On Monday evening, Northwestern finally took the lid off of a pot boiling over by firing Pat Fitzgerald.
While many deemed it impossible for Fitzgerald — having turned down NFL opportunities to stay at his alma mater — to not leave on his own terms, that very concept came to fruition when university President Michael Schill announced that NU had let go of Fitzgerald following “a difficult and complex evaluation” of the coach’s initial two-week punishment.
For the first time since July 7, 2006, Northwestern must now operate on an everyday basis without Fitzgerald as its head coach, and, effectively, its focal representative of the program and university.