Former Northwestern Players Allege Racist Actions, Remarks Made by Coaches, Players

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Three former Northwestern football players alleged they experienced a “culture of enabling racism” within the program, according to the Daily Northwestern’s Nicole Markus, Alyce Brown and Cole Reynolds.

This comes after the school suspended head football coach Pat Fitzgerald following an investigation into hazing by members of the team.

In an interview with the Daily, former offensive lineman Ramon Diaz Jr. said he “didn’t feel like I could be anything other than white.”

“We never felt like we could be ourselves,” he said. “We had to fit in by being white or acting white or laughing at our own people.”

Diaz, who played for the Wildcats from 2005-08, told the Daily he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in part stemming from what he experienced while with the team.

Another player, who remained anonymous, said players of color had to endure “other microaggressions” that left them feeling alienated.

As one example, Fitzgerald allegedly asked some Black players and staffers to cut their dreadlocks. White players with long hair, on the other hand, allegedly weren’t asked to get theirs cut.

Diaz and one of the players interviewed recounted a comment made by a former offensive line coach who “[asked] Diaz how to clean a dirty room.” The same coach allegedly told a Black player he “wasn’t in the hood anymore” and said he had a “gangster walk.”

Many questioned whether Northwestern let Fitzgerald off lightly when broad details of the hazing investigation were revealed. He said he “was not aware of the alleged incidents.”

A statement attributed to the “ENTIRE Northwestern Football Team” also pushed back and called the allegations “exaggerated and twisted.”

However, the scrutiny has only intensified after a former player alleged to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg that Fitzgerald “absolutely knew about hazing in this program” and “absolutely failed by not intervening.”

The player described some of the alleged hazing that occurred.

“The former player told ESPN that hazing was organized and widespread in Northwestern’s program, often led by a group of older players called the ‘Shrek gang,'” per Rittenberg. “The group would lead a hazing activity called ‘running,’ usually against freshmen or younger players who had made mistakes in practice, he said. According to the former player, older players wearing masks would restrain the victim in a dark locker room and engage in sexualized behavior. The former player said he was ‘run’ as a freshman.”

Players also felt pressured to “perform naked acts in the locker room,” according to Rittenberg’s report.

On Saturday, Northwestern president Michael Schill wrote a letter explaining how he had recently discovered the identity of the player who first alerted the school to hazing allegations last November. He said he had spoken directly with the player and his family and that he “was moved by what I heard from his family and by the impact the hazing had on their son.”

Schill also said he “may have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction for Coach Fitzgerald.”