CLEVELAND, Ohio — An attorney for the former Brooklyn High School football coach resigned after using the word “Nazi” to call out plays during a game against Beachwood is arguing that the term is not anti-semitic and that it’s used widely on high school fields to signal plays.

We’re talking about the ridiculousness of the argument, as well as the antics in U.S. Congress, on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

Here’s what we’re asking about today:

Is an attorney for the football coach who lost his job after using the word Nazi as part of his play calling really trying to justify the use of the word in high school football games? What is his logic on why no one should have taken offense to it?

Max Miller is turning out to be an interesting Congressman from Northeast Ohio. While some Republicans are doing everything they can to shut down the government, he has a proposal that includes some genuine accountability. What is it?

How much of a role did Jim Jordan play in the politically motivated, evidence-lacking move to impeach President Joe Biden that got under way Thursday, even as Jordan and his colleagues were refusing to act to avert the government shutdown?

How would the candidates seeking to be Ohio’s U.S. senator handle the shutdown if they were in Washington? Would they work to avert it? Or would they put politics ahead of the people they are elected to serve?

The Cleveland Clinic is on a big building spree in Cleveland once again. What is planned?

Here’s a different kind of Lake Erie story. Cleveland is hosting governors from Great Lakes states and officials from Canada next month. What is that about?

I saw the bogus news reports and rumors start flying earlier this week, followed by emails from people asking why were are covering it up. On Thursday, Cleveland Police had to debunk this nonsense for the second time this summer. What are we talking about?

We announced last week a partnership with Kindland, the group trying to spread kindness far and wife, and our part is to publish stories about acts of kindness. Tuesday saw our first. What was the act of kindness?.

It will be in New York, but you can stream live for the first time, on Disney Plus. So, who is going to perform at the Rock Hall induction ceremony on Nov. 3?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

Chris (00:00.925)

We don’t usually start with a story about high school football, but this one is a talker. It’s today in Ohio. It’s the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plane dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Laura Johnston, Leila Tasi and Lisa Garvin. And Leila is an attorney for the football coach who lost his job after using the word Nazi as part of his play calling, really trying to justify the use of the word in high school football games.

Leila (00:16.415)

Well, Peter Patakis is representing former Brooklyn High School football coach Tim McFarland in his case against the school district for being wrongfully forced to resign. And Patakis is arguing that

Chris (00:29.157)

What is his logic on why no one should have taken offense to it?

Leila (00:44.931)

Nazi is not an offensive term in the context of football. He said it’s commonly used in calling plays and that in fact he remembers using it when he played football for Revere High School in the 1990s. He said McFarland is mindful of the atrocities that the Nazis committed during the Holocaust, but that it didn’t occur to him at all that someone would be offended by hearing

the Brooklyn offensive lineman using the term Nazi during the game to signal a blitz until his counterparts on the Beachwood sideline brought it to his attention in the second quarter of last Friday’s game. He, Patakis likened it to Peyton Manning’s famous Omaha call. In the context of football, he said the term Nazi is by no means an anti-Semitic slur. Beachwood officials are clearly upset by this defense of this term.

Their superintendent said Patakis on behalf of McFarland had succeeded in taking a terrible situation and making it worse. And the school official said the argument Patakis is making demonstrates further ignorance and recklessness and just a total lack of accountability.

Chris (01:44.007)

Yeah.

Chris (01:52.709)

Look, this is ridiculous. One, we cover high school football and I checked with the people that are in charge of that. And they’re astounded because if we had heard one time somebody saying Nazi at a high school football game, it would have been news. So if it happened in the 90s, okay, we worked, I wasn’t around back in the 90s, but there’s no way you can argue that’s not offensive. I’m stunned that he put this statement out.

This thing was kind of sliding away. The news had died down. It was going away. I think the beachwood quote was right on the money. He took a terrible situation and he just made it a lot worse. He’s saying it’s okay. I, it boggled my mind when this story came out.

Leila (02:40.132)

Oh really?

Chris (03:08.914)

Well…

Leila (03:09.195)

To be honest, every single time I’ve ever heard someone use the word Nazi in one of those contexts, it has always made me cringe. I’ve always felt uncomfortable with that and I have always tried never to use it because unless it’s used in the historic context, that’s what it is. That’s what a Nazi is. So

Chris (03:30.633)

Okay, but you’re dealing with children, right? You are an adult leader of children. You would think, hey, let’s not use that word. That has big connotations. Let’s just not do it. And let’s not be yelling it out on a football field in a city that’s predominantly Jewish. I mean, this seems, right, right. I mean, this seems like the no-brainer of no-brainers that at some point along the way, somebody would have said,

Leila (03:40.612)

Yes.

