Transcript
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Welcome back to the Fresh Cakes podcast.
Speaker: I'm fresh.
Speaker: This is Pancakes.
Speaker: What's up?
Speaker: So what are we talking about today, Pancakes?
Speaker: Today, Fresh, we're talking about a little scandal, scandalous incident at Northwestern.
Speaker: And more importantly, well, I shouldn't say more importantly, but, you know, more exciting, more happy than that.
Speaker: You and I are about to go on a little summer break and come back with season two in August.
Speaker: And why don't you tell everybody a little bit about our little summer vacay?
Speaker: Yeah, man, we've kind of done this run, you know, and it's been good and we've learned a lot and
Speaker: You know, maybe don't go listen to our first few episodes because they're probably trash compared to these.
Speaker: But it's good.
Speaker: It's been really fun.
Speaker: And so we're taking a little break.
Speaker: I'm going to go.
Speaker: I'm going home to the Boston area.
Speaker: And then I'm going to go see you, Pancakes.
Speaker: And then that should be cool.
Speaker: And then we're both going to Boston.
Speaker: And then we're both going back to Boston.
Speaker: We're going to check out a Sox game, check out a little Cape Cod.
Speaker: So that should be really awesome, man.
Speaker: But, you know, we'll be getting content.
Speaker: the whole time at your place and up north.
Speaker: And we'll be back with the bang, man, with new type of stuff, videos and maybe trying some things out, you know?
Speaker: And even crazier than that, fresh of our new content, is I have a pretty big birthday in between our little break.
Speaker: I hit the big 3-0, 30.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a big deal, man.
Speaker: So we'll get to celebrate that, too.
Speaker: I mean, don't whine about it because that's like...
Speaker: You can take videos of me crying.
Speaker: I wish I was that young.
Speaker: So I don't want to hear any bitch in the morning about it.
Speaker: But no, it's a huge birthday.
Speaker: So I'm happy for you, man.
Speaker: So we'll have some fun.
Speaker: We'll do some.
Speaker: Well, I guess we're going to the Sox game for that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Lots of fun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I can't wait to see it.
Speaker: What I didn't want to see, and I'm glad I didn't have to see, I didn't want to hear about it either.
Speaker: What's the shit going on at Northwestern, man?
Speaker: You know, do you want to fill us in on that?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So I'm going to give you a whole background on this fresh.
Speaker: So I know this is going to be really hard for you, but I have a lot to say.
Speaker: So you're going to have to like not talk for like maybe two minutes.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It's impossible, but I'll do my best.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Good job.
Speaker: Good job.
Speaker: You try your hardest and I'm going to read you all the notes here.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: For those of you that don't know, Northwestern is a college and their football team just had a huge scandal break in these last few weeks.
Speaker: So to start off, Pat Fitzgerald.
Speaker: is the coach of Northwestern, and initially he had been suspended two weeks without pay.
Speaker: He has since been fired.
Speaker: He is a former player turned head coach.
Speaker: The next day after he was suspended, the Northwestern student-ran paper called The Daily Northwestern released a story of hazing regarding the college football team.
Speaker: Just for some background, Northwestern is known for its school of journalism.
Speaker: Many high-profile media personalities have actually come out of Northwestern, such as David Schwimmer, who was Ross on Friends.
Speaker: John Heilman, who has been on like BSC, MSNBC.
Speaker: He's just kind of like an American journalist and national affairs analyst for NBC News.
Speaker: And Hugh Hefner, who started Playboy, actually also came out in Northwestern.
Speaker: Wow, I didn't know that.
Speaker: So Northwestern in the 2022 and 2023 season went one in 11.
Speaker: They won one game.
Speaker: This is important because the first allegation was centered around what they called running, which was used to punish teammates mostly around freshmen making mistakes in practice and in games.
Speaker: So it's kind of funny that a team that went one in 11 was punishing freshmen for their mistakes.
