A CONCATENATION OF MISBEHAVIOR.

When I noted, "you have the fraternity and athletic culture of the sub-prime party school, at a higher list price,"  Northwestern University's investigation of hazing rituals in athletics involved only football and baseball.  Turn the rock over, though, and look closely.

Northwestern athletics tried to protect their image over their own athletes, keeping up a facade to cover the rotten underbelly of the athletic department. Before I go any further, let me be clear. AD Derrick Gragg was hired in 2021 after Jim Phillips (who was very oddly gone without many questions being thrown at him) left for the ACC commissioner job, and president Michael Schill was hired last September, so the problems within the football program predate them. However, the baseball team’s problems? A cheerleading team that faced allegations of harassment and racism? That’s on their hands, and a symbol of a problem much larger than any one scandal.

This problem is larger than Northwestern football. It’s larger than Northwestern baseball and cheerleading. It’s a problem within the university, protecting their self-image and reputation over doing the right thing, and the leaders at the institution have nobody to blame but themselves.

The cheerleader's lawsuit is a few years old, and for all I know sports journalists treated the story as business as usual.

Hayden Richardson filed a federal lawsuit against Northwestern University on Friday, detailing repeated instances of harassment while a member of the cheerleading program, according to the Chicago Tribune's Elyssa Cherney.

Per the 58-page complaint, Richardson experienced being groped by drunken fans and alumni at university-sanctioned events. The program's head coach, Pam Bonnevier, apparently required women cheerleaders to "mingle" with donors for the school's financial gain.

“It became clear to [Richardson] that the cheerleaders were being presented as sex objects to titillate the men that funded the majority of Northwestern’s athletics programs,” the lawsuit read, per the Tribune. “After all, the happier these men were, the more money the University would receive from them.”

Richardson says that in 2018 to '19, older men touched her breasts and buttocks over her uniform, picked her up without her consent and made “sexually-charged comments” about her appearance, per the Tribune. Despite being underage, Richardson says men offered her alcoholic beverages and asked to meet with her later at said events.

The lawsuit suggests Richardson's complaints were ignored by numerous university officials. It also states that Bonnevier told cheerleaders to socialize independently despite requests to visit donor tailgates and events in pairs. The women team members were required to take photos with fans, regardless of whether the fans acted inappropriately.

Makes sense: if the recruiting coordinators can line up "dates" for high school prospects, the fundraising coordinators can call on the cheer team to schmooze the donors.

The suit is still somewhere in litigation.  Ms Richardson has graduated and is working in the Federal Capital.

"What happened to my team wasn't exclusive to Northwestern cheerleading," she said. "That kind of behavior was promoted and allowed to fester and occur."

It also deeply impacted her. Hayden says the abuse impacted her ability to sleep and caused panic attacks - and her grades suffered.

What did horrify her was claims by the football team's leaders that they had no idea what was going on.

"Seeing people in these senior leadership roles say, 'I had no idea' - there's no way you didn't know," Richardson said. "These athletes look up to you. They tell you everything. You at minimum we're going to hear whispers because these things don't happen quietly."

Richardson says lawsuits like hers and those recently filed by football players are one way to help fix the problem - but more needs to change.

"To rectify these behaviors, they would have to take a step back, further analyze how these behaviors came to be, and then start putting measures in place over years and years and put someone in position to hold them accountable," Richardson said.

Richardson's case is ongoing. We did reach out to Northwestern about the suit and Richardson's claims that the school has continued to shame and silence survivors since her lawsuit was filed.

Late Thursday, we were still waiting on a response.

Meanwhile, if you're wondering why Richardson didn't just quit the team, she says she feared losing her scholarship. Cheerleaders who quit are also required to pay back any travel or equipment expenses.

It's like shaking olives out of a jar, isn't it? Get one or two out, and the rest tumble.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips was named a defendant in a former Northwestern University football player’s lawsuit against the school and its leadership, alleging negligence in preventing hazing incidents, the ex-player’s attorneys said Wednesday at a news conference.

Attorneys Patrick A. Salvi II and Parker Stinar added Phillips to the lawsuit after they said they learned about hazing incidents in the school’s softball, volleyball and cheerleading programs that date from Phillips’s time as Northwestern’s athletic director (2008 to 2021).

“Certainly his tenure as athletic department head overlaps with the allegations that have been made,” Salvi said.

Yes, and if we walk the cat backward, might there be some hidden unpleasantness at Northern Illinois?  "A native of Chicago who graduated from the University of Illinois, Phillips arrived at Northwestern after a four-year run as the athletic director at Northern Illinois University. He remained in that position until 2021 when he was hired as commissioner of the ACC, which is based in Greensboro, North Carolina."  Interestingly, none of the reports refer to Dr. Phillips, nor does he insist on being so honored, despite holding the same terminal degree as Jill Biden, Ed.D.