Judge Allows Former Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald To Continue $130 Million Lost Future Employment Lawsuit
ByJoey Heldon April 9, 2024inArticles›Sports News
For more than a decade and a half, Pat Fitzgerald led the Northwestern Wildcats as the team’s head coach. While the program historically hasn’t been among college football’s elite, parts of Fitzgerald’s tenure, particularly in the middle of the 2010s, were some of Northwestern’s best seasons. The university even built a $270 million football facility in 2018 to help further the program’s success, and Fitzgerald was reportedly one of the highest-paid coaches in the Big Ten.
That all came to an end during the summer of 2023. On July 7, Fitzgerald was suspended for two weeks after an independent investigation confirmed November 2022 allegations of hazing. The complaint alleged that varsity players physically and sexually assaulted freshmen — including some pretty unusual lewd acts — while Fitzgerald knowingly supported the behavior, using hand gestures to confirm which players should receive the “special” treatment. Fitzgerald was fired three days later.
In October, Fitzgerald filed a lawsuit against Northwestern. He’s seeking more than $130 million in total damages — $68 million for eight years remaining on his contract and $62 million for lost future employment. The suit also lists millions of dollars in punitive damages. Northwestern asked for the case to be dismissed, but a Cook County judge denied the university’s motion for dismissal. The trial is set for April 7, 2025.
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Judge Daniel Kubasiak said Fitzgerald and his team had presented a strong enough case for the trial to proceed. The lawsuit includes claims of breach of contract, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Fitzgerald requested that his trial be moved up to this December, claiming that he’s unable to get another coaching job with the hazing scandal still in the public eye, though that request went unfulfilled.
Fitzgerald’s attorney, Dan Webb, doubts that any hazing actually occurred and believes the original accuser had ulterior motives in making their claims. Since Fitzgerald was fired, several former Northwestern players have also sued the university, citing negligence in allowing sexual abuse, racism, and other forms of hazing to occur.
Fitzgerald spent 17 seasons as Northwestern’s head coach, compiling a 110-101 record. Under his watch, the Wildcats reached the Big Ten title game twice — losing to the Urban Meyer and Ryan Day -led Ohio State Buckeyes — and made ten bowl game appearances, compiling a 5-5 record in those games. The program had struggled during Fitzgerald’s past couple of seasons, going a combined 4-20 in 2021 and 2022. Despite the hazing allegations looming over the school, the Wildcats finished 8-5 and ended the 2023 season with a Las Vegas Bowl victory.
Throughout the allegations, Fitzgerald has maintained he had no knowledge of the hazing. He’ll have to wait another year, but he’ll get a chance to prove his innocence.
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Future’s Next Big Career Goal: Become A Billionaire
ByJoseph Gibsonon November 30, 2022inArticles›Celebrity News
Reaching billionaire status is a goal that few entertainers reach, whether in the hip hop world or anywhere else in show business. To do so requires not just the good fortune of success but a generous proportion of business acumen as well. Which is why only a few artists have managed the feat. Now, Future says he wants to join the club in an interview with Billboard.
Future released his ninth studio album earlier this year, and the Billboard interviewer asked him what his plans are for his tenth. Instead of delving into his creative ambitions, Future put his goals into purely financial terms:
“My main focus right now is just to do something I never done. One thing I never done is make a billion dollars. I ain’t done that, so I’m focused on that.”
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That almost sounds like it could be bragging or self-promotion, but apparently Future is taking the goal of being a billionaire seriously, elaborating that he’s asked unnamed billionaires for advice on how to attain that rare status:
“Sometimes I ask questions, if I meet a billionaire, like, ‘How’d you get to where you got?’ Or, ‘How’d you accomplish everything that you have?’” he explained. “I have those conversations with different people, successful people. But the way I get mine might be different. It just helps me to understand that I’m on the right path when I talk to people that have billions.”
He continues, saying the billionaires he’s gotten advice from seem to think he might just make it into the club:
“When I hear them talk, I be like, ‘OK, I’m on the right path.’ They reassure me that I’m doing the right thing. No matter what my music career is, I want to just be able to have that friend, somebody that always has my back, [and] just priceless individuals getting me wherever I need to go. Even when it’s going crazy for me, I know I have priceless people around me. I got unconditional love.”
Of course, it’s worth pointing out that even music billionaires like Jay-Z or Rihanna didn’t reach billionaire status purely through their recording and performing careers, investing heavily in other industries in order to make it happen. So it’s unlikely that Future would become a billionaire just on the commercial strength of his next record, even if it’s a massive smash. And it’s also unlikely that Future doesn’t know that, so it’s a safe bet that if he’s serious about his billionaire dreams they involve a lot more than just making music.
Future has already seen plenty of success in the music world with a very respectable net worth of $50 million, but he’ll have to see quite a bit more to hit the billion dollar mark. Stay tuned over the next few years to see if he actually makes it.
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