Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald testifies on school's behalf
Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald took the witness stand on Friday, testifying against his players who have petitioned to unionize against the university. During his testimony, Fitzgerald reiterated
Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald testifies on school's behalf Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald took the witness stand on Friday, testifying against his players who have petitioned to unionize against the university. During his testimony, Fitzgerald reiterated Check out this story on USATODAY.com: http://usat.ly/1f5Iv57
Kevin Trahan, Special for USA TODAY Sports Published 7:03 p.m. ET Feb. 21, 2014
A newspaper quote about the demands of college athletics was used against Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald in a labor hearing Friday in Chicago.(Photo: Bradley Leeb, USA TODAY Sports)
CHICAGO — Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald took the witness stand on Friday, testifying against his players who have petitioned to unionize against the university. During his testimony, Fitzgerald reiterated previous testimony that he and the university do everything they can to create a positive experience for their athletes.
"We take pride in developing our men to be the best they can be in everything they choose to do," Fitzgerald said. "Our goals are simple: We want to graduate 100% of our players and prepare them for life, and we want to compete for championships."
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Throughout the proceedings, the lawyers for the College Athletes Players Association have held that the player-coach relationship is actually an employee-employer relationship, since the coaches control the player's compensation — their scholarship. For example, CAPA has claimed, Fitzgerald can decide to pull a player's scholarship.
Fitzgerald testified that such a scenario is rare, and that "it's not our practice" to pull players scholarships, despite reading a team rule while on the stand that stated that he is allowed to do so if players break team rules. A rule also states that players can be suspended for up to a season if they "embarrass" the team on multiple occasions. Fitzgerald claimed that a loss of scholarship, in particular, would only occur if a player were to "egregiously violate" team rules.
The testimony demonstrated the difference between the arguments of CAPA and Northwestern. Alex Barbour, an attorney for Northwestern, said earlier in the week that the university does not understand why it is the "test case" for unionization, since it's not a "football factory."
Fitzgerald echoed that sentiment. He said his credentials prove he puts academics first. Specifically, he cited a time last season when a player asked Fitzgerald to sit out of practice that week to catch up on school work. Fitzgerald obliged, and thus, that player was not prepared to play in the game that week against Nebraska and did not travel with the team.
That would support Northwestern's argument that football players are students first and athletes second.
However, CAPA has said all along that it is not alleging any misconduct by Northwestern. Their point is that coaches are allowed to treat players unfairly if they want to, and the players have no representation. So even though Northwestern may not unjustly pull scholarships, other schools could, and CAPA isn't planning to stop at Northwestern.
Essentially, they would argue, a football coach with the ability to pull compensation — the scholarship — is like a boss in an employee-employer relationship. And just because your boss is cool, that doesn't mean he's not your boss.
Fitzgerald told Barbour that he believes the student-athlete experience is all-encompassing — the athletic endeavors or an athlete are mixed with their academic and social endeavors. He said he believes in the ideal of the student-athlete, and that his players are not employees.
However, CAPA lawyer Gary Kohlman pointed out that in a Chicago Sun-Times article last year that Fitzgerald — who initially denied this sentiment — called being a student-athlete a "full-time job." The question was related to increasing player stipends, which Fitzgerald supports. He clarified his stance after reading his quote.
"It's a full-time job from a responsibility standpoint," he said.
That being a student-athlete is a full-time job would seemingly support CAPA's argument that athletes are different than their peers. But to counter that, Northwestern called Christopher Watson, its Dean of Undergraduate Admissions. While CAPA tried to make the point that athletes are recruited by coaches, not the admissions department, Watson said that coaches at the school cannot get permission to admit anyone to the school.
"It's the same as it is with any applicant," he said. "We have the final say over who's admitted to the university."
There is no formula, Watson said, for admission of any student. Test scores and the class schedule are taken into account, but Watson said the admissions department has not tracked how athletes performed in high school compared to how the general student body performed.
After four days of testimony, the hearing will continue on Tuesday, and Northwestern has the potential to call more witnesses. Once the proceedings are complete, the NLRB regional director will review the case. Given that this is an unusual case, it could take weeks for a decision to be made.