BROOKLYN, Ohio — An Ohio high school football coach resigned Monday after his team used racist and anti-Semitic language to call a play during a game last week.
Brooklyn High School coach Tim McFarland and his players repeatedly used the word “Nazi” as a play call in a game against Beachwood High School. Beachwood, a suburb of Cleveland, is about 90% Jewish, according to the most recent 2011 survey published by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
The Brooklyn team stopped using that 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 said.
McFarland handed in his resignation notice Monday morning. Brooklyn Schools Superintendent Ted Caliris said in a statement that McFarland “deeply regrets” and that he and the school apologize for the “hurtful and damaging rhetoric” that “will not be tolerated.”
Caliris 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 moving forward after the incident.
Hardis confirmed in a statement that the two school districts have been in close contact and that Brooklyn was “appropriately concerned and apologetic.”
Hardis also said, “This is not the first time Beachwood student-athletes have been subjected to anti-Semitic and racist rhetoric.” “We always hope it’s the last.”
The statements did not mention disciplinary measures towards the players involved.
Anti-Semitism in the United States has risen significantly in recent years, with no signs of abating, according to a study by Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jews and the US-based Anti-Defamation League. From 2021 to 2022, the number of anti-Semitic incidents increased by 35%.
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