Cleveland High School Football Coach Resigns After Players Yell ‘Nazi’ During Game Against Team from Majority Jewish Area

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Warner Todd Huston

A football coach for Cleveland, Ohio’s Brooklyn High School football resigned Monday after being called on the carpet for allowing his players to taunt opponents with the name “Nazi.”

Coach Tim McFarland resigned after his players reportedly taunted members of the Beachwood High School team during their game on Sept. 22, according to Cleveland.com.

McFarland also admitted that he named one of his plays “Nazi” as well.

Beachwood Superintendent Robert Hardis sent a letter to students and parents and denounced the “Nazi” taunt after his school’s game with the rival school. Cleveland’s city of Beachwood is nearly 90 percent Jewish.

“Antisemitic and racist speech are unacceptable in any setting,” Hardis said in his statement. “They are counter to the norms and expectations we teach our students.”

Adding insult to injury, the game occurred on the tail of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and only two days before Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement and Judaism’s holiest day of the year.

McFarland, who had been chosen as a program honoree at the annual Ohio High School Football Coaches Association Clinic in February, apologized for his actions, and Theodore Caleris, superintendent of Brooklyn City Schools, sent out a letter to students and parents saying that the resignation is effective immediately.

“As stated, this hurtful and harmful speech will not be tolerated, in any form, by Brooklyn City Schools leadership,” Caleris said in his statement. “While to the district’s knowledge the language was not directed to any single individual, the Brooklyn City Schools acknowledges that using such offensive language in the first place was utterly and absolutely wrong.”

Members of the Beachwood city council also slammed Brooklyn High over the incident.

“There is no place for this sort of behavior, and we invite Brooklyn’s city leaders to join us in condemning it,” Beachwood Mayor Justin Berns and the city council said in a statement. “Brooklyn’s behavior violates the norms and expectations of conduct that should be taught to every student.”

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