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ESPN reporter Adam Rittenberg details what led to Northwestern’s about-face after suspending Pat Fitzgerald

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

The college football world was rocked over the weekend with an explosive report detailing serious hazing allegations within Pat Fitzgerald’s Northwestern program. Despite a previously announced suspension for Fitzgerald and a number of players rallying around the coach, the university made the move to dismiss Fitzgerald on Monday.

With a suspension given on Friday and the decision to fire Fitzgerald coming on Monday, the turn of events makes it appear that new information emerged over the weekend. However, ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg says that is not entirely the case.

In an interview for McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Rittenberg said some of the details that surfaced over the weekend were known about months ago and were included in the investigation.

“I received the initial correspondence from the whistleblower, the former player, back on Nov. 30 that detailed some of the things that came out in The Daily Northwestern and my story on ESPN,” said Rittenberg. “That was more than 6 months ago, so the information did not change dramatically.”

As to what did change, Rittenberg says Northwestern president Michael Schill met with the whistleblower and dealt with other players coming forward alongside public pressure to the report.

“What did change is more details came out, the university president learned of and spoke to the whistleblower and his family, there were other players who came forward with allegations. There was obviously a lot of media pressure, public pressure and it resulted in the president deciding the culture of the team was broken to a degree and that Pat Fitzgerald could no longer oversee it as a coach,” Rittenberg explained. “Again, the details that went public were a part of the investigation and could have or should have been shared to the president before he made his initial determination of a 2-week suspension.”

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.