O’Donnell: No winner in Fitzgerald settlement with Northwestern
TWO DAYS AFTER PAT FITZGERALD was abruptly fired as head football coach at Northwestern in July 2023, a Midwestern newspaper bannered the following column headline:
“A minority of one — without more complete facts, Pat Fitzgerald is being railroaded.”
It was predicated upon two compelling benchmarks:
· The presumption of innocence until proven guilty; and,
· A doctoral-level study of Fitzgerald, the coach and the man, afforded during three seasons (2007-09) covering Wildcats football for the Chicago Sun-Times.
ALONE AMONG HIGH-TIER NATIONAL MEDIA, only Pete Thamel, a senior writer for ESPN, held his ground against the stampeding herd that immediately accepted hazing allegations against Fitzgerald as probable fact.
It was Thamel who broke the story Thursday that Fitzgerald's $130 million lawsuit against Northwestern had been settled.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Both sides acknowledged hazing occurred in the program but without evidence Fitzgerald knew about it or condoned it.
HAMEL — RESPECTED AND RESOURCED — has already mentioned that Fitzgerald’s agent Bryan Harlan expects Fitzgerald will be coaching in college football again sooner than later.
Fitzgerald will turn 51 in December. His 110-101 record includes the most victories in Northwestern football history.
But the warrior's heart and NU soul of Fitzgerald have been forever diminished.
THE UNIVERSITY MOVES FORWARD into a glistening new stadium next summer.
Third-year head coach David Braun — a Fitzgerald hire in December 2022 — will try to repeat his resolute 8-5 mark of 2023. The 'Cats dipped to 4-8 last fall.
A THOUGHT FROM TED KOPPEL on the speed of immersive contemporary media opened that “minority of one” column 25 months ago:
“We're so enchanted with our ability to be fast that I think we've sometimes lost connection with what we're saying and why.”
But at what cost to the pursuit of truth within the bounds of appropriate journalistic restraint?
STREET-BEATIN':
Multiple reports that Caleb Williams continues to relentlessly try to rub teammates the right way. That gentleman's manner extends to the families of fellow Bears — among other things, Williams charmed all at the wedding of Cole Kmet to Emily Jarosz earlier this summer. (The reception was held in the backyard of the opulent suburban home of beaming parents Frank and Kandace Kmet.) …
Two items from Halas Hall regulars: Too much media around the team — what else is new — and the sense that Ben Johnson's fresh standards will result in heightened discipline in many aspects, including some not so visible. No. 2 can only bode well for a tattered franchise coming off of a 5-12 campaign that was so theatricality flipped by Tyrique Stevenson's gaffe for the ages at Washington. …
The re-ordered daily lineup at Chicago's listless ESPN-AM (1000) is doing nothing to get sports talk pulses racing. Pant-by-numbers national import Rich Eisen will be heard from noon-2 p.m., which is about as exciting as Skip Bayless playing Zanies in Rosemont. The station's ongoing play-by-play deal with the Bears remains the most oddball in team broadcast history. …
MLB'S Home Run Derby could be headed for Netflix. That once would be heresy comparable to Morgan Freeman hosting the All-Star Game on PBS. That's also not good news for Rob Manfred and Co., that the slugger's slamfest is considered more valuable “lure programming” than the ASG itself. …
Roughest reality for Bret Bielema and his Fighting Illini footballers is that they could finish the regular season as a Top 10 team and still not make the Big Ten championship game. No Bielema squad has touched a December Top 10 since Montee Ball, Russell Wilson and all drove Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl in 2011. …
Rick Johnson of Arlington Heights-based Red Rabbit Racing reports that with live horse racing in the Chicago area on life support, the Illinois Racing Board canceled its August meeting due to “a lack of a agenda items.” (That'd be like the National Weather Service declining to monitor a hurricane season.) …
Speaking of the sport of desecrated global-class tracks, early pickers for the 2026 Kentucky Derby are already circling It's Our Time. The 2-year-old — like Secretariat, Virginia bred — made an eye-popping debut at Saratoga last week for trainer Tom Amoss. (He's logged hours as a crack TV analyst for ESPN, the New York Racing Association and the old TVG.) …
And Bill Belichick, on one of the joys of coaching at North Carolina this season, told media: “There's no owner and there's no owner's son.” (Belichick and the Tar Heels open Labor Day night vs. visiting TCU on ESPN.)
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.