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Sadly, antisemitism in the sporting community is nothing new.
(Looking at you, Kyrie Irving and DeSean Jackson)
But a high school football coach in Ohio reached a whole new level of audacity over the weekend.
Tim McFarland of Brooklyn High School, a program in a Cleveland suburb, resigned Tuesday after after his team repeatedly used a slur and the word “Nazi” against a team from a Jewish community.
McFarland’s team played at nearby Beachwood High School, a school with a 90% Jewish population as of 2011 according to the Associated Press.
Beachwood superintendent Robert Hardis says that McFarland admitted to using the word “Nazi” to call plays and vowed to stop using in the second half. Hardis says the play calls changed, but that Brooklyn players repeatedly used a racial slur in the second half. He did not clarify what slur was used.
“We informed the officials that if should this continue, we would pull our players from the field,” Hardis’ told the New York Times. “To our knowledge, ‘Nazi’ was not used during the second half. Late in the game, it was also reported by our team that several Brooklyn players used a racial slur freely throughout the night.”
Superintendent Offers Apology For High School Football Coach’s ‘Nazi’ Play Call
“Our football coaching staff expressed their regret to the Beachwood football family immediately during the contest, and took corrective measures in the second half, in finishing the contest,” Brooklyn City Schools superintendent Ted Caleri said Tuesday night per Cleveland19. “While to the knowledge of the Brooklyn City Schools, this language was not directed to any single individual, the choice in using it at all, was utterly and absolutely wrong.”
Why exactly it matters that it was not directed at any individual we do not know. But Caleris seems to believe that’s important.
Brooklyn won the game 35-3. But the team moved to just 2-4 on the year after the victory.