Fitz hires attorney to fight firing

It looks like Pat Fitzgerald is not going down without a fight.

The former Northwestern head coach, who was fired by the university on Monday, sent a statement to ESPN just hours later stating that he has hired prominent Chicago attorney Dan Webb to "take the necessary steps to protect my rights in accordance with the law."

In the statement, which was tweeted by ESPN senior writer Pete Thamel, Fitzgerald states that Maggie Hickey's six-month investigation of hazing with the Northwestern program reaffirmed "what I have always maintained -- that I had no knowledge whatsoever of any form of hazing within the Northwestern Football Program."

Fitzgerald maintains that he and the school came to "a mutual agreement" that a two-week suspension was the appropriate resolution to the matter.

"Therefore," he states, "I was surprised when I learned that the president of Northwestern unilaterally revoked our agreement without any prior notification and subsequently terminated my employment."

Northwestern president Dr. Michael Schill initially suspended Fitzgerald for two weeks on Friday as the result of the investigation. The following night, however, Schill said in a statement he had "erred" in his initial punishment and would consider further sanctions.

"In determining an appropriate penalty for the head coach, I focused too much on what the report concluded he didn’t know and not enough on what he should have known," said Schill.

On Monday, Schill announced that Fitzgerald had been fired.

Fitzgerald coached for 17 years at Northwestern and is the program's all-time winningest coach with 110 wins.

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MORE ON THE NORTHWESTERN HAZING SCANDAL:

Northwestern fires Pat Fitzgerald l 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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