Ohio high school coach resigns after team's 'Nazi' playcall
Ohio high school coach resigns after team's 'Nazi' playcall
Brooklyn High School coach Tim McFarland resigned Monday after his players repeatedly used the word "Nazi" as a playcall in a game against Beachwood High School.
BROOKLYN, Ohio -- An Ohio high school football coach resigned Monday after his team used racist and antisemitic language to call out plays during a game last week.
Brooklyn High School coach Tim McFarland and his players repeatedly used the word "Nazi" as a playcall in a game against Beachwood High School. Beachwood, a Cleveland suburb, is roughly 90% Jewish, according to the latest survey, published in 2011, by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
The Brooklyn team stopped using the term in the second half of the game after Beachwood threatened to pull its players from the field, according to a statement from Beachwood Schools Superintendent Robert Hardis. However, several Brooklyn players continued to direct racial slurs at Beachwood players during the game, the statement read.
McFarland handed in his notice of resignation Monday morning. Brooklyn Schools Superintendent Ted Caleris said in a statement that McFarland "expresses his deepest regret" and that he and the school apologize for "hurtful and harmful speech" that will "not be tolerated."
Caleris also stated that Brooklyn High School has been contacted by the Anti-Defamation League of Ohio and hopes to use the organization as a resource going forward from the incident.
Hardis confirmed in a statement that the two school districts are in close contact and that Brooklyn has been "appropriately concerned and apologetic."
"This is not the first time Beachwood student-athletes have been subjected to antisemitic and racist speech," Hardis also said. "We always hope it will be the last."
The statements did not mention disciplinary action toward the players involved.
Antisemitism in the United States has risen significantly in recent years, with no signs of declining, according to a study by Tel Aviv University's Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League. From 2021 to 2022, the number of antisemitic incidents rose by 35%.
This sounds like a bunch of kids that thought it would be cool to yell things they shouldn't and a coach that let them do it, more so than a team that's actually super racist.
-106Your description sounds to me like a team that's actually super racist, but I disagree with you.
They used "Nazi" as a playcall against a team consisting primarily of Jewish kids. That means that, even if it was a student's idea, the coaches knew about it beforehand, approved the idea, and shared the call with all of the players. And that's the most generous possible assumption. Every player on the field in the play needs to know what the playcall means. It's not just something people shout out in the middle of a game. More likely it came from the coaches, but you're right that we don't know that for sure.
Either way, the adults should have known better.
88"They were just pretending to be racist and antisemitic"
Yeah, that makes it better...
72It's not about pretending to be racist. It's about understanding that high school kids don't understand racism beyond a surface level. Yelling bad thing gets them angry, is probably as far as most the team understood it. Writing off the team as just racist ass holes is just going to push them that way.
-40
The "don't be so sensitive, it's only a joke" thing is how a lot of people start off as racists. When you minimize those things the step to full blown KKK is an easier one.
50If it happened once, you'd be right. Sometimes kids have the wrong idea of what is appropriate, and when they err it's important to set them straight immediately.
But doing that for most of the half? Yeah, that coach knew it. And we shouldn't let the fact that they're kids let any of them "it's just a joke, bro" out of it.
21It seems like setting the kids straight is what's happening. The Beachwood administration is happy with the response so far from the Brooklyn school. The adult that should have stopped or prevented it is gone, hopefully assistants are too.
-10
I think you may be right if the kids were younger.
My father was in the RAF in WWII. He was literally bombed by the Germans.
We moved to the States when I was six and I started school here in 1969. In second or third grade some friends and I learned how to draw swastikas. We sorta maybe knew they were the emblem of the German military, but beyond that we were ignorant. I got out my crayons and drew them in many colors all over my school notebook.
I took that notebook home to show my parents this cool thing I had learned. Neither of them said a thing, but my mother bought me a brand new notebook.
I look back on that with so much shame. Even without knowing the depth of meaning to that symbol, I had not put together that this was the symbol of a military that had done its best to kill my father, his family, and had succeeded in killing thousands and thousands of his countrymen.
Now, knowing full-well what that symbol means, the shame is deeper.
All that said, I was eight or nine so my ignorance might be excusable. I'm unsure that it is for high schoolers.
16Racism is an action word. If you do a racism, you're a racist.
10I find it hard to believe every player was ok with it. How many kids do you think were told "No, no, no, we are calling Not Z. Using Nazi would be wrong."
I still think they should end the season for the whole team as a way to say this crap is inconceivable.
10Those are the same thing.
10You sound like a racist yourself.
3