At Northwestern, a widening gap between questions and answers fills with a purple haze

A scene from a 2022 game at Ryan Field in Evanston, where Northwestern played its last season under Pat Fitzgerald. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

There’s a purple haze, all in our brains.

It isn’t quite the kind Jimi Hendrix sang about over half a century ago, but this, too, is strange, discomfiting and nearly impossible to wrap one’s head around.