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'Fire Nagy' Chant Broke Out During Bears Coach's Sons' HS Football Game

Nagy was watching his sons' high school football playoff game.

Dan Lyons

'Fire Nagy' Chant Broke Out During Bears Coach's Sons' HS Football Game
'Fire Nagy' Chant Broke Out During Bears Coach's Sons' HS Football Game /

Bears fans appear to be over the Matt Nagy era. Some took things way too far during his son's high school game Saturday.

Brayden and Tate Nagy are both listed on the roster at Lake Forest High School, which fell in the Illinois Class 6A state semifinals to Cary-Grove, 40–7.

It's fair to say that Nagy hasn't worked out very well in Chicago. After a promising 12–4 first season in 2018, the Bears slipped to 8–8 each of the last two years, and are just 3–7 in '21. The team is well outside of the playoff picture, four games back of Green Bay in the NFC North, and two behind a group of teams at 5–5 occupying the NFC's wild-card spots.

Chants at Bears games are one thing. Doing them as his sons play in a high school game is something else entirely. And yet, that is exactly what went down during Saturday's game, as caught on the NFHS Network's broadcast. The "Fire Nagy" chants are extremely clear in a clip that has made the rounds on Twitter over the last few days.

Most have been extremely critical of the chants, and rightfully so.

“No matter how much fans want a coach gone, chanting for a guy to get fired while at his son’s football game is never OK,” ESPN’s Ben Baby tweeted. “Unnecessary behavior toward Chicago’s Matt Nagy here.”

"Fire Nagy chants at his son’s football game? Is this how low we’ve gone?" WBBM Newsradio's Jay Zawaski asked. "The emboldenment of the worst people on earth is at hand. This is trash. From what we know Nagy is a good man. There’s a time and a place and this isn’t it."

Dr. Neil Lesinski, principal of Cary-Grove High School, released a statement saying the chant "was not acceptable nor appropriate and was immediately addressed by administration at the game." He apologized to Lake Forest for the incident.

This has turned into a trend around the greater Chicago sports world. The chant occurred during Sunday's Bears home loss to the Ravens, and again at Monday's Bulls game.

"I just understand in the end that we all care a lot, you know, and we're all in this thing," Nagy said during his Sunday press conference, when asked about "Fire Nagy" chants. "Of course we want to do everything we can to win, so it's our job to do that. I think that everyone is competitive and wants to see the Bears win and that's exactly what we want."

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Dan Lyons
DAN LYONS

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