Leila (03:55.201)

It is.

Chris (03:58.181)

You know, guys, there’s a million words we can use for blitzes to compare it to Omaha. Omaha does not have the connotation of six million people being slaughtered. I mean, that. Yeah. Where we where we stopped them, I mean, it’s to make that comparison. It’s like, what are you talking about? This was one of the most inflammatory statements the lawyers put out. And it’s just I it’s just no reality there.

Leila (04:07.279)

Right, right.

Chris (04:25.869)

If Nazi would have been used in high school football games, we’d know about it. We blanket this area every fall with reporters who are covering high school football games, and this just isn’t the way it’s done. So, you know, they’re saying, oh, the coach is a good guy. It’s really upset the kids. Okay, fine. But he should have known better. Any adult working with children should have known better. And Patakos is off his rocker. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

Max Miller is turning out to be an interesting congressman from Northeast Ohio. While some Republicans are doing everything they can to shut down the government in their antics of getting attention from themselves, he has a proposal that includes some genuine accountability. Laura, what is it?

Chris (05:32.189)

I love the idea. I love and I love that he’s taking a stand against his colleagues saying our job is to run the country. Our job is to operate government. We’re not doing it so we shouldn’t get paid and we shouldn’t be able to use campaign money. He’s right. I mean that their job is to keep it running not to stop it and I just we all wondered what he’d be like. He came out of the Trump White House and so far

He’s been doing good stuff. I mean, he could be a very good surprise leader for Northeast Ohio.

Chris (06:38.913)

Yeah, it was a, this was a refreshing surprise. We put it on the front page of the plane dealer because it was one of our local leaders doing something good and interesting and accountable. So good for him. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Now let’s go to the other side of the coin. How much of a role did Jim Jordan play in the politically motivated evidence, lacking move to impeach president Joe Biden that got underway Thursday, even as Jordan and his colleagues were refusing to act to avert the government shutdown. Lisa, what is his role?

Chris (08:36.361)

That’s just not true though. I mean, there is no truth to that statement. I was thinking this morning, all you need is three panelists and a big gong and Congress becomes the gong show. You know, there was a great show in the seventies, Chuck Barus, who made some of the worst TV in history, the newlywed game and things, decided to parody it and created this thing called the gong show where terrible performers came on, sang terribly. And if they were terrible, the panelists would gong them and shut them down. So, you know.

We could do that. Max Miller gets up, stands up. The panelists would give him nines, 9.5s. Jim Jordan, Matt gets up, they gong him. Out comes Gene Gene, the dancing machine, the confetti. And we all have a good time. That’s what it’s become. It’s just unbelievable to me how silly this is. They have made themselves a laughing stock. I don’t get why Dave Joyce and the other moderates in Congress don’t grab the reins right now.

On the Democrat and Republican side, they could take over, elect a reasonable speaker, could be Dave Joyce for Christ sakes, and move the country forward. Because the country does not agree with the fringe of either party, and they’ve got a chance to do it. I don’t know why they wouldn’t. Look at what happened with issue one. Dave Joyce’s district voted against issue one in large numbers. They want reasonable government. Why don’t the reasonable people take it over and get rid of the Gong Show contestants?

Chris (10:38.885)

Right. I mean, that’s what’s so astounding. They’re playing around with this idiotic impeachment thing as some sort of false equivalency with the criminality of Donald Trump instead of doing their jobs, and that’s made it a circus. Why? There are more reasonable people in Congress than unreasonable people. All we hear from are the Jim Jordans and the MacGuetses. This is a chance for the Dave Joyce’s to take over. I should say, for people who are younger who are listening to this and have never heard of the Gong Show,

Go to YouTube, look up Jean Jean, the dancing machine. There’s video on there with like 1.4 million views. It’s great, it’s hilarious. It was, this was such a fun show. It just made fun of all the conventions of daytime television. And Chuck Barrett was a genius. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Let’s keep on with the shutdown. Layla, how would the candidates seeking to be Ohio’s US Senator handle the shutdown if they were in Washington?

Would they work to avert it? Or would they put politics ahead of the people as their colleagues are?

Leila (11:42.975)

What do you think, Chris? Yeah, I mean, Andrew Tobias did a great job rounding up for us the views on this of Ohio’s three major GOP US Senate candidates, Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno, state Senator Matt Dolan, and Secretary of State Frank Lerose, and also thoughts of the long-time Democratic US Senator Sherrod Brown. Andrew points out that Dolan, as the chair of the Ohio Senate’s Finance Committee, has the most relevant experience in the situation.

