Ex-NFL punter Chris Kluwe says he was fired as a high school coach over MAGA plaque protest

Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe has said that he was fired from his job as a high school football coach following his protest at a local council meeting in California.

Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe said that he was fired from his job as a high school football coach following his protest at a local council meeting in California. Last week, Kluwe spoke out against a nod to the MAGA slogan popularized by President Donald Trump being featured on a commemorative plaque outside Huntington Beach Central Library. After the speech, which was widely shared on social media, Kluwe engaged in what he called the “time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience” – approaching the council members sitting in front of him before being restrained by police. “Just got fired from being a freshman football coach, if you want to know what MAGA does to communities,” Kluwe, who spent most of his NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings, said on social media platform Bluesky on Thursday. “They don’t care about what helps people, because the school is certainly not going to find an ex-NFL player willing to coach there at that level, they only care about trying to hurt people.” Kluwe told CNN that the school had fired him because it was “getting too much attention,” adding: “I’m sad that I won’t be able to work with the kids anymore, because they always were excited once they figured out I had played in the NFL.”