Pat Fitzgerald defendant in lawsuit filed by ex-Northwestern player - ESPN

Former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald, university president Michael Schill and athletic director Derrick Gragg are listed as defendants in a lawsuit filed Tuesday morning by a former Wildcats player who said the program and its leaders were negligent in allowing hazing inside the team's locker room.

The lawsuit also lists the university, its board of trustees and former president Morton Schapiro as defendants. The player filed anonymously, but the lawsuit says he was a member of the team from 2018 through 2022. His attorneys, Patrick Salvi and Parker Stinar, said they have spoken to other former Northwestern players and expect additional football players and Northwestern athletes from other sports to join the lawsuit in the coming days and weeks.

Stinar said he and Salvi represent numerous Northwestern football players and have spoken to roughly a dozen athletes who competed at the school in the past 15 years. He said the player who filed the lawsuit Tuesday was subjected to hazing that included sexualized acts and racial discrimination.

«As an incoming freshman, because freshmen were the most targeted for sexual harassment and hazing, it's just such an intimidating process,» Stinar said. «It really makes you lose faith in the program and your coaches. It makes you lose the love of your sport. It makes you feel deceived that you came to this university after recruiters and coaches came to your home and sat down with your parents and promised you'd be safe and protected. It's had a profound impact on this young individual.»

Tuesday's filing comes one day after a separate group of eight former Northwestern players announced that they intended to pursue legal action against the school. Those athletes are