He helped negotiate and pass the last three state budget bills, including a two-year, $190 billion budget over the summer. While that may seem a little like small potatoes compared to what’s going on in Washington, those budget negotiations do stall at times. In 2019, lawmakers had to pass a 17-day stopgap funding measure to buy more time. That said, he’s mostly squabbling with fellow Republicans and state government here in Ohio, so it is a different animal.

Dolan told Andrew in an email that voters he talks to want the federal government to end pandemic era levels of spending and take steps to reduce inflation, secure the southern border and reduce the national debt. But Andrew’s still waiting for an answer from Dolan’s campaign as to whether he would support the stopgap measure passed this week in the Senate. LaRose made some comments on a Steve Bannon podcast this week in which he said he opposes the Senate’s temporary funding measure.

without clarifying his specific reasoning. Although he said he might support a temporary funding measure that keeps the government running for a couple of days to give negotiations time to continue. He said he feels like shutdowns always end up making Republicans look bad. And Bernie Marino, who has never held elected office and is the Trumpiest of them all, wrote on the platform formerly known as Twitter that Congress…

shouldn’t agree to fund the government without resolving the invasion at our southern border. He said now isn’t the time to cave to lefties and fund the war in Ukraine. Now is the time to finish Trump’s wall. Then there’s Sherrod Brown who said in a call with reporters this week that a shutdown would harm federal government workers who live in Ohio and work at places like NASA Glenn in Cleveland or the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton.

Leila (13:59.683)

He said, this is really just a bunch of politicians trying to score political points when they’re hurting our state.

Chris (14:05.293)

Finally, somebody who’s reasonable. I gotta say, you know, I’ve been asking a lot of questions on subtext of late, and I’m amazed at how much support there is for Sherrod Brown. Widespread, right and left, people think he’s a good guy doing good work. I think these other guys are gonna have a very hard time dethroning him. I mean, you know, I asked about legalized marijuana yesterday and got a very mixed bag. Probably more in favor than not, but it was close, but overwhelming support for Sherrod Brown.

Leila (14:07.216)

Yes!

Chris (14:34.501)

These guys that are running and say they would shut the government down. It’s exactly what we talked about Max Mart. That’s not your job. Your job is to keep the government running, not to shut down the government. It’s just obscene that that’s what they’re saying on the front end. I mean, we talk about Frank LaRose. Frank LaRose doesn’t make decisions. He takes marching orders from Donald Trump. So it’s basically putting in a Donald Trump automaton in Congress. If you elect him or Bernie, Bernie’s the same way. They’ve just sycophants.

Leila (14:41.979)

hehe right

Chris (15:02.909)

to the criminal former president.

Leila (15:05.051)

Man, it’s really, his comments about the border wall, I mean, that just struck me as so out of touch, even with Trump supporters. It’s like he just reached into a bag full of stupid ideas from Trump’s playbook and pulled out border wall. I mean, even the most diehard Trumpster probably realizes that the border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for was a colossal failure and one of Trump’s more embarrassing campaign promises, right? Why would you take us back to that? Why would you even bring it up now?

Chris (15:09.317)

Yeah.

Chris (15:33.061)

Well, and what do you want in a senator? Do you want somebody who’s just going to take marching orders for someone, or do you want somebody who’s going to use his head and make decisions based on the facts before them? That’s the job, is to be smart and be thoughtful, not to just say, yes, sir, and do whatever the former president tells you. That’s what you get with those two guys. So.

Hopefully they’re not going to be the next senator. We want thoughtful people like a Dave Joyce or a Max Miller is appearing to be. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cleveland Clinic is on another big building spree in the city. What is planned, Laura?

Chris (17:13.105)

Yeah, cause that is not that campus, right? That campus is just mirror buildings with above ground passageways. So nobody ever has to walk in the street to do something that is more welcoming to public participation of you. Big I’ll wait to see if Steve lit weighs in on what he thinks of this. He’s been banging the gong himself, trying to get people at the clinic to start thinking about it as a neighborhood.

Chris (18:00.849)

That section of the campus is becoming, it seems like more user friendly. You got the grocery store that’ll be opening there and the not distant future, it’s taking forever to build it. But with Opportunity Corridor to feed it and to make that a more walkable area, it’d be a pretty big deal. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Here’s a different kind of Lake Erie story. Cleveland is hosting governors from the Great Lakes States and officials from Canada next month. Lisa, what is that about?

