dialed up on this already. Maybe already has - I haven't looked.

She and Wolken are the epitome of that "I cover sports but actually hate sports" crowd.
 
#60
#60
I think our buddy Christine Brennan has to have a piece dialed up on this already. Maybe already has - I haven't looked.

She and Wolken are the epitome of that "I cover sports but actually hate sports" crowd.
I saw Wolken wrote something . Brennan will probably call for the disbanding of the football program altogether.
 
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#63
#63
I bet she did then. Amazing how many that write for sports hate sports . They all come from schools that mostly suck at athletics, like Northwestern or in Wolken’s case Vandy.
Think we might have discussed before, but a lot of folks who cover sports, particularly who came from elite institutions, I think had aspirations of covering more serious topics. Politics, business, world affairs, high culture, etc. Instead they ended up covering the domain of jocks and meatheads, who they have disdain for. The thing that really comes through, particularly in Wolken's writing, is the contempt he has for sports fans. Which is wild because that's the consumer for his product.
 
#67
#67
#69
#69
I still don't understand. What happens after the clap?
The clap just marks you as a target. Then some upperclassmen will restrain the identified player, strip the player naked and dress up in masks and stick their fingers in his rectum and hump him.

**EDIT** apparently in one ritual called the "carwash", the players doing the hazing would have their genitals out as well....but it was "clean"...whatever that means.
 
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#70
#70
The clap just marks you as a target. Then some upperclassmen will restrain the identified player, strip the player naked and dress up in masks and stick their fingers in his rectum and hump him.

**EDIT** apparently in one ritual called the "carwash", the players doing the hazing would have their genitals out as well....but it was "clean"...whatever that means.

wtf

The hazing is just as bad for the perpetrators
 
#71
#71
Think we might have discussed before, but a lot of folks who cover sports, particularly who came from elite institutions, I think had aspirations of covering more serious topics. Politics, business, world affairs, high culture, etc. Instead they ended up covering the domain of jocks and meatheads, who they have disdain for. The thing that really comes through, particularly in Wolken's writing, is the contempt he has for sports fans. Which is wild because that's the consumer for his product.
And they all seem to write for USA Today. It used to be an amazing sports page when I was a kid, now people like Wolken only write about what’s wrong w/ sports like football or how it’s fans and even some of those that cover it are bigots.
 
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#73
#73
Listening to ESPN Radio, and Jay Williams just went through a list of 20+ incidents in the Big 10 in the last 15+ years. Everything from Ohio St. tattoo incident, Jerry Sandusky, Larry Nassar, and other sexual hazing incidents. What is going on up there?
Is there a transcript?
 

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