Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald, and his program, have taken a lot of heat the past couple of years. NU has gone 10-14 the past two seasons, which is exactly equal to the record Tim Beckman has produced at Illinois. Everyone has taken heat for the team’s underperforming these past two years- Fitz, the coaching staff, the players. And it’s in this atmosphere that Pat Fitzgerald is asking media and fans to direct their guns at him, instead of the players.
At Big Ten Media Day on Friday, July 31st, Fitzgerald even came up two hashtags that fans can use on Twitter to get this accomplished: #DoThisFitz and #WTFitz.
So move over #B1GCATS, there’s a new Twitter sheriff in town. Now that you have it, go nuts. The opener is September 4th versus Stanford; we’ll see if these two terms start trending.
“Totally put it on me, put a hashtag out there have our fans and media “Do this Fitz,” send it to me by noon on Monday. Attach your name to it,” he said.
“And then on Saturday, when things go wrong, “W-T-Fitz.”
Today was Northwestern football Media Day, and naturally I couldn’t wait to ask Pat Fitzgerald about these hashtags. Instead of transcribing his response, I give you the video embedded below. The Q&A is around the 18 minute to 18:30 mark. Video is better than text anyway; so much of communication is non-verbal.
Fitzgerald, whether intentionally, or unintentionally, makes a great point about criticism in the public sphere today. We’re still living the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome age of criticizing and shaming on social media, and too many people don’t take ownership of what they say. I agree with Pat Fitzgerald on this point. Sign your name to what you say in public.
Better yet attach your picture too.
So I’m on board with this; #DoThisFitz and #WTFitz let’s get it trending.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network.Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN Omaha.
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram