Dear Drs. Schill and Gragg:

Are you guys on Twitter? If so, you might want to take a look. The Northwestern football program is being dragged through the mud right now, with updates coming from media outlets seemingly every hour, on the hour.

And we haven’t heard from either of you, the president and athletic director of the university, respectively, for more than 36 hours.

We haven’t heard from Gragg at all since a formulaic pair of sentences in the university's original statement on Friday. The last time we heard from Schill was at 11 p.m. Central time on Saturday night, when he asked for a do-over for his two-week suspension of head coach Pat Fitzgerald that he handed down just the day before.

At this point, my advice to both of you would be to release the hazing investigation report as soon as possible. Redact names to protect identities and get approval from your lawyers.

Are you concerned that potentially damaging things are in the report? It doesn’t matter. Eventually, it’s all going to come out anyway. Ask yourself if you want to put it out there, or if you want the media to put it out there. Because it’s getting out there.

If you release the report, you will control the narrative. At least initially.

Put Maggie Hickey, the former Illinois inspector general who led the investigation and maybe the last person involved with this investigation with a shred of credibility, in front of a microphone to explain her findings. Then you two can sit on either side of her.

She can explain how the “complainant’s claims were largely supported by the evidence gathered during the investigation”, but at the same time they “did not uncover evidence pointing to specific misconduct by any individual football player or coach.”

Schill can explain how, in light of the allegations detailed in The Daily Northwestern story on Saturday, a two-week vacation in the middle of July was an appropriate punishment for Fitzgerald. Then, you can go on to outline the reasons you decided that you “erred” the very next day – only after The Daily’s story came out – and opened the door to further punishment.

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MORE ON THE NORTHWESTERN HAZING SCANDAL:

Northwestern hazing scandal continues to grow l Timeline of events l Explosive hazing allegations call Fitz, NU administration into question l What does Pat Fitzgerald's suspension mean for NU? l Pat Fitzgerald suspended two weeks in hazing investigation

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And, while you're at it, Dr. Schill, maybe you can tell us what those additional sanctions might be. Is Fitzgerald going to be fired? Suspended for several games? A year?

No hurry or anything. Just know that while you wait, the media will continue to run roughshod over the football program like Blake Corum, and allegations of all kinds from Fitzgerald's 17 years at the helm will pour in.

Right now, media outlets are in complete control of the narrative. Every time a new tweet or story is published, it pours gasoline on the fire.

Today, within 26 minutes of each other, The Daily published a story with allegations from three former Northwestern football players of a racist environment in the football program, as well as confirmation that a hazing tradition called the "car wash" existed during their time on the team; and InsideNU posted a piece where an anonymous recent Northwestern football player, the third to step forward, confirmed the hazing allegations from top to bottom.

That’s not the way you want this thing to be handled. Get out in front of it. Come clean. It’s death by guillotine – one fell swoop – instead of death by a thousand cuts. Per day.

Right now, this looks a lot like the Mike Polisky fiasco in 2021, when the brand new athletic director twisted in the wind for several days after the media learned he was named in a sexual harassment lawsuit and students organized marches in protest. He eventually resigned and Northwestern was left with egg on its face.

This time, it’s more like a whole dozen. Maybe an 18-pack. And the guy left hanging is the most beloved coach and athlete in school history.

The cast is different – Schill is in just his first year as president while Gragg was eventually tapped to replace Polisky – but the results appear to be eerily similar. This will not be something that fades away if it's left alone. Was nothing learned the last time?

I can’t tell you what an appropriate punishment for Fitzgerald should be. You are paid very well to make decisions like that.

But, if you continue to let this raging wildfire burn without doing something to douse it, you might end up cleaning out your desks, too.