Gopher football head coach P.J. Fleck calls toxic culture allegations "baseless"
MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck called recent allegations of a toxic culture in the program "baseless" Thursday.
Former Minnesota football players described coach Fleck's program as a "cult" to sports website Front Office Sports, alleging the program's culture is "fraught with intimidation and toxicity." The allegations include a system devised by Fleck called the "Fleck Bank," in which players could rack up goodwill to circumvent the repercussions of failed drug tests and other violations.
Fleck addressed the allegations Thursday at Big Ten football media days in Indianapolis, Indiana.
"First of all, the Fleck bank, mostly used in 2017 and 18 was an analogy in a team meeting. Talking about, the more you invest into a program, the better experience you're going to get out of it," Fleck said. "There was no currency ever exchanged. There was no coins that ever existed. It was an analogy simply to explain investment for life, a life lesson of investment, simply that. No one ever got out of any type of punishment for that."
Fleck says the university's athletics department is in charge of disciplinary-type actions and physical activity is not used to discipline players at the university.
"Our players do things like, they wake up early and clean the weight room. Whatever you did, you watch a video on that. If you were late to class, you watch a video on tardiness, you then write your professor a letter. Those are the disciplines we actually have within our program," he said.
Fleck says his energy needs to be on this year's team and not "baseless allegations." He added that the program has full support from university leadership, including the Director of Athletics Mark Coyle.
"This is a similar story that gets peddled every single year. And the majority of the players have been dismissed or removed from our football team," he said.
Fleck added that there are multiple avenues for players to reach out for help, and there have "been no claims on this issue."
In 2021, WCCO reported on former Gopher athletes who came forward with allegations of tough football practices that ended their careers.