Northwestern AD praises football team's 'collective resilience' - ESPN

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Northwestern athletic director Derrick Gragg praised the school's football players and coaches for displaying «collective resilience» in preparing for the season, including their participation in anti-hazing training last month.

Gragg, who will attend Sunday's season opener against Rutgers alongside university president Michael Schill, told ESPN that the team has «done everything we've asked them to do» since the firing of longtime coach Pat Fitzgerald on July 10 in the wake of hazing allegations against the program.

Northwestern brought in Protection For All, a consulting firm run by former college athletes Mike McCall and Dan Beebe — also the former Big 12 commissioner — to conduct in-person training on Aug. 3, before the team's first preseason practice.

The training, which all Northwestern teams will go through before the start of their seasons, covers physical and emotional harassment, discrimination, retaliation, bullying and sexual misconduct. Northwestern also had players meet with the Institute for Sport and Social Justice, which addressed topics such as inclusive leadership, bystander intervention and team culture.

The anti-hazing seminars were conducted in groups, starting with players only and then only with coaches.

In firing Fitzgerald, Schill said the Northwestern football culture had been partially «broken» by the hazing allegations, which were largely supported by a university-commissioned external investigation into the program.

«It was an intensive three-hour-session and [the consultants] said after about the first 10, 15 minutes, guys were relaxed, participating, understanding what they were supposed to do, and did everything that they were asked to do,» Gragg said. «I think