Northwestern, former football coach Pat Fitzgerald settle lawsuit - ESPN

Northwestern and former football coach Pat Fitzgerald have settled a lawsuit, which was filed by Fitzgerald after his dismissal from the school two years ago. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Fitzgerald sued the school for $130 million for wrongful termination after being fired in July of 2023. His firing came amid allegations of hazing in the program, which president Michael Schill at the time called «widespread and clearly not a secret.»

Fitzgerald said in a statement on Thursday: «For the past two years, I have engaged in a process of extensive fact and expert discovery, which showed what I have known and said all along-that I had no knowledge of hazing ever occurring in the Northwestern football program and that I never directed or encouraged hazing in any way.»

Fitzgerald acknowledged in the statement that there was hazing in the program but added that he's «proud to say I ran a world-class football program» while at Northwestern.

«I am extremely disappointed that members of the team engaged in this behavior and that no one reported it to me,» he said, «so that I could have alerted Northwestern's Athletic Department and administrators, stopped the inappropriate behavior, and taken every necessary step to protect Northwestern's student athletes.»

In a statement released Thursday, Northwestern said Fitzgerald did not condone or direct any of the alleged hazing.

«While the litigation brought to light highly inappropriate conduct in the football program and the harm it caused, 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 statement read. «Moreover, when presented with the