Former NFL player Chris Kluwe loses job after protesting Southern California library's 'MAGA' plaque

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- Former NFL player Chris Kluwe was fired from his job as a high school football coach following his arrest at a Southern California city council meeting this month.

Kluwe, a former punter for the Minnesota Vikings and a Huntington Beach resident, was arrested after protesting a plaque the Huntington Beach City Council had approved to be placed at the public library.

The plaque, which commemorates the public library's 50th anniversary, includes the phrase "Magical Alluring Galvanizing Adventurous," an apparent nod to President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again slogan.

"We want to honor the library. We want there to be a plaque, but we don't want MAGA on it because the library isn't supposed to be political," Kluwe told our sister station, ABC7 Eyewitness News in Los Angeles.

Kluwe delivered an impassioned speech at the meeting during public comments, likening the MAGA movement to Nazism.

At the end of his speech, Kluwe said he would engage in what he described as "the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience."

Kluwe then walked up toward councilmembers and placed his hands behind his back, falling to the floor as multiple police officers arrested him. Police carried him out of the meeting.

Now, Kluwe says Edison High School has fired him from his job as a freshman football coach.

Kluwe told the Orange County Register that the school said there was too much attention on him, so they had to let him go.

Edison High has not commented on his firing.