The Northwestern Football Players Who Participated in “Running” Their Teammates Should Be Charged With Sexual Abuse
In my 2021 book, “The Title IX Guy”, I wrote a chapter about male victims of sexual misconduct. While the U.S. Military puts up high numbers in the category of male sexual misconduct through hazing, athletic teams are not that far behind. From pinning younger players on the ground and grabbing their buttocks, to sodomy with a broomstick so forceful that the stick broke, sexual misconduct has become interwoven in sports hazing culture. The Northwestern University Wildcats football team has become the latest exposed for their toxic “team building” practices.
After a series of anonymous claims in November 2022, Northwestern announced in January 2023, that it would be investigating a hazing incident that occurred with the university’s football team. On July 8, 2023, The Daily Northwestern released the details of the incident. The team used a practice called “running” to embarrass and punish players who made mistakes during practice. Players selected for running would be restrained by eight to 10 of their teammates dressed in various “Purge-Like” masks. The player would then be “dry humped” in a dark locker room by the older players in a scene described by a player as a display of “absolutely egregious and vile and inhumane behavior.” When a player was selected to be “ran,” teammates would clap their hands above their heads while surrounding the player in question. This became known as the “Shrek Clap”. The article states that “running” was especially common during the holiday season with a white board in the locker room having the words “Runsgiving” and “Runsmas” scrawled across it and the names of players who had been selected for running underneath.
Another tradition of sexual misconduct practiced by the team was called “The Car Wash”. Here, players would stand naked at the entrance to the showers and spin around, forcing those entering the showers to rub up against their nude bodies. Players even set up a hose connected to the shower to spray people which one player described as “extremely painful.”
In total, 11 current and former players acknowledged the systematic and ongoing practices in the program. The investigation revealed that these assaults are well known throughout the program and ultimately, on July 11th, 2023, head coach Pat Fitzgerald (a former Big 10 Coach of the Year) would be fired.
The Diminishment of Sexual Assault
The seriousness of sexual misconduct that occurs as a part of hazing is routinely diminished. According to the United States Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, men are three times more likely to downplay their sexual assault by calling it hazing. A 2014 article written by Gary Phillips sums up the diminishing effect, stating:
“By calling sexual abuse hazing, society grants those perpetrators a free pass and downplays the brutality of their actions. What is actually a very serious crime is passed off as a “rite of passage” ritual that went too far.
The downplaying of sexual misconduct as “hazing” also allows this type of behavior to continue. Hazing is a crime in all but six states. Despite this, hazing actions that don’t result in death or serious bodily harm are often placed in the “boys will be boys” bucket. Acts that would be considered sexual misconduct anywhere else are laughed off, labeled “not a big deal,” and categorized as a part of tradition. For example, in 2015 a freshman on the Ooltewah High School football team near Chattanooga, Tenn, was so brutally sodomized by his teammates with a pool cue that days later he urinated blood, collapsed, underwent emergency surgery, and had to learn how to walk again. The police officer who investigated the crime filed charges of aggravated rape, but later testified in state court that what happened was not in fact a sexual misconduct but rather “something stupid that kids do.”
This diminishment however, does not prevent the victim from experiencing the trauma associated with these acts. Decreased confidence and self-esteem, aggression toward self and/or others, emotional instability, and interpersonal conflicts (often linked to trust issues) are all potential mental manifestations of sexual misconduct disguised as hazing. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors are also on the list and have been reported as present in the Northwestern hazing incident. One of the anonymous players from the Northwestern team describes the effect of the sexual misconduct he and his teammates suffered saying, “I’ve had friends reach out to me in the middle of the night having very suicidal tendencies.”
The student also doesn’t believe that the sanctions levied against the program (only Fitzgerald’s firing at this time) is enough, calling them “a slap on the wrist.”
I agree.
Sending a Message
The student athletes on the Northwestern Football team who participated in these acts of sexual misconduct disguised as hazing should face criminal hazing charges. They should also however, face sexual assault charges as well. While some may argue that sexual assault charges for a hazing incident may be a step too far, there is already precedent for this.
In November of 2018, six students at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto, Canada, were charged with gang sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon when a video came to light of a hazing incident that led to a student being sodomized with a broomstick. Later in the month, four students at Damascus High School in Damascus, Maryland, were charged as adults for first degree rape, also for sodomizing one of their football teammates with a broomstick. In 2022, a number of football players at the Wall Township High School were charged with criminal sexual contact (along with hazing, false imprisonment and harassment) for their role in a hazing incident that included — you guessed it — broomsticks (attorney Christopher Adams diminished this act of sodomy by calling it “horsing around” and “sophomoric”).
So yes, there is precedent for these types of charges. The difference here is that while sexual assault charges of high school students may catch the attention of their local communities, criminal sexual assault charges pressed on the Northwestern players have the opportunity to make a national statement on the consequences of violent sexual “hazing.” The Northwestern Wildcats are a stalwart in the Big 10 conference. They are a nationally known name and as such, have a large national platform on which a deterring message could be sent to other student athletes, from the scholarship starters in the NCAA Division One, all the way down to the tykes in the pee-wee leagues.
In the state of Illinois, a person commits criminal sexual abuse if that person commits an act of sexual conduct by use of force or threat of force. An act of sexual conduct includes any knowing touching or fondling, either directly or through clothing, of the sex organs, anus, or breast of the victim. Looking at this law, a strong argument could be made that 8 to 10 college football players holding a person down (force) while someone dry humps them (fondling through clothing) is enough to bring forth the charge of criminal sexual abuse.
And it absolutely should.
When students participate in this type of behavior, sexual misconduct rarely, if ever, passes through their minds. Instead, this behavior is viewed as “boys will be boys, locker room, horsing around” that bears little, if any consequence. And because this is the way the sexual misconduct with males as the victim is viewed, this is why it continues to persist. If we wish to pursue a solution, then one avenue we must take is to convey the gravity of the crime (that’s what it is) by affixing the proper punishment for it.
In our first ever criminal law classes, our professor told us that deterrence is one of the main purposes of punishment. And with all eyes across the country on the Northwestern Football team, this could be a prime time to send a deterring message out to all athletes that may not understand the seriousness of sexual hazing.
Or . . . all could simply be forgotten come kickoff in September.
