Pat Fitzgerald suspended 2 weeks in Northwestern hazing inquiry
Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior WriterJul 7, 2023, 09:51 AM ET
Northwestern is implementing several measures to curb hazing within its football program, including a two-week suspension of coach Pat Fitzgerald after an investigation found evidence to support a claim of problematic conduct.
Fitzgerald, the Wildcats' coach since 2006, will begin the unpaid suspension Friday. Northwestern is not set to start preseason practices until early August.
Other measures include no more off-campus practices in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the team held preseason training for years, and the monitoring of the football locker room by someone who doesn't report to Fitzgerald or his staff.
Fitzgerald said in a statement that he was "very disappointed" to learn of the hazing allegations. "Northwestern football prides itself on producing not just athletes, but fine young men with character befitting the program and our University," he said. "We hold our student-athletes and our program to the highest standards; we will continue to work to exceed those standards moving forward."
The university-commissioned investigation, launched in January, found that one claim from an anonymous whistleblower was supported, even though player accounts varied and there was not sufficient evidence that coaches knew about the conduct. According to an executive summary, the hazing incidents occurred in the team locker room and possibly started at "Camp Kenosha," where Northwestern had spent about a week of the preseason until 2020.
"The investigation did not uncover evidence pointing to specific misconduct by any individual football player or coach, participation in or knowledge of the hazing activities was widespread across football players," the summary reads.
Attorney Maggie Hickey of the ArentFox Schiff LLP firm led the investigation, which included more than 50 people currently or formerly affiliated with the program. The person who made the allegations spoke with investigators in December.
"Hazing in any form is unacceptable and goes against our core values at Northwestern, where we strive to make the University a safe and welcoming environment for all of our students," university President Michael Schill said in a statement. "Our athletics programs are held to the highest standards, and in this case, we failed to meet them. I expect that today's actions will prevent this from ever happening again."
Northwestern has created an online tool to report alleged hazing activities and will require all coaches, players and staff to go through anti-hazing training with a focus on how to report claims.
Sha'Carri Richardson wins 100m U.S. title 2 years after doping violation
Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. -- Moments after she was introduced on the starting line, Sha'Carri Richardson reached to her head, pulled her trademark orange wig off and flung it onto the ground behind her.
Then, she took the next step on the long road to proving she's the real deal.
America's sprint star won the 100-meter title in 10.82 seconds at the U.S. championships on Friday night, marking a high point that comes two years after her national title was stripped because of a doping violation.
After her victory, she conceded in a TV interview that she wasn't ready for the moment at the 2021 Olympic Trials, where, shortly after her victory, she tested positive for using marijuana.
"Now, I stand here with you again and I'm ready, mentally, physically and emotionally," said Richardson, who ran in her natural black braids with a star shaved into the right side of her hairdo. "I'm here to say, 'I'm not back, I'm better.'"
Richardson, 23, will have a chance to put a stamp on that next month at world championships, which will mark her first major international meet. Earning America's second and third spots in the event were Brittany Brown (10.90) and Tamari Davis (10.99).
Moments after Richardson's win, Cravont Charleston pulled an upset in the men's 100, finishing in 9.95 to edge 2019 world champion Christian Coleman by .01. It was the 25-year-old Charleston's first final in a major meet and he made the best of it.
"To win," Charleston said when asked what his goal is for his first world championships. "Of course, to win. That's the goal. Always to win."
Noah Lyles finished third, only four days after getting over a bout of COVID. He'll go for a double at worlds, his spot in his signature event, the 200, already assured because he is the defending world champion.
"I had the dream I could make that double," Lyles said.
He is one of 10 American athletes, including Fred Kerley (100), Athing Mu (800) and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (400 hurdles) who are defending world champions and have automatic bids into the meet in Budapest, Hungary, next month. On Friday, McLaughlin-Levrone ran 49.60 in the 400 flat to win the semifinal in that event by 1.4 seconds.
Among the summer's biggest questions is what McLaughlin-Levrone will do come Budapest.
But this week has mostly been about Richardson, who has not looked in this good of form since the 2021 Olympic Trials, when she routed the field, only to have the result vacated when her drug test came back positive. She admitted she used marijuana to relieve stress after learning her mother had died. That episode triggered a debate about whether marijuana should really be on the banned list.
Officials elected to leave it on the list because experts determined it was "against the spirit of sport."
Richardson ran the best time of the year, 10.71, on Thursday in opening heats, but she'll leave Eugene with only the worlds' second-fastest 100 time of the week. A few hours before Richardson's final, Shericka Jackson won Jamaica's championships with a time of 10.65 seconds, setting up Jackson and Richardson as the fastest contenders at worlds.
Other winners Friday included Anna Hall in the heptathlon, Harrison Williams in the decathlon, Vashti Cunningham in the women's high jump and Donald Scott in the men's triple jump.
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