Coach who resigned for football team’s use of the word “Nazi” as play call speaks

By Drew Scofield, Catherine Ross

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    BROOKLYN, Ohio (WEWS) — The former head football coach at Brooklyn High School tells News 5 he had no ill intent when his team used the word “Nazi” as a play call in a conference match-up with Beachwood High School.

“It really bothered me when they said we have people and kids that are offended and upset by this. That’s why I apologized immediately to their coach,” said coach Tim McFarland.

Beachwood Bison players told their coaches they heard visiting Brooklyn Hurricanes players using “Nazi” as a play call during their home game Friday night. McFarland said the game’s officials made him aware the term was offensive to some of the opposing players, and he said he offered to issue individual apologies.

“If they wanted me to, I’d go right over to their bench and apologize to the whole team or any players that were upset. And if they didn’t want to do that, I’d come in at halftime to their locker room and apologize. They didn’t feel that was necessary,” McFarland said of his conversation with officials and Beachwood coaches.

Beachwood is home to a large Jewish population, and in recent years, has been the location of multiple alleged antisemitic incidents, according to the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland.

Many players, families and community leaders in Beachwood told News 5 they deemed the language offensive and unacceptable.

“It was just so negative and so uncalled for,” one parent said in an interview Tuesday.

McFarland changed the play call in the second half when play resumed Friday. He said he was shocked at the outrage from both communities that followed the game. On Monday, the Brooklyn City Schools Board of Education accepted his resignation.

Brooklyn Superintendent Dr. Ted Caleris told News 5 he had lengthy conversations with the coach over the weekend and after accepting McFarland’s resignation, he thought it was for the best.

“The school officials asked him to resign and implied that if he didn’t resign, he was going to be terminated,” Peter Pattakos, an attorney retained by McFarland, told News 5 Thursday.

The attorney is calling the situation that led to his resignation a sign of “political correctness run amok” and said the use of the word “Nazi” during a football game against a team in Beachwood was by “no means an anti-Semitic slur.”

“The notion that the use of this term in last Friday’s football game implies any anti-Semitism or intent to offend on the part of McFarland or any of the Brooklyn High players, coaches, or community is not only false but absurdly so,” Pattakos said in a statement issued Thursday.

McFarland and Pattakos said “Nazi” is a commonly-used play call. They said it is used to alert teammates of an oncoming blitz by the opposing defense, as the football term “blitz” is itself a reference to “blitzkrieg,” a war maneuver employed by Nazi Germany. And they pointed to its use in a 1990s handout from the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association.

“That lists ‘Nazi,’ number one on a list of blitz control calls. There’s ‘Nazi,’ ‘Bandit,’ ‘Renegade,’ ‘Loco,’ ‘Indian’ and ‘Mascot,’” Pattakos said, reading from the handout.

“While McFarland is mindful of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the holocaust leading up to World War II, the idea that someone would be offended by hearing the commonly used pass-protection call ‘Nazi’ at an American football game had not occurred to him until his counterparts on the Beachwood sideline brought the issue to his attention in the second quarter of last Friday’s game,” Pattakos said in the statement. “At that point, McFarland immediately instructed his team to stop using the term and told the Beachwood coaches that he would personally apologize to any players who were offended. The Beachwood coaches told him that an apology would not be necessary, and the game then continued to completion.”

Beachwood Superintendent Dr. Robert Hardis said the term was not used during the second half, but late in the game, the home team reported several Brooklyn players using a racial slur throughout the night.

McFarland said he was not aware of any racial slurs used by his players.

“If we have a player that would be acting inappropriately, we would pull him out of the game,” McFarland said.

Beachwood leaders have called for accountability. The Brooklyn Superintendent said the district is working with the Anti-Defamation League of Ohio to “learn and grow” from the incident.

McFarland said he did not want the controversy to define the team, school or his career.

“I coach football to help young men transition into manhood and help them grow. Not to insult people and make fun of people,” he said.

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