Chris Kluwe, the retired NFL punter, said he’s been fired as a football coach at Edison High School in Huntington Beach, Calif., the week after his anti-MAGA protest led to his arrest.
Kluwe called MAGA “a Nazi movement’ during the Huntington Beach City Council meeting on Feb. 18 before he was arrested. He said he was fired Thursday after being called in for a meeting with Edison’s athletic director, Rich Boyce and vice principal of supervision, Ed Begany.
“First thing Ed said was, ‘Hey, the school’s just getting too much attention and we’re going to have to let you go’ so essentially they fired me,” Kluwe, 43, told USA TODAY Sports. “They did give me the offer to resign, but I told them that they would have to fire me because I wanted this community to know that this is what MAGA does.
“They take away resources from the community to make themselves feel better. I don’t know where Edison’s going to find another former professional football player to coach freshman football.’
Kluwe, who played for the Minnesota Vikings 2005 to 2012, said he had been a paid member of the freshman football team’s coaching staff at Edison since 2018 or 2019.
NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.
Boyce, Edison’s athletic director, said it was a personnel matter and referred USA TODAY Sports’ questions to the Huntington Beach Union School District.
The school district did not immediately respond to USA TODAY Sports requests for comment left by voicemail or email.
The focus of Kluwe’s protest was been “Making America Great Again,’ President Trump’s longtime slogan that has come to represent his political movement. Kluwe was arrested during the city council meeting for what he called an act of civil obedience while objecting to a MAGA plaque for the public library.
Unlike the city council meeting, when Kluwe was detained by police and video of it went viral, the meeting between him and the two school officials Thursday was “cordial,’ according to Kluwe.
“I’m not going to scream and yell, but yeah, basically them saying that they had gotten messages of both against me as well as supporting me,’ Kluwe said. “Didn’t give me any reason (for being fired) other than the school was getting too much attention.’
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
