Apparel fail

 Hey, I get it. I really do.

Pat Fitzpatrick was a terrific coach, a legendary player, a loyal son of old NU. Open his veins, and he bled purple. Cue up some old game film, and you're probably looking at the best football player Northwestern ever had.

But he also, according to multiple accusers and eyewitnesses, seemingly knew about some of the sicko things allegedly going on in his locker room. It was a hazing culture that allegedly featured the simulated gang rape of underclassmen -- and the mindset that gave birth to it seemingly still exists.

This after several NU assistants and staffers wore T-shirts with Fitzgerald's old number 51 on them the other day, superimposed on the slogan "Cats Against The World." Some players defended them as symbols of "team unity," but the message sent was that the program was being persecuted and was now, as the injured party, closing ranks against its persecution.

I still think athletic director Derrick Gragg was in some way complicit in all of this, or at least late to the party. But he hit the nail square in his reaction to the T-shirts.

Said they were "inappropriate, offensive and tone-deaf." Said he was "extremely disappointed" in those who wore them. Said the university stood full-bore against hazing, and allow him to be "crystal-clear" about that.

Good for him.

Now he needs to get rid of the guys who wore those shirts, because their loyalty is to the tainted Fitzpatrick and not to Northwestern. 

Again, I get it. Loyalty is a football program's fuel -- loyalty to the players, to the program, to the head coach. This is especially true of assistant coaches who've been handpicked by said head coach. Everyone in a successful program likes to throw around the word "family," and in truth that's what it's like.

But you can't tear out an entire culture simply by lopping off the head of it. Like any infestation, you have to tear it out root and branch. And how are you going to do that if you still employ some of those who were part of that culture, knowingly or not?

Your move, Mr. Gragg.