Former Northwestern football head coach Pat Fitzgerald has settled his wrongful termination lawsuit against the university, two years after he was fired amid a hazing scandal that engulfed the football program and drew national scrutiny.
In a statement released Thursday through his attorneys at Winston & Strawn, Fitzgerald maintained he was falsely portrayed as having ignored inappropriate and abusive behavior within the team. He said he agreed to the settlement to “relieve my family from the stress of ongoing litigation” and added he was “satisfied” with the terms. Neither side disclosed the terms of the agreement, but it is possible the financial considerations of the deal could surface in a future court filing or tax return.
Northwestern, in its own statement, reiterated its commitment to student safety and acknowledged that the litigation revealed “highly inappropriate conduct” within the Wildcats football program. However, the university noted that “the evidence uncovered during extensive discovery did not establish that any player reported hazing to Coach Fitzgerald or that Coach Fitzgerald condoned or directed any hazing.”
The school added that when Fitzgerald learned of the conduct, “he was incredibly upset and saddened by the negative impact this conduct had on players within the program.”
The university has grown accustomed to deploying retroactive financial remedies to smooth over athletic department controversies. Its resolution with Fitzgerald comes just three months after settling with the remaining 34 former athletes who sued the school, alleging that they were victims of hazing. Previously, the school paid a seven-figure buyout to former athletic director Mike Polisky, who resigned just nine days into the role after being named a co-defendant in a lawsuit filed by former Northwestern cheerleader Hayden Richardson. The case, which included allegations of sex trafficking and forced labor, was later voluntarily dismissed by Richardson. Polisky consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Fitzgerald’s lawsuit, filed in October 2023 in Illinois circuit court, sought over $130 million in compensatory damages. It accused the university and its president, Michael Schill, of breaching his contract, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Fitzgerald was represented by Winston & Strawn co-executive chairman Dan Webb, a prominent Chicago litigator, former federal prosecutor and one-time special counsel in the Iran-Contra affair. After the school’s motion to dismiss Fitzgerald’s case was denied, a trial date was originally set for April 2025. It was later pushed back to Nov. 3—four days before the NU football team is scheduled to pay at USC.
The dispute stemmed from a rash of hazing allegations first raised in 2022, which led Northwestern to hire law firm ArentFox Schiff for an independent review. Following that review, Fitzgerald claims that he and the university had reached a “binding, legal, oral contract” under which he accepted a two-week unpaid suspension, issued a public statement and agreed not to pursue legal action.
But four days later, amid rising public pressure and media backlash, the university fired Fitzgerald for cause, arguing it owed him no buyout on a contract that ran through 2030 with reportedly $68 million left on the tab. Fitzgerald was later replaced as head coach by David Braun.
“The rush to judgment in the media in July of 2023 and the reports that suggested I knew about and directed hazing are false and have caused me, my wife, and my three sons great stress, embarrassment, and reputational harm in the last two years,” Fitzgerald said Thursday.
While his lawsuit was ongoing, Pat Fitzgerald took on a volunteer coaching role at Loyola Academy, a private high school in suburban Chicago where his son, Ryan, starred as quarterback. Unable to play for his father in college, Ryan committed last May to Big Ten rival Iowa.
Now that the legal battle is behind him, Pat Fitzgerald’s agent, Bryan Harlan, said in a statement Thursday that his client is “eager to resume his coaching career.” Should that lead him back to the college sidelines, Fitzgerald will face a dramatically transformed landscape from the one he departed.
