Nicole Markus, Alyce Brown, Cole Reynolds, and Divya Bhardwaj, writing for The Daily Northwestern, have written a story that is incredibly damning of Northwestern Football and I don’t see how head coach Pat Fitzgerald can stay employed.

The former player said he reported his experiences to the University in late November 2022. He alleges that much of the team’s hazing centered around a practice dubbed “running,” which was used to punish team members, primarily freshman, for mistakes made on the field and in practice.

If a player was selected for “running,” the player who spoke to The Daily said, they would be restrained by a group of 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in various “Purge-like” masks, who would then begin “dry-humping” the victim in a dark locker room.

“It’s a shocking experience as a freshman to see your fellow freshman teammates get ran, but then you see everybody bystanding in the locker room,” the player said. “It’s just a really abrasive and barbaric culture that has permeated throughout that program for years on end now.”

The Daily obtained images of whiteboards labeled “Runsgiving” and “Shrek’s List,” containing a list of names indicating players that the player said needed to be “ran.”

The player said the tradition was especially common during training camp and around Thanksgiving and Christmas, which he said the team called “Runsgiving” and “Runsmas.”

“It’s done under this smoke and mirror of ‘oh, this is team bonding,’ but no, this is sexual abuse,” the player said.

According to the former player, team members allegedly identified players for “running” by clapping their hands above their heads around that player. The practice, the player said, was known within the team as “the Shrek clap.”

This program is done. Northwestern football is about to become irrelevant for a decade.