Three security guards were standing watch at Northwestern University’s football practice field near Lake Michigan on Friday morning.
One of the guards said they were there to protect the team from all the media.
Media attention from all over the nation has been incredibly intense, as the allegations of emotionally and physically degrading hazing in the football program reverberated from Evanston all across the world of college athletics.
Head coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired last week, and so far, three lawsuits have been filed by former players, with more filings expected against the university, Fitzgerald and other current and former NU officials.
Fitzgterald has denied knowing about the hazing, which some plaintiffs’ attorneys have said goes back for years.
In yet another development, USA Today says former player Ramon Diaz, on the team from 2005 to 2008 and second, unnamed source, claim associate head coach Matt MacPherson saw team members doing naked pullups and other forms of hazing, but did nothing, and even laughed.
Evanston Now has a request in to NU for a comment from MacPherson.
While Fitzgerald was fired, all of his assistant coaches were retained.
Defensive coordinator David Bruan has been named interim head coach for the upcoming season.
Braun was hired at NU after the 2022 campaign, and was not on staff during the time of the alleged hazing.
Update 6:30 p.m., July 21: In response to an Evanston Now inquiry about the security guards, NU spokesperson Kayla Stoner says, “Our first priority is the safety and well-being of our students. Extra event staff are in place near where student-athletes are conducting summer workouts.”
Are they they there to prevent bullying?
Now the uniformed Luna people asking people to keep walking and not look at the practicing players, even asking people who sit down on the lakeside benches with their phone “to keep moving along.” Somehow discouraging neighbors from watching the practice for a few minutes while on a walk doesn’t seem like a wise public relations strategy for a team whose reputation is in trouble.