Northwestern football head coach Pat Fitzgerald is facing concerning allegations from former players. Ex-Northwestern players recently accused Fitzgerald of enabling blatant racism, per Nicole Markus, Alyce Brown, and Cole Reynolds of The Daily Northwestern.

“I didn’t feel like I could be anything other than white,” Ramon Diaz Jr, a Latino former player, said. “We never felt like we could be ourselves. We had to fit in by being white or acting white or laughing at our own people.”

Two anonymous players also spoke out in Addition to Diaz Jr. Among the allegations, Diaz and the players claimed racist jokes were made by the Northwestern football coaching staff. It's clear that although Fitzgerald is being accused of enabling a racist culture, there's other coaches who are also being accused here.

“Those are two phrases you would hear a lot around the program that referred to the sentiment of ‘fall in line,’”An anonymous player added. “If you were not in line with the ‘Wildcat Way,' Coach Fitz or any one of the coaches will be quick to say like, ‘yeah, check your scholarship.' The racist stuff… the stuff that refers to how Black players are treated, in my mind, that was a form of hazing.”

Northwestern football has been a well-respected program over the years. However, these allegations may change that narrative. The narrative was already in question amid recent reports of Pat Fitzgerald's hazing scandal.

We will continue to monitor and provide updates on this story as they are readily made available.