Speaker: If a player was selected for running, they would be restrained against their will by 8-10 upperclassmen in masks and dry humped in a dark locker room.
Speaker: The Daily Northwestern, again the student paper, obtained images of whiteboards labeled Runs Giving and Shrek's List with a list of names indicating players that needed to be ran.
Speaker: The anonymous player reported that this...
Speaker: said it was done under the guise that it was a team bonding activity when really what it was was abuse and harassment.
Speaker: The player also said that players identified for running were done by a senior team member clapping their hands above the heads around the player that was to be ran, and it was known as the Shrek clap.
Speaker: There is also a once a year tradition dubbed the car wash.
Speaker: One of the players said that some players would stand naked at the entrance to the showers and spin around, forcing those that enter to basically rub up against a bare naked man.
Speaker: Upon entering the shower, they had a hose hooked up to the showers to spray players.
Speaker: And it was, as this player called, extremely painful.
Speaker: The same player said that he witnessed and was forced to participate in what he called a naked center quarterback exchange, which he said entailed a naked freshman quarterback being forced to take an under center snap from another naked freshman.
Speaker: Alums from Northwestern said that Coach Fitzgerald didn't know about this, and this story has been confirmed by former players by Adam Rittenberg of ESPN, who said former players said Fitzgerald absolutely knew about the hazing.
Speaker: Now, while we don't know the full consequences of this, other than Fitzgerald being fired, it is important to note that multiple recruits have already decommitted from Northwestern since this story broke.
Speaker: And what do you think about that, Fresh?
Speaker: That's my background information, and now I want to hear from you.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a lot to unpack, man.
Speaker: I mean, it's pretty crazy.
Speaker: You wouldn't think that.
Speaker: Pat Fitzgerald, everyone, including myself, always thought was a pretty stand-up coach.
Speaker: Northwestern's never amazing, but they have had good years under him, for sure.
Speaker: And it's one of the more highly, I think, as far as education, it's one of the higher-ranked teams in the Big Ten, I would imagine.
Speaker: It's not like Ohio State, where you don't even know how to use a computer to go there and shit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're highly ranked education-wise.
Speaker: I never saw this coming.
Speaker: It's pretty crazy.
Speaker: And it makes me think, like, is that going on other places?
Speaker: How unique is that?
Speaker: I mean, hazing is normal in sports.
Speaker: But it's usually like you tie them to the goalpost for an hour or something like that.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: It's nothing like that.
Speaker: that crazy or the freshmen have to pick up all the pads and helmets after practice or something, you know, it's not like whipping your dick around that people that are trying to go into the shower and whatever that, you know, so,
Speaker: Yeah, I think there's going to be more to come.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Are there charges?
Speaker: Do you know anything about like charges being filed as far as like restraining a person?
Speaker: That's like sexual abuse.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's exactly what it is, which to me is like, you know, you think about hazing and I think exactly what you said.
Speaker: It should not be abuse or harassment.
Speaker: It's like, OK, you carry the heavy bags and you pick up balls after practice or at most you pay for a team dinner.
Speaker: You don't do things to destroy your teammates' confidence.
Speaker: Ideally, you would want freshmen to be coming in there and being able to be on their game.
Speaker: Maybe that's why you went 1-11 is because you had guys coming in there and you absolutely destroyed them mentally.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, we always bring up Pat McAfee because we're both fans, but he was talking about Peyton Manning's stance on hazing, and he was like, we got to have light hazing.
Speaker: I mean, these guys...
Speaker: We might need them.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: These guys are signed to the team for a reason.
Speaker: Like we might need this guy to have his wits about him, not be pissed off, not like raging against the team.
Speaker: You know, I don't know how it helps in any, if that's me, dude, I've just pushed back against it.
Speaker: I probably would have just transferred out of there, you know, but like,
Speaker: I don't understand how it helps.
Speaker: And there is a side of hazing, and I told you I was gonna talk about this, there is a side of hazing that I think is valuable, but not hazing like this.
