About every football team from high school through college has some sort of ”team building” culture that ranges from a rite of passage to the ridiculous, as described in the article. I coached 17 years at 3 different programs and there was nothing remotely close to what was reported at NU, but I’m aware of programs that routinely allow things to go well beyond team-building. The first thing I learned was that our players, whether at practice, games, or other team events, were always supervised by the coaching staff. It was also understood that we were to keep an eye out during the school day. As such, I’ve never had to deal with any hazing events as a coach. About as wild as it ever got was all the freshmen shaved their heads at fall camp and a tradition upheld was that the freshmen loaded and unloaded the gear for away games and helped clean up the field at home.
As an administrator I dealt with a couple of hazing events. One was particularly serious and involved a Senior brawling with a freshman, the result of the players being unsupervised. I changed that immediately despite the HC’s plea that it was important part of team-building. The result was no more fights (or things getting broken or torn up) and the Coach resigned immediately at the end of the season. The second was as an AD and involved two Seniors constantly cursing, belittling, and putting hands on a freshman in Baseball Conditioning who was struggling to keep up. Lack of supervision was again the culprit. The coach was an old friend and kind of bucked up when I went to see him about it, but I was able to convince him to get a better handle on the situation and things were better. Incidentally, the freshman led the team in hitting as a junior this past season. Bottom line, kids are like livestock and will stay in the pasture as long as the rancher is taking care of and watching after them. Without that, they’ll find a hole in the fence or make one and then go out and get into trouble. Supervision and expectations are the key as far as I’m concerned.
Developing leaders is important in any team structure and should be a year by year building process with each Senior class providing the majority. However, leadership must be both developed by meeting expectations and earned by consistently displaying it. Giving it just because a player is good or popular usually doesn’t cut it. Leaders who can’t control themselves behaviorally or lead by example or lack self-discipline seem to be the ones who get behind the abusive crap you hear about and often delight in brutalizing the younger players. Poor self esteem can be a factor. A coach who allows these extremes does more to harm the players and the sport than any good he’ll ever do. Northwestern has a mess to clean up. I hope they do it and that it also causes a greater look into programs who likewise allow things to get out of hand.
dailynorthwestern.com
. I think I'd opt fro the dry humping in a dark locker in that scenario
