Second Former Player Files Lawsuit Against Northwestern, Names ACC Commissioner As Defendant

Two anonymous former Northwestern football players have now filed civil lawsuits against school officials related to allegations of hazing — including sexual assault — and racist abuse that were first publicized last week. 

The athletes, who played from 2018-22, claim school officials were not only negligent in preventing the toxic culture, but that former coach Pat Fitzgerald himself was aware of it.

Both lawsuits, filed in Cook County, Illinois, on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, name multiple university officials as well as Fitzgerald. The second lawsuit also names former athletic director Jim Phillips, now the ACC Commissioner, as a defendant.

Fitzgerald and other administrators “were negligent in failing to prevent hazing traditions, failing to intervene in hazing traditions, failing to protect students from acts that were assaultive, illegal, and often sexual in nature,” plaintiff attorneys Parker Stinar and Patrick Salvi II summarized in their original press release.

Stinar and Salvi told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday that they’ve also learned of “incidents” in the volleyball, softball, and cheerleading programs. They noted baseball coach Jim Foster was fired for perpetuating a toxic culture. 

Northwestern athletics’ culture of hazing and abuse is “so widespread that it goes well beyond the football program,” the attorneys said. Stinar worked on cases related to the sexual abuse of Larry Nassar.

FOS reviewed both complaints in the football lawsuits, which include gruesome allegations detailed from The Daily Northwestern article as well as the executive summary of the Northwestern investigation.

At Wednesday’s press conference, the attorneys also said their clients told them that Fitzgerald was made aware of the racist abuse and that he knew about the hazing practices. 

“The head football coach knows about everything that happens in this football program,” Stinar said.

Fitzgerald has continued to state that he had no knowledge of the toxic behavior — something his attorney, Dan Webb, reiterated in a statement to ESPN on Tuesday.

Northwestern does not comment on ongoing litigation as a matter of policy. But a spokesperson said: “Protecting the welfare of every student at Northwestern University is central to our mission and something we approach with the utmost seriousness…. We have taken a number of subsequent actions to eliminate hazing from our football program, and we will introduce additional actions in the coming weeks.”

A spokesperson for the ACC did not immediately respond to an FOS request for comment.

News of the scandal first broke on July 7, when the university’s president, Michael Schill, handed down a tepid two-week suspension to Fitzgerald in the wake of an investigation commissioned by the university. The investigation was unable to prove Fitzgerald had any knowledge of the hazing activities — why Fitzgerald’s punishment was so mild. 

But Stinar and Salvi, however, have accused the firm that conducted the investigation — ArentFox Schiff LLP — has a “close relationship with the general counsel’s office at Northwestern.” A spokesperson for ArentFox Schiff did not immediately respond to an FOS request for comment.

After two Daily Northwestern articles detailing the toxic culture were published over a period of four days, Schill decided to fire Fitzgerald on July 10. Fitzgerald then said in a statement that he was blindsided by the firing and had retained counsel. 

A week later, Stinar and Salvo filed the first lawsuit on behalf of an anonymous player.

In response, Schill announced the school would launch two separate investigations into the athletic department, both of which will become public.

The next day, the school was hit with a second lawsuit. A separate group of former players, including former quarterback Lloyd Yates, retained prominent lawyers Ben Crump and Steven Levin — and also announced on Wednesday that they plan to file a lawsuit of their own.

Multiple college athlete advocates told Front Office Sports that the toxic culture with the football team could have been prevented by a formal union, which players attempted — and failed — to launch in 2014.