Speaker: When I pledged my fraternity, the reason I picked that fraternity, they told us three things.
Speaker: We'll never do anything sexual to you, we're never gonna hit you, and yeah, there might be drinking involved, but we'll never force you to drink.
Speaker: You take control of that.
Speaker: You have autonomy.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So, and that's why me and I think most of my pledge class picked that fraternity.
Speaker: And I want to, I'm not going to go into any details, but I think, you know, some of the later stuff was like singing in front of a sorority, singing to a sorority.
Speaker: And I, like, I got a lot out of that.
Speaker: It's like, yeah, you got to, you're, you know, freshman in college, you got to put a jacket on and go sing to a sorority.
Speaker: Yeah, it's embarrassing.
Speaker: But like what you get out of that is like,
Speaker: all right, how could I be more embarrassed than that?
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: It's a pretty embarrassing, weird thing to do to like go to a sorority house and sing to them.
Speaker: They did that at my college too.
Speaker: They did it every Monday and they had to wear the blue jacket and the khakis to class.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Or, and the other one was like PT, they call it physical training.
Speaker: So it was just like pushups and like, you know, up on your elbows and toes, like the board and stuff.
Speaker: And like, yeah, they'd push you on it.
Speaker: But again, like our whole pledge class at the end was like, dude,
Speaker: I'm in better shape.
Speaker: I look better than I've ever looked.
Speaker: It was beneficial.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: So these were things that were like getting you out of your comfort zone, getting you in shape.
Speaker: And these guys, by the way, when I was like a brother, we would work out together anyway.
Speaker: So it was like, it wasn't anything crazy.
Speaker: I think there is that beneficial side to it.
Speaker: But when it gets to like,
Speaker: you're being restrained in any way or like really doing something against your will.
Speaker: Like, I don't know, man, that's, that's pretty crazy.
Speaker: So I think there's going to be more out of this.
Speaker: I know they made their, their, I guess it's their new defensive coordinator who was just hired this year is now their head coach.
Speaker: Um, smart move.
Speaker: Obviously you're not going to promote someone who's already been there because I'm sure the whole coaching staff knew it's in the locker room, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How could you not?
Speaker: You,
Speaker: You would have to be so ignorant to your team's activities and your team to not know that's going on.
Speaker: You'd have to not be able to read.
Speaker: It was on a whiteboard, right?
Speaker: In the locker room, from what I heard.
Speaker: Yeah, and if they're doing what they called that Shrek clap above, like Kid said, come on.
Speaker: I don't know, man.
Speaker: I don't know how rampant that is in sports.
Speaker: Again, we talked.
Speaker: Yes, there's hazing, but is it like...
Speaker: what degree is on every team?
Speaker: Why wouldn't they all just, how do they, how do they have a team if they're doing shit like that?
Speaker: You know, they didn't obviously have a very good one.
Speaker: They were one in 11.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, fair point, fair point.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I mean, and I, I don't think the transfer port transfer portal is so open right now in college football used to be tough to transfer schools.
Speaker: Um, now you can pretty much just transfer.
Speaker: I don't see how they even like feel the team this year.
Speaker: I mean, that's going to be rough, you know, but I don't,
Speaker: I wanted to make this point.
Speaker: I don't hold it against Northwestern because I went to Penn State and I know what that's like when it's like, dude, Sandusky was done coaching before I even went there.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: He was, I didn't know who the fuck he was.
Speaker: He coached before I even went to the school.
Speaker: 99 I think was his last year.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I started fall.
Speaker: Oh two was my pledge class.
Speaker: So, um,
Speaker: So you know how much I hate when people, like, the first thing they bring up when you say Penn State is that.
Speaker: I'm like, dude, I don't know this motherfucker.
Speaker: I had nothing to do with that.
Speaker: Like, you know, no one knew that was going on except him.
Speaker: So I don't want – I feel bad for Northwestern alumni and students and athletes and stuff because, yeah, they're going to hear it forever now.
