Eight former Northwestern football players have retained noted civil rights attorney Ben Crump and a Chicago-based law firm to pursue legal action against the school for hazing incidents that took place within the program.
Crump and the Levin & Perconti firm say they have discovered "a vast array of incidents of abuse" within the Northwestern program. Northwestern conducted a six-month investigation into hazing allegations within the program, announcing July 7 that claims from a former player were largely substantiated but that coaches were not aware of the incidents. After initially suspending head coach Pat Fitzgerald for two weeks without pay, Northwestern fired Fitzgerald on July 10.
"Whether the coaches at Northwestern approved or participated in the harassment of these players or not, they are responsible for allowing and enabling a toxic, disgusting, and damaging culture in their programs," Crump said in a statement. "Sadly, our research suggests that this kind of abuse of student athletes may be far more common on college campuses than we know, because there is tremendous pressure to keep quiet. It's time for a reckoning to protect young athletes."
In a news release, the Levin & Perconti firm stated that it expects more former Northwestern players to join the legal action, which is likely to expand with other college programs. Crump, in 2021, filed a federal lawsuit against Ohio State on behalf of victims who alleged they were sexually abused by former university doctor Richard Strauss.
The firm has received "dozens" of phone calls from former Northwestern players and expects the number of players involved for a lawsuit to grow from the original eight. Steve Levin, senior partner at the Levin & Perconti firm, declined to identify any players or whether the initial whistleblower is part of the group, but said they played at Northwestern during the past 15 years or so.
In a July 10 letter announcing Fitzgerald's firing, Northwestern president Michael Schill wrote that the hazing incidents included "forced participation, nudity and sexualized acts of a degrading nature, in clear violation of Northwestern policies and values." The former player who first informed Northwestern of the alleged hazing detailed several incidents, including "Running," where older players would retain younger players in a dark locker room and engage in sexualized acts while wearing masks. The former player sent ESPN a screenshot of a whiteboard he said was displayed in Northwestern's locker room that listed possible hazing activities called "naked slingshot," "naked bear crawls" and "naked quarterback-center exchange."
"There's remarkable consistency in both the reports given to us by our clients and others, and it's corroborated by the Northwestern report itself," Levin told ESPN. "Northwestern's investigation found those complaints to be valid."
Northwestern's investigation did not find evidence of misconduct by any specific players or coaches. No players have been formally disciplined by the school, which has retained all assistant coaches and support staff for the 2023 season under interim coach David Braun, hired in January as defensive coordinator. Fitzgerald, in a statement after his firing, reiterated that he had no knowledge of the hazing activities.
"This is not a case about Coach Fitzgerald," Levin said. "This is a case about Northwestern as an institution. Northwestern itself, based on an investigation that they commissioned, apparently felt that certain administrators at the university should have known about what happened. We also know that if something has occurred this long over this period of time, involving this many students, it seems reasonable to assume that someone either knew or should have known. It's distracting from the institution to try to pin this on one individual. It's a systemic problem at the university."
After being fired for cause, Fitzgerald has retained attorney Dan Webb for a possible wrongful termination lawsuit against the school.
"For many of the players, their exposure to this abusive culture began when they were being recruited at ages 16 or 17. They were just kids at that time," Margaret Battersby Black, a managing partner at Levin & Perconti, said in a statement. "The school and its football coaches induced the parents to send their children to Northwestern because they were falsely assured the university and the coaching staff would look out for them and protect them. Unfortunately, that was not the case."
Levin said he expects the full Northwestern investigation to be revealed eventually. He doesn't know the details of the report but thinks it might be limited to a particular time period.
"We're going to continue our investigation; we're going to eventually file a lawsuit; and we hope that maybe Northwestern will come to the table and say, 'You know what, let's see what we can do here,'" Levin said.