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After Pat Fitzgerald said on Monday that he and his team are exploring their legal options to address his firing as Northwestern football head coach, his attorney Dan Webb commented more on the issue and slammed the university for its decision.
Fitzgerald has been fired by the university amid the hazing, sexual misconduct and racism allegations thrown against him and his Northwestern football program. While Fitzgerald was initially handed a two-week suspension after the results of a third-party investigation, university president Michael Schill decided to part ways with him following a report by the school's official paper detailing new information about the hazing incidents that happened during his tenure.
For what it's worth, the investigation (conducted by attorney Maggie Hickey and the ArentFox Schiff firm) confirmed that there's no evidence Fitgerald or his coaching staff knew about the hazing incidents.
According to Webb, Northwestern University made “two different major breach of contract claims” in the firing of Fitzgerald. He also emphasized that what the university did caused a significant damage in the reputation of the 48-year-old coach, per Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.
“I cannot understand how you could terminate someone for cause when they [Northwestern] admit that their own lawyer does not have any evidence that my client ever knew anything at all, about any of the alleged hazing behavior,” Webb explained. “If I present that to a jury someday, a jury is going have a hard time believing that you can terminate someone for cause when they didn't know anything about [the incidents].”
Breach of contract in Pat Fitgerald's firing
Dan Webb shared that Northwestern breached a contract with Pat Fitzgerald by firing him just a day after agreeing to a two-week suspension without pay. The lawyer argued that no new information was presented to the school that would have led to the firing, so the university already judged that the punishment they had for Fitzgerald was sufficient.
In relation to the piece by The Daily Northwestern that further highlighted the “inhumane” hazing practices of the team, Webb argued that it basically said the same thing that was found during the independent investigation with regards to the case. Considering that, Webb doesn't believe it would have merited a new punishment.
“Under Illinois law, an oral agreement is a contract. They had all the facts available to them. They thought the proper punishment was a two-week suspension without pay. That was their judgment. They made the decision. We agreed to go along with it, and we issued a statement to support them,” Webb furthered.
“So, they've now breached an oral agreement and damaged his reputation enormously. And for no reason. This entire series of events by Northwestern, I cannot understand it.”
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Fitzgerald and his camp led by Webb have yet to file a lawsuit to Northwestern University. It is also important to note that the lawyer said they are open to coming up with a resolution on the matter outside court. However, it surely won't be cheap for the school.
Pat Fitzgerald takes reputational damage
The hazing scandal has surely put Pat Fitzgerald under negative light. Plenty of people have criticized him for what happened. Regardless if he has knowledge about the incidents or not, many argued that he should have known since it's part of his job.
With that said, it's safe to assume that Fitzgerald won't be working in any football coaching gig for some time, or maybe even longer.
Considering how the issue has been widely publicized, Webb couldn't help but point out that it has damaged the reputation of Fitzgerald.
“There's a huge reputational issue that will be part of it. If we were to proceed with litigation, it would be a very large damage case because he can claim loss compensation for eight years left on his contract. And 10 years in the future, he can't replace it. So, you're talking about a huge amount of money,” Webb furthered.
It remains to be seen what Fitzgerald and his camp will do next. Clearly, suing the university is an option for him since he has been largely blamed for everything that happened. However, the way the university handled the situation will be in focus as well. As Webb argued, Fitzgerald had been given a punishment the school deemed appropriate considering all the facts they had at the time before changing their minds a day later.
Sure enough, the issue might take a long time to get resolved, especially if Fitzgerald ends up taking it to court. Things could also get messy and complicated, which could very well impact the Northwestern football program as well.