Speaker: And Michigan State with the doctor, you know.
Speaker: Well, I don't know.
Speaker: I don't think Northwestern is going to be as tainted as Penn State and Michigan State because, yes, it was hazing and yes, it was awful.
Speaker: However, it was not a person in power abusing a minor, a child, which is exactly what Larry Sandusky did and Jerry Sandusky did, is they abused children.
Speaker: It's a form of rape now, like restraining some of them and humping them and like, you know, hitting them with your...
Speaker: Yeah, but what I'm saying is that those crimes carry a different weight to them when it's against children versus, you know, like whether someone's really an adult 18 or not is like a different discussion.
Speaker: But it's a football team.
Speaker: It's not little kids.
Speaker: No, you're right on some level.
Speaker: But again, if you're 18, it could be a few months ago you were a minor.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: You were 17.
Speaker: So it's like, I don't know if it's that big a difference, but I think, yeah, in society, it'll be looked at a little bit different, but it's, it's crazy, man.
Speaker: It's not good.
Speaker: And, um, I don't know, man, it must've just been something for Pat Fitzgerald to have gone there and gone through that.
Speaker: It must be something that just like, he was happy to be playing college football.
Speaker: You think you can maybe go pro.
Speaker: It's probably I know this happened on some level to them in high school, probably not to this degree, but you're like, OK, I guess this is what it's like.
Speaker: And then he just let it carry on.
Speaker: I guess I don't know.
Speaker: So I can see how people get in a mind state of like.
Speaker: Normalizing crazy shit like that.
Speaker: You think it went on that long that he encountered it as a player and knew about it as a coach as well?
Speaker: Like carried on that tradition?
Speaker: Because I think that is very common with hazing is that people that were maybe abused by that system tend to carry out the same abuse to other people because like, oh, well, I did it.
Speaker: And like, therefore, it makes it like it's, you know, they get skewed a view from it and think that it's tradition when really it's just like a line, a cycle of abuse.
Speaker: Yeah, maybe that's a...
Speaker: an accusation I'm making that I shouldn't, but I would guess that, you know, I mean, maybe he went there.
Speaker: Obviously he didn't go from being a player, right.
Speaker: To being a coach.
Speaker: Maybe he comes back and he's like, grabs one of his seniors or captains.
Speaker: He's like, Hey, you know what?
Speaker: Here's what we used to do when these, these freshmen get out of line or, you know, keep screwing up and want, and just reinstated.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: That'd be one.
Speaker: That would be even darker if he reinstated it.
Speaker: Well, because he wasn't like – you don't like graduate and go right to being head coach of a major football program.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It makes me wonder what happened in between.
Speaker: Or did he just invent it or did some player come up with it and he just let it happen?
Speaker: I mean, I guess we may not ever know, but he definitely let it happen.
Speaker: I would imagine all the coaches let it happen.
Speaker: The captains and the seniors and the players on the team let it happen.
Speaker: There's some level of like that crowd normalizing while everyone else is doing it.
Speaker: And it's really hard to speak up against that.
Speaker: So that sucks for them.
Speaker: And I'm sorry that that happened to them.
Speaker: It sucks for Northwestern as a university.
Speaker: But I'm glad it's over.
Speaker: I'm glad it got found out.
Speaker: And, you know, I think people will start looking deeper into other schools and hopefully it's not happening there, but we'll see.
Speaker: I can't imagine...
Speaker: that that is very common at universities that are a big deal.
Speaker: Because I think some of those athletes that go to those more successful universities, I'll say,
Speaker: Whether or not I like the team, like Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State even.
Speaker: Schools like that or even Texas to that degree that have more of a legacy of football.
Speaker: I think they have different standards and I think the type of players that commit to those universities almost have a Tom Brady or Michael Jordan mindset about certain things sometimes where they're like, this isn't a joke.
Speaker: I'm going to go pro and I...
