Fitz blew up this week.
A Vine of Northwestern's head football coach cursing at a player during last Saturday's win against Nebraska went viral, and, unfortunately for Fitz, there's not much he can do to stop it.
But here at NBN Sports, we've got a solution. It really boils down to Crisis Management 101: Create a Distraction.
We dug up some more family friendly clips of our beloved football coach that the Wildcats can "leak" to the press and sweep this whole NSFW video under the rug. Sure, Fitz may have lost his temper, but that shouldn't be the only thing people think of when they see his name – it should be these videos. Enjoy!
Fitz has Golden Pipes by Tim Hackett
We all love seeing people completely out of their element. At Northwestern, students are encouraged to get out of their comfort zones and try things they may not have thought they would be good at or enjoy. And so here we see Pat Fitzgerald, head football coach at Northwestern University, dabbling in the performing arts by singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field. He took a Northwestern Direction, and is now a Coach/Singer. We’ll let you decide which one he’s better at.
Fitz has Moves by Will Fischer
Fitz opens this video all too innocently - in no way does he prepare the viewer for the sheer madness and hilarity that is about to follow. The first time I watched it, I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. Now, after watching it 10 times, the whole left side of my body is numb and I haven’t eaten in days (please send help). Definitively, dancing Fitz will always be my favorite Fitz (0:26).
Fitz has Cell Reception by Andy Brown
Reporters putting their phones and recorders on a press conference table is a tradition as old as time itself. That said, I'm still a little nervous about my friends' patented postgame "how did y'all get wrecked that bad?" texts coming up on my phone's screen right in front of Coach Fitz as he breaks down a loss, so I usually put mine facedown.
I don't know who Graham is, and I don't know why he called that reporter's phone at that press conference. But I know when that "hotline bling," that can only mean one thing for Fitz, no matter which side of the phone is facing up. So the next time my friends are looking to talk some smack directly after a bad football game, I hope they choose to do it the old-fashioned way, with a phone call. Perhaps then they will get an answer from The Man himself as to "how [Northwestern] got wrecked that bad."
Fitz has Z's by Jason Mast
While other coaches give firey pre-game speeches, Pat Fitzgerald gently tells the Wildcats to simmer down, drink a cool cup of chamomile and lie down for an hour. After players appeared sluggish in an early 2012 loss to Boston College, Fitz instituted mandatory naps before games. He revealed his ploy a month later on national television. Did it work? Northwestern lost the next game to Nebraska, but went 4-1 the rest of the way and captured the 2013 Gator Bowl. Since then, the crusade for sleep has only continued. The next year, Fitz had players wear sleep-trackers as part of a study with McCormick. In case you were wondering, Northwestern now issues sleep masks and recommends its athletes sleep in cold rooms with ambient noise, according to Vanwinkle.com, a site specializing in sleep. Oh, and the naps have continued. They're called Cat Naps.
Fitz has Heart by Austin Siegel
Bald Fitz.
There's really not much more I can say about this video, which was filmed at a charity event organized by Coach Fitzgerald and St. Baldrick's Foundation, an organization that funds research and raises funds for children battling cancer. It's actually an incredibly sweet video, and the way Fitz talks about losing a teammate to cancer makes it clear he's really committed to this cause. So yeah, Pat Fitzgerald is a really good guy.