Attorneys representing former Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald on Thursday announced a lawsuit seeking upwards of $130 million from the school.
Fitzgerald had $68 million remaining on his contract, which ran through the 2030 season.
Fitzgerald's lawyer Dan Webb of the Chicago-based firm Winston & Strawn announced Thursday that his client was in search of "approximately" $130 million, a figure that did not include categories related to emotional distress, defamation, and punitive damages. Webb said the additional monetary figure was derived from his expected future earnings following the expiration of his current contract; Fitzgerald is arguing that this wrongful firing will prevent him from finding equivalent work elsewhere.
Fitzgerald was the most beloved figure in Northwestern football history prior to his July 10 firing. A 2-time All-American who led the Wildcats to the Rose Bowl as a player, Fitzgerald served as Northwestern's head coach from 2006 through this summer. He went 110-101, snapped the program's multi-decade bowl drought, produced five AP Top 25 seasons, and won two Big Ten West championships.
Northwestern fired Fitzgerald in July after initially suspending him for two weeks amid a Daily Northwestern report of widespread hazing within the football program. Fitzgerald has denied any knowledge of hazing, much less tacit approval, which the original report accused him of.
“Without question the single most respected and successful football coach in the history of Northwestern, and beyond that he also has built up a reputation of being certain that his student-athletes achieved beyond the football field," Webb said Thursday.
Dan Webb says that Pat Fitzgerald was exonerated by Northwestern's hazing investigation but agreed to take a two-week unpaid suspension and support the school on the basis that "there will be no further discipline of any kind whatsoever."
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) October 5, 2023
Webb says it was an oral contract.
Webb says other players told Fitzgerald in November that the whistleblower would make "false allegations" of hazing against Fitzgerald to take him down.
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) October 5, 2023
"My client's career was decimated based on no evidence," Webb said.
Webb remains open to a settlement with Northwestern: "I have talked to Northwestern. I've tried to make a good faith effort to try and get Coach Fitzgerald fair and reasonable compensation, and I was unsuccessful."
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) October 5, 2023
Fitzgerald's lawsuit means Northwestern will have to simultaneously argue he should have stopped, or at least known about, widespread hazing within his organization, while also defending itself against multiple lawsuits from ex-players who say they were hazed while at Northwestern.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.