Speaker: I don't have time to mess around with this stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree with you on that on some level.
Speaker: You think like Archie Manning's getting hazed at Texas or whatever.
Speaker: Like I doubt it.
Speaker: But, you know, maybe some guys are too high profile to and they're above it.
Speaker: I mean, again, I'm sure it happens at every school on some level where, again, it's like, all right, clean up after practice.
Speaker: I did it when I was a freshman.
Speaker: You're going to do it, too.
Speaker: You know, whatever.
Speaker: That's not a big deal.
Speaker: I think that's good.
Speaker: But we'll see.
Speaker: I really think, like, again, you said the school paper broke this.
Speaker: I think a lot of, like, school papers are going to be looking into things that are going on in these locker rooms.
Speaker: I think this could be, like, a game changer on some level.
Speaker: And, you know, if it is happening, I think other schools probably clean it up a bit, you know.
Speaker: Even if it's not happening to that degree, if they think they're near the line of inappropriateness, hopefully they clean it up, you know, and it helps in that way.
Speaker: It's very interesting that you said that because I didn't even really think about it until you did that.
Speaker: Like I mentioned earlier, Northwestern student paper is kind of like a big deal because it's a school of journalism.
Speaker: I didn't even think about it maybe setting a precedence for other university papers to maybe whether or not something's there to try to find something.
Speaker: Or to break a story like that.
Speaker: Because, I mean, those kids that broke that story, I mean, you're probably looking at, like, future maybe Pulitzer Prize winners or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Like, kids that found that out.
Speaker: Yeah, it's an amazing job by them.
Speaker: Shout out to them for that.
Speaker: And, like, you know, it's not the last we're going to hear of it.
Speaker: College football season is not that far away.
Speaker: You know, and that'd be really interesting to hear what, like, James Franklin has to say about it or Harbaugh or somebody, like, you know, another Big Ten coach that's, like, hopefully they're saying, like,
Speaker: I can't believe we're shocked.
Speaker: Pat was a great guy.
Speaker: I could have never known this was going on behind the scenes.
Speaker: You know, we'll see.
Speaker: It might be a little bit of no comment on the whole thing, but hopefully we get some insight from other, you know, coaches.
Speaker: Oh, I bet Harbaugh, you know, being a Michigan fan myself, has nothing to say about that.
Speaker: He'd be like, that's not what our team is focused on here.
Speaker: We don't do that here.
Speaker: That is not the Michigan way.
Speaker: The Michigan way is us focusing on our season ahead.
Speaker: Yeah, which may be the smart answer for sure.
Speaker: You don't want to kick a guy when he's down, but some people kind of deserve it.
Speaker: And he's, I think, still owed money because of his contract.
Speaker: So that'll be interesting to see how that plays out.
Speaker: You don't think there's a clause in that contract of if you do some messed up things, we don't owe you this money?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: There should be.
Speaker: There should be.
Speaker: There should be.
Speaker: But I know his statement was like none of this.
Speaker: I had no idea.
Speaker: Of course, you know, of course, his lawyers are saying, like, don't say a thing about it.
Speaker: You know, if you want your I think it's like 32 million or whatever it is.
Speaker: If you want to get that, you better, you know, hush up.
Speaker: That's a lot of money to lose 11 games.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: But he's had a pretty good history there.
Speaker: I mean, OK, for their school, you know.
Speaker: Not Michigan or Penn State or the other school, but, you know.
Speaker: Good for him.
Speaker: Can I finish on, can I change it real quick to end it up here?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Wrap it up on maybe a different note than this, because this is probably our darkest episode.
Speaker: I know, this guy's dark, man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're taking a break.
Speaker: Let's get crazy on this last episode.
Speaker: But it happened, man.
Speaker: We don't control what's going on in sports news.
Speaker: But we've been talking about the Damian Lillard thing for a couple weeks now, right?
Speaker: And he wants to go to Miami.
