Fourth football player suing Northwestern over hazing scandal
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Disturbing new details have emerged on what players say happened inside the locker rooms of Northwestern University – and not just in the baseball and football programs.
As CBS 2's Chris Tye reported, the university has admitted they are looking into new allegations laid out in a new lawsuit filed Monday – the first in what lawyers say will be followed by dozens more against the school.
They say the university sports programs created a brainwashing culture that normalized abuse.
An hour north of the Northwestern campus in Evanston sits camp Kenosha – on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Camp Kenosha is home to a summer program for Northwestern Wildcats Football, where players ran drills, devised plays - and according to the lawsuit, initiated hazing.
"During their time at the Kenosha Camp," the lawsuit said, players were subject to "naked rope swings, naked pull ups, naked center and quarterback exchange, naked one on one drills, and naked pass rush drill."
"I hope that by speaking out, future athletes will be free from the physical, emotional, and psychological trauma that I experienced," said Lloyd Yates.
Yates was a freshman quarterback in 2015. His lawyers say when an associate head football coach asked a player about his girlfriend, "Coach Mac brought Facebook up on the screen and began to search for the girl's profile. In front of the entire position group, Coach Mac went through the Facebook profile of John Doe 2's girlfriend… inquiring of… what kind of sexual experiences the two had been engaged in."
Yates is represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
Northwestern says: "We are currently reviewing the claims made against Coach MacPherson. We are committed to do whatever is necessary to address hazing-related issues and ensure that our athletic program remains one that our entire community can be proud of."
This comes as three other former football players announced similar lawsuits last week.
All three have accused the school, former head coach Pat Fitzgerald, and other officials of not preventing hazing, intervening in the tradition, or protecting students from acts that were illegal and often sexual.
All three of those lawsuits have been filed in Cook County Circuit Court by attorneys Patrick Salvi II and Parker Stinar. All three players involved in the lawsuits have filed as "John Doe" plaintiffs to protect their privacy.
"Northwestern is going to have to seriously consider the unthinkable," said sports journalist Lester Munson. "They will have to consider canceling football."
Munson, a former Sports Illustrated and ESPN college beat writer, puts the odds at 30 percent that Northwestern will cancel the season as scandals grow.
"Now we have other sports - indicating a department-wide problem - which puts it in a different category from these other scandals that are precedents for what's going on here," Munson said.
Meanwhile, what started as hazing allegations in football and baseball has expanded to volleyball.
In a separate suit filed Monday, a 2021 player claims she was physically harmed to the point of requiring medical attention – and she was retaliated against by the coach for reporting mistreatment.
Northwestern says the 2021 volleyball hazing allegation led to an investigation, the suspension of the team's coach and coaching staff, and the implementation by the university of mandatory anti-hazing training.
Lawyers for former Coach Fitzgerald say nowhere in these lawsuits is there any new evidence that their client knew any of this was going on.
We have reached out to the associate football coach named in the suit, and have not heard back.