Where Things Stand With the Northwestern Hazing Scandal Heading Into Football Season

With the Wildcats’ season-opener just over two weeks away, the number of lawsuits is only expected to continue to grow.

Northwestern is about to begin a football season in which the focus will be in no small part off the field, owing to the hazing scandal that rocked the university and ended the tenure of longtime coach and former player Pat Fitzgerald. The Wildcats will begin their season Sept. 3 at Rutgers, but it’s clear that this is not a scandal that will tidily go away. As of the latest tally, more than 20 lawsuits have been filed against Fitzgerald, the school and current and former coaches and administrators. The suits have been brought by three legal teams, mostly representing football players, though the scandal has also spread to volleyball and a fourth legal team representing former baseball staff members (the school has said the baseball case lacks merit). There are likely to be additional suits in the coming weeks and months—the only thing certain is that none of this is going away.

A brief look at where the three main legal teams stand as a football season unlike any other in Evanston begins:

Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard/ Stinar Law

Attorneys Pat Salvi II and Parker Stinar have filed six lawsuits, including one with an anonymous former Northwestern volleyball player as a plaintiff. At the crux of all complaints are accusations of negligence, and claims that athletic administrators and coaches failed in their duty to care for the athletes entrusted to them. They await a formal response on all suits filed.

Northwestern has stated repeatedly that it does not comment on pending litigation and Fitzgerald has denied that he knew anything about the hazing. The school has also said that the volleyball issue was dealt with appropriately at the time. Stinar says he anticipates the school to fight some of their suits by arguing that the plaintiffs have exceeded their statute of limitations, but others will be recent enough that it won’t be an issue. “We think that that would be poor form, given the fact that these are student-athletes who have given their blood, sweat and tears for the university in many respects,” Stinar says, adding, “That being said, there are plenty of lawsuits on file already and plenty more to come where there will be no statute limitations issued whatsoever.”

Levin & Perconti / Ben Crump

In total, this legal team has filed 10 suits against the school, with prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump serving as co-counsel. While most of the players who’ve sued Northwestern have remained anonymous, this batch of suits include former football players who’ve been willing to put their names on the record, including Warren Miles-Long, Tom Carnifax, Lloyd Yates and Simba Short. There is one unnamed plaintiff who says he was a minor when the events occurred.

Complaints filed by all three legal teams involving football players include similar details of a group of upperclassman referred to as the “Shrek squad,” who would torment teammates while wearing masks and subject them to “running,” a practice used by players to punish team members (typically younger), by forcibly dry humping them. One complaint alleges that Yates was “ran” by 12 to 15 upperclassmen during his first summer training camp at the Wildcats’ off-campus site in Kenosha. There are also allegations that players were forced to do naked pull-ups, naked center-quarterback exchanges and football drills including a one-on-one pass rushing drill performed naked. In addition, there was a so-called “car wash,” in which anywhere from 10 to 20 players would stand naked at the entrance of the team’s shower and spin in circles while a new player entered between them. Refusing to participate would result in “running.” Many of the events are alleged to have occurred at the school’s training camp in Wisconsin, Camp Kenosha.

Crump has stated that he views this as college sports’ “Me Too” movement, and the lawyers say they anticipate additional plaintiffs will file suits.

Romanucci & Blandin / HART McLAUGHLIN & ELDRIDGE, LLC

A third legal team emerged a few weeks ago with two lawsuits alleging much of the same physical and sexual abuse, as well as racial abuse. In addition to the usual list, the anonymous plaintiffs named former athletic director and current Packers CEO Mark Murphy. Murphy “respectfully declined” a request for comment through the Packers. Tony Romanucci says his firm has been contacted by athletes in other sports, but would not say whether he would proceed with those cases.

So, what now?

The legal teams are not working on islands. Romanucci and Salvi, for instance, are friends and have worked on litigation together before. They’ll consolidate information, but it’s not a class action. Northwestern has an interest from an efficiency standpoint of there being some coordination and collaboration between the legal teams. What is forming here is a mass tort rather than a class action, and all three legal teams expect the number of lawsuits to climb over 100 in the coming weeks and months.

“Each individual has their own claim [in a mass tort],” Stinar says. “It’d be highly insensitive for abuse cases, whether sexual or racial to say that John Doe 1’s damages are the exact same as John Doe 2. So although there's a large number of claimants against the same defendant or defendants for, in part, somewhat similar claims, each individual's damages or injuries are separated out based on what they experience and continue to experience.”

It may take months to get to discovery, and if it actually does, discovery itself is expected to be a lengthy and protracted process. Complaints can be amended during discovery to make claims more specific as new information is brought to light.

“Now it’s incumbent upon Northwestern and the individuals who have been named to figure out how they're going to defend this case,” Rominucci says. “Are they going to defend the case? Should they admit some of the allegations? Which allegations will they deny? And that will dictate what kind of discovery that we need.”

Northwestern has said it does not respond to requests for comment on pending litigation, but has repeatedly referred to this statement:

“Shortly after learning the results of the independent investigation into hazing on the football team, the University announced a series of steps including the monitoring of the football locker room, anti-hazing training and the establishment of an online reporting tool for complaints. These steps, while necessary and appropriate, are just the start, and we will be augmenting them in the coming weeks.

“As president Michael Schill wrote in a message to the Northwestern community, the university is working to ensure there is appropriate accountability for the athletic department.”

The school has also announced an independent review into the culture of Northwestern athletics, hiring the law firm Paul Weiss and former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to preside over it. It is the second investigation into the culture of the department that Northwestern has commissioned, with the first done by the law firm ArentFox, of which only an executive summary has been released. All three legal teams want the full ArentFox report to be made public, believing it will bolster their cases.

“We're certainly going to ask for it and fight to get it,” Margaret Battersby-Black of Levin & Perconti says. “I can't think of any privileges that would be applicable to [preventing its release], particularly because they've released the executive summary.”

As far as the current football team, they’re projecting a message of solidarity with each other and their former coach. Multiple coaches and players have been spotted in the last few weeks wearing T-shirts that say “Cats against the world” emblazoned with Fitzgerald’s former jersey number.

Northwestern coaches, staff wear 'Cats Against The World' t-shirts with Fitzgerald's number at open practice https://t.co/3SJyLPrdXV pic.twitter.com/XKiVE0yV4C

— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) August 9, 2023

Embattled athletic director Derrick Gragg later released a statement calling the shirts tone-deaf.