I said it before and I'll say it again: Northwestern football had (I hope its past tense) a weird sexual cult thing going on.
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More Northwestern legal troubles
They always said they recruited a different kind of athlete. Now we see why
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Awful, awful, awful, awful stuff. Cannot believe that stuff went on for so long and I cannot believe Northwestern fans still choose to defend Fitzgerald. I mean, that quote from him just says it all.
It all started in 2001 with the death of Rashidi Wheeler at an illegal football practice. The Cats wrote a $17mln check to the parents, and Fitz and Randy Walker kept their jobs, even tho Wheeler's mother demanded they be fired. And more importantly, the Tribune, Sun-Times, and WSCR swept it under the rug. Fitz knew he could get away with anything, I mean anything, because Bernstein and co. had his back. And of course just like they did with the NU football/basketball points shaving scandal in the mid-90s, the NCAA did its impression of Hogan Heroes' Sgt. Schultz.
I'm curious as to how you're lumping Bernstein in on all this as him and Boers were pretty critical when all the stuff went on at Penn State and Bernstein has been pretty clear of his position on the Northwestern stuff today. He can't really get lumped in with the mid-90s stuff as I'm pretty sure he was still just a reporter and not a radio personality at that point.
Here's why. On the day in 2015 that Tim Beckman was fired as Illini HC, Bernstein went on a rant about Illini athletics and how bad our school was about handling player abuse. So I called into his show, with the intent to ask him about his decade-and-a-half long silence on Rashidi Wheeler's death (at that point in time he LOVED Fitzie, and had NEVER mentioned Wheeler's death). But first I had to get thru WSCR's screener (believe it was the show's producer). The screener refused to let me the show on to ask Berstein a question about Wheeler. Said it was "old news that had already been litigated". I explained that it was particularly important in light of the show's topic that day on player abuse in college football, and that it had never been discussed by Bernstein on WSCR. He kept repeating that it was old news and wasn't relevant to the show that day. How bizarre is that?
Time for Northwestern to get bounced from the B1G. We benefit by discontinuing the awful "rivalry opponent" the B1G has fabricated.
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
If this was Illinois and not Northwestern, the Chicago stations would be out with torches, pitchforks, tar, feathers, torture racks, and pretty much anything else designed to inflict pain and suffering.
I guess that's one of the benefits of a bunch of Medill grads in the Chicago newsrooms . . .
I guess that's one of the benefits of a bunch of Medill grads in the Chicago newsrooms . . .
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
It’s not very bizarre, I would say? And there is a canyon of distance to cover between “a Score producer screened my call” and “multiple media outlets covered up this incident”.
As a general rule “journalists didn’t bodyslam the people I wished they would, in the way I would prefer” does not constitute sweeping a story under the rug. You (and many of the rest of us) knowing about it is evidence that the story was not covered up.
WSCR was paid a lot of money from Northwestern Athletics in advertising so the Kitties were handled with kid gloves for a long time.
The Wheeler trial was covered by the Tribune - but not in the sports section. And it was buried well behind the front page, unlike most Illini v. NCAA sports stories.
Interesting that Bernstein finally came clean last summer about his relationship with NU. He admitted he was basically groomed (his own words) by Phillips and Fitz. Talked about being given courtside basketball seats for himself and his son by the AD with t-shirts hand-delivered by Fitz. Moment of clarity by Bernstein AFTER the scandal news became public. Think he was the only one?
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
Ok - that's a point for my argument, not yours. Something getting covered by the news section as opposed to sports means it is being given more credence by the publication, not less.
The world is mostly not populated by sports message board sickos. It's important to keep in mind that we are the weird ones.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
The Rashidi Wheeler thing (which happened 2 days after Korey Stringer died in the NFL generating even bigger national headlines) was a big, big deal at the time.
I mean, can't we look back in the fullness of time and understand that blowing that situation out of proportion was a BENEFIT to Illini athletics and was in fact the way the DIA itself purposefully treated the situation?