Chris (19:53.829)

I wonder what they’ll have to say. Yesterday, the US EPA approved that lame Ohio proposal on the algal blooms. It’s not going to work. All the experts have pointed it out. It got approved anyway. So there’ll be some shaming there. I suspect. What I would like to see is a whole bunch of Democrats show up outside wherever they’re meeting with signs imploring Gretchen Whitmer to challenge Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. Wouldn’t that be great? Okay. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

I saw the bogus news reports and rumors start flying earlier this week, then came the emails from people asking why we were covering it up. On Thursday, Cleveland police had a debunk this nonsense for the second time this summer, nonsense generated by television reports, I should add. Lavell, what are we talking about?

Leila (20:42.169)

We’re talking about false stories that the city is dealing with a ton of unsolved missing children cases. A recent post on Fox News’ website said that more than a thousand kids were reported missing in Cleveland this year, including 50 who, quote, seemingly disappeared. The story was widely shared on social media, but Cleveland police say not only is this completely untrue.

But it’s hazardous to public safety to keep circulating this false report. The truth is that as of Wednesday, the city has 132 missing persons cases, 65 youths and 67 adults. Of the missing kids, 14 are considered endangered. So it’s a far cry from over a thousand. And the attorney general’s website says at least 45 youths have been reported missing from the Cleveland-Acrin area.

Cleveland police said 49 of the 65 missing youths are either habitual runaways or not endangered. Two of the kids are about to be taken out of the reporting system, though they did not explain why that was. This is the second time this year, as you said, that Cleveland police addressed misleading information online surrounding missing children. In mid-June, Cleveland police investigated 1,072 cases of missing kids, and it turned out that at least 1,020 had returned home.

and the department says they have a 94% solve rate this year on missing person cases.

Chris (22:06.209)

Yeah, what’s ridiculous about this is the way it’s reported. I think one of the reports somebody sent to me, you know, accusing us of hiding it was from the New York Post. And it has all this brooding language and making it sound like kids are just being snatched away by people that take advantage of them with no real basis. In fact, and yet it’s out there. And people look to the New York Post like it’s a credible news agency, which it’s not. But but because it’s got the history it has.

People sometimes use it as credible. And it’s just ridiculous. It’s one of the most irresponsible examples of bad reporting I’ve seen. And it’s been done by, you know, seemingly responsible TV stations. And it’s shameful, because it’s just not true. And people believe it in large numbers, so much so they accuse us of hiding it for reasons I would never understand. And it’s sad that Cleveland police, who are busy with real things,

Leila (22:53.785)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (23:03.429)

have to drop everything to assure the public this is complete hokum.

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We announced last week a partnership with Kindln, the group trying to spread kindness far and wide. And our part is to publish stories about acts of kindness. Laura this week saw our first, What Was the Act of Kindness?

Chris (24:17.365)

The Kindland Initiative had its big get together last Friday. David Knight, our CRO, was, I think, the final speaker announcing the partnership. Dave Yost was a keynote speaker. This was a powerhouse of significant leaders all getting together to advocate for all of us to show more kindness. How did it go?

Chris (25:29.266)

Yeah, well.

Chris (25:35.237)

And there was a study that showed if you read a bunch of bad news, but then you read a story that brings a smile to your face, you’re healthier. So we’re trying to, we’re trying to, you know, lessen the impact of all the horrible news about people like Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. It will be in New York, but you can stream it live for the first time on Disney+. So Lisa, who is going to perform at the Rock Hall Induction Ceremony on November 3rd?

Chris (27:08.741)

I respected what HBO did with it because the ceremony itself is abusively over long. There is so much flab in it. It goes on and on and on. And what HBO did was they reduced it to give you all of the moments you care about without a lot of the nonsense. My bet is this will be a second screen kind of thing for people. They’ll have it on, but they’ll be multitasking. So they have something interesting to do during the flab of it.

But it is something to be able to see these newsworthy moments and entertainment in real time, which is why Disney Plus, I think, outbid HBO to get it. The next time, I think, it’ll be here, right? The next one will be in

Chris (28:06.989)

I think it’s going to be here every other year. It’s just, when does it come back? Because the expansion will have something to do with that. If the expansion is still heavily under construction, then I doubt it would be here. Uh, I can’t remember. I thought we reported it, but I don’t remember. Anyway, for this year, people can watch it if they subscribe to Disney plus. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. That’s it for the week of news. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Layla. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks to everybody who listens to Today in Ohio. We’ll be back on Monday.