I remember my rookie hazing. It wasn’t fun. — Retired MLB pitcher Gio Gonzalez
Though this rapidly expanding national story is still essentially a local one, particularly for a former Evanstonian like myself, for some strange reason I’ve been loath to address it. Perhaps it’s the lingering feeling that there are more important things to write about. But a combination of perceived reader expectations and the Northwestern University hazing scandal spinning so far out of control that it begs to be addressed by someone with some semblance of perspective, so here we go.
For those residing beneath a slab of granite, a wide range of sports hazing allegedly including sexual assault, has come to light at Northwestern University. The reports initially resulted in a two-week suspension for football coach Pat Fitzgerald, but after more hazing allegations surfaced in the Daily Northwestern, Fitzgerald was ultimately fired.
To say these revelations have had a disastrous effect on NU athletics, particularly the football program, would be the most massive of understatements. Highly recruited players are rescinding their letters of intent, alums are demanding refunds for their season tickets, at least four lawsuit have been filed, and though it will recover to some degree, Northwestern’s sterling reputation has been forever tarnished.
Wasn’t the “Harvard of the Midwest” supposed to be above these kinds of puerile antics? And we all know that NU isn’t nearly the only highly regarded college to implicitly condoned this kind of bullying behavior to the point where it’s difficult to believe anyone would tolerate that level of abuse.
To be clear, my goal here is to explain how the behavioral basis for hazing is hardwired into Homo Sapiens most basic evolutionary need for hierarchy and rites of passage, not to excuse what went on at a 21st Century Northshore lakefront college that chargers 61 grand a year for the privilege of being abused.
For a perfectly terrifying literary example of the dynamic we’re about to discuss, I’d suggest William Golding’s Nobel Prize winning Lord of the Flies, a novel about a group of boys’ attempt to govern themselves after crash landing on a Pacific island.
Before you say that’s an extreme example, we’re talking about girls allegedly sexually assaulting other girls on the NU softball and volleyball teams. And those problems start whenever you separate men from women in any endeavor, because it creates the kind of imbalance that incites a regression to a younger mean that allows these subcurrents to flow to the surface.
To be fair, most forms of hazing are harmless and just plain silly.
Take the Cubs. The newest member of the team has to carry the Hello Kitty backpack around until they’re officially “broken in,” which ain’t exactly the stuff of hazing legend. Former manager Joe Maddon was the master of the art of positive hazing during their 2016 World Series run. The “event” that immediately comes to mind is the pajama party of a flight home from California where the player wore Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Superman, and Mario Brothers jammies.
Then there are generally unimaginative nicknames which seem to be a requirement of any organized sports endeavor. Kyle Hendricks is “The Professor,” Dansby Swanson is “The Sheriff,” Cody Bellinger is “Belli,” and Seiya Suzuki is “Justin Bieber.” But even these can go awry as demonstrated by Patrick Wisdom’s alias, “Wizzy,” which never would’ve flown if just one women was involved in that one.
But again, when the adults are in charge and that’s as far as it goes and it’s all in good teambuilding fun. But when the children are left in charge, and college athletes aren’t regularly regaled for their maturity levels, hazing can take a very dark turn. Just ask Mr. Gonzalez (quote above) who came up with the Oakland A’s.
I understand there’s something to be said for breaking down the individual to create a sense of being part of something greater than yourself. Drill sergeants use that psychological tactic all the time to build unit cohesion. But the DI is only supposed to take it so far, and there’s a vast difference between playing on the gridiron and being deployed in a combat zone.
The problem with the Northwestern scenario, and those like it, is the adults weren’t in charge, and when the hazing went on unabated for years, two inevitably deleterious dynamics developed which brings us right back to Lord of the Flies.
The first is, as Mr. Golding so brutally described, children, and particularly hyper-competitive physically gifted teenage athletes, who’ve been catered to by parents, coaches, and fans for their entire young lives, CANNOT govern themselves. Most adults have problems with any form of good governance, and left to their own devices, these kids will respond to the evolutionary call to impose the kind of strict survival of the fittest hierarchy you see everywhere in the animal kingdom.
The second is, with modern society having eliminated most of the rituals in the name of a misguided feminist requirement for safety at all costs, these children will create their own more cruel rites of passage to determine who is accepted on the team and who has the power to grant that acceptance.
But we’re out of time for now. Next Tuesday we’ll delve a little deeper into those two instinctual processes, as well as cover my thoughts on how NU badly mishandled the whole thing and why the university president Michael Schill is just as culpable as anyone else involved