Speaker: Does Boston want to get him?
Speaker: And I made up my mind.
Speaker: I don't want him anymore.
Speaker: He doesn't want us, I don't think, either.
Speaker: But I don't want him, dude.
Speaker: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker: Go to Miami, bro.
Speaker: Take your talents to South Beach, dude.
Speaker: Yeah, everyone's like, well, he led the NBA with the most 40-point games.
Speaker: Yeah, dude, you played on the West.
Speaker: You played on the West.
Speaker: You're on the Portland.
Speaker: Name another player on the Trailblazers, bro.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: I can't.
Speaker: My cat probably averages a double-double on the fucking Trailblazers.
Speaker: Dude, I average a double-double on the Trailblazers.
Speaker: I'm 5'2".
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Of course he scored 40 points a game.
Speaker: Like, you know, there's no one else can shoot, you know?
Speaker: Dribble, shoot, pass.
Speaker: They don't know what they're fucking doing in Portland.
Speaker: So that's, I decided...
Speaker: I don't, you know, maybe I'm biased because he was like, I don't want to go to Boston.
Speaker: I want to go to Miami.
Speaker: Guess what?
Speaker: You're not welcome in Boston anymore.
Speaker: Damien.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Go have fun.
Speaker: Go play with Jimmy Butler.
Speaker: Someone else who can shoot and score and it's good.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: See how many 40 point games you have then.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I didn't want to, you know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I want to pop off a little bit, but, you know, come on.
Speaker: You're on the trailblazers, bud.
Speaker: And I think that's it for me, man.
Speaker: Sorry about Northwestern.
Speaker: Hopefully.
Speaker: you know, things get uncrazy on that one.
Speaker: And, you know, hopefully I also hope more information comes out, man.
Speaker: I want to know something positive about it.
Speaker: You know, hopefully it just started and it's not been going on for a long time, but we'll find out, I guess.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I guess.
Speaker: Yeah, I guess we will.
Speaker: But I'm ready here for sure.
Speaker: Bummer to hear, dude.
Speaker: I don't even do it.
Speaker: This has got me down now.
Speaker: I thought that then the game thing got me all hyped up.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I'm going to left from right right now.
Speaker: You know, here's the good news, man.
Speaker: You're turning 30.
Speaker: We're going on a little vacation.
Speaker: We're coming back.
Speaker: Some new things.
Speaker: We won't talk about them, but.
Speaker: We got new stuff in the pot.
Speaker: Simmer in.
Speaker: Simmer down now.
Speaker: Like a jambalaya.
Speaker: It's going to be a mixed bag of fun stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, and you got to let jambalaya, you got to let that simmer.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: So I don't know what to ready break on on this one.
Speaker: I mean, my birthday, obviously, because we're not going to have another episode until it's post post Pancake's birthday, which, you know, I am bummed about turning 30.
Speaker: But, you know, I did have a heart transplant and it is a privilege to grow old.
Speaker: So I'll I'll say that, you know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Goodbye, youth.
Speaker: And hello.
Speaker: 30s, I guess.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Do you want to start on that?
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Break on my youth.
Speaker: It's been great.
Speaker: Goodbye, 20s.
Speaker: My youth is breaking.
Speaker: Let's break.
Speaker: Ready?
Speaker: Break.
Speaker: We'll find out.
Speaker: I'll probably just break on vacation, man.
Speaker: Cape Cod.
Speaker: Beach.
Speaker: Red Sox.
Speaker: Fenway Pack.
Speaker: Fenway Franks.
Speaker: Not Hot Dogs.
Speaker: Fenway Franks.
Speaker: Alright.
Speaker: Vacation.
Speaker: Ready?
Speaker: Break.
Speaker: I think we got two.
Speaker: I think we might be two for two.
Speaker: I hope we do go out like that until the break, you know?
Speaker: We're obviously going to.
Speaker: People deserve two for two.
Speaker: It might not have ever happened, though.
