Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe says he has been fired from his job as a high school football coach after his protest at a city council meeting in California.
Kluwe was arrested at the Huntington Beach city council meeting last week, at which he spoke out against the decision to erect a plaque at a local library. The plaque features the words “Magical, Alluring, Galvanizing and Adventurous” and the city commission confirmed it was a reference to Maga. The former Minnesota Vikings player then made critical comments about the Trump administration before saying he would “engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience” and walked on to the meeting’s stage. He was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for disrupting an assembly.
On Thursday Kluwe said he had been fired from his job as a football coach at Edison High School in Huntington Beach.
“I knew it was a possible consequence,” Kluwe told the Guardian via email. “I think it just goes to show what Maga actually stands for – they don’t want to build anything, they just want to tear people and institutions down to make themselves feel better, regardless of what it costs the community. I sincerely doubt Edison is going to find another ex-NFL player to coach freshman football.” He said he was not given a reason for his dismissal but was told he had brought a lot of attention to the school.
At the council meeting, Kluwe was highly critical of the Donald Trump’s Maga movement.
“Maga is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, Maga is explicitly a Nazi movement,” he said. “You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that’s what it is.”
All seven members of the Huntington Beach city council are conservatives and one member, Gracey Van Der Mark, said there was “nothing peaceful” about Kluwe’s protest. She said he was guilty of “causing alarm among those in attendance, including two young students”.
Last week, Kluwe told the Guardian he has a court date in April over his arrest. “We’ll see what happens. There’s a possibility the ACLU might get involved. Some people have been telling me they’re looking to challenge this because they think it might not be legal.”
Kluwe was outspoken on social issues during his NFL career, which lasted from 2005 to 2013, and he claimed he was eventually released by the Vikings because of his beliefs and his support for same-sex marriage.
Huntington Beach High School District has been approached for comment.
