New Reports Show Chicago Bears May Have Dodged A Huge Bullet

By the end of 2021, everybody saw the writing on the wall. The Chicago Bears had fallen flat after two 8-8 seasons. GM Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy had failed to stop the downturn after a division title in 2018. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that both would be fired. That indeed followed. From there, the speculation started about who the replacements would be. Plenty of names were soon rumored to have interest in the head coaching job. Jim Harbaugh was a popular one. So was Pat Fitzgerald.

It made sense to many. Fitzgerald is a hometown guy who'd helped turn Northwestern into a competitive program over the past several years. His style of coaching seemed to fit what has traditionally made the Bears successful. There were even rumors the organization was interested in talking to him. However, that quickly faded after Ryan Poles took over as GM. It's probably a good thing too. Based on new reports out of Evanston, the Fitzgerald era is about to come crashing down.

Like many head coaches, he made the mistake of embracing the wrong culture.

Evidence emerged in recent weeks that Northwestern had become a haven for hazing rituals in its football program. Fitzgerald was suspended by the college while an investigation. According to Nicole Markus, Alyce Brown, Cole Reynolds, and Divya Bhardwaj of the Daily Northwestern, it's even worse than initially feared.

A former Northwestern University football player told The Daily some of the hazing conduct investigated by the university involved coerced sexual acts. A second player confirmed these details.

The player also told The Daily that head coach Pat Fitzgerald may have known that hazing took place.

“I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and it’s just absolutely egregious and vile and inhumane behavior,” the player, who asked to remain anonymous in this story, said.

The former player said he reported his experiences to the University in late November 2022. He alleges that much of the team’s hazing centered around a practice dubbed “running,” which was used to punish team members, primarily freshman, for mistakes made on the field and in practice.

If a player was selected for “running,” the player who spoke to The Daily said, they would be restrained by a group of 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in various “Purge-like” masks, who would then begin “dry-humping” the victim in a dark locker room.

The Chicago Bears clearly dodged a bullet.

Imagine if they'd hired Fitzgerald last year and this report came out. It would've been a massive scandal, leading many to wonder if the Bears knew about the situation and hired him anyway. That would've created a distraction and likely forced the McCaskeys to fire him, as Northwestern is almost certain to do if these eyewitness accounts prove true. Thankfully Poles had no interest in going the college route, opting for a more NFL-experienced option in Matt Eberflus.

It's such a tragedy. Fitzgerald is a good coach. He did a lot of good things for that program. Unfortunately, even great coaches have proven they value winning over basic human decency. See Joe Paterno of Penn State and Art Briles of Baylor as grim reminders of this. The Chicago Bears have avoided any such controversies in their long history. One can only hope that streak continues.