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WATCH: Pat Fitzgerald’s comments on NCAA football attendance, reliance on phones has gone viral

Michael Wayne Bratton

By Michael Wayne Bratton

Published:

One issue not only college football but all sports are dealing with in today’s age is declining attendance. It’s a complex issue with several factors coming into play but when asked to share his thoughts on it during his appearance at Big Ten Media Days, Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald offered up a take that’s now gone viral.

It’s Fitzgerald’s belief that a huge part of the problem is technology and young fan’s reliance on their cell phones. The Northwestern coach went so far as to suggest cell phones are ruining today’s society, at least in some regard.

“I think phones I think technology has been the decline in attendance number one,” Fitzgerald says in the video below. “I think you know watching young people today live like this instead of like that, you know, Stacy and I were on a date last night and there was two couples, two groups of couples sitting next to us and I’m like, oh my gosh I’m old, like, not one of the four couples were talking to each other, they were all on their phones.

“And it just drove me up to I literally wanted to be like a dad and go like, Give me your phone, talk to each other. I mean this is pathetic. So it was really really pathetic. And I think that’s just, it’s just changed the way a lot of younger people and younger fans intake is all through technology. And I mean you watch a concert and everybody’s holding their phone up, like, Listen, watch, take it in, create a memory because they don’t go back and watch the videos. They just want to post it on your social media, which is pathetic because it creates a society of. Look at me.”

Check out the full clip below, which has well over a million views, courtesy of Rick Tarsitano of WGN TV News:

Michael Wayne Bratton

A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com

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