Cary-Grove Principal Condemns 'Fire Nagy' Chants At Playoff Game

CARY, IL — Three days after students from Cary-Grove High School directed a chant about Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy’s job status at the coach’s son during the school’s state semifinal game against Lake Forest, Cary-Grove’s principal has condemned the students' actions.

Two of Nagy’s sons, Brayden and Tate Nagy, are listed as members of Lake Forest’s varsity football team, which lost Saturday’s game to the Trojans, who advanced to this weekend’s 6A state championship game with a 40-7 victory. In the fourth quarter, Cary-Grove students starting chanting “Fire Nagy”, which was also chanted Sunday at the end of the Bears’ 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

On Tuesday, Cary-Grove principal Neil Lesinski issued a statement that said members of the school’s student section began a chant “targeting the parent of one of the Lake Forest team members and his family."

“I want to assure the community that the chant was not acceptable nor appropriate and was immediately addressed by administration at the game,” Lesinski said. “We also felt it was important to meet with our student superfans that lead our chants and cheers to talk about what happened and give them an opportunity to reflect on and correct their actions.”

In the statement, Lesinski offered an apology to the player —whom he did not name — and his family for the “disrespectful chant.”

Nagy told reporters in Lake Forest that he understands that comments about his job status go with the territory. He said on Tuesday that he did not hear the chants and was instead focused on watching his son play football.

“You have to understand where people are coming from and how they react or how they don’t react,” Nagy said. “I was there to watch my son play football. I was there to be a dad. It was a pretty cool time.”

Nagy said that after the game he was stopped by Cary-Grove youth football players who asked for autographs and photos. All the young players said “please” and “thank you” at a level that isn’t always shown, he added.

“The one [thing] they can be proud of is that they’ve got young kids right now that have respect,” Nagy said.

Nagy said he hears a lot of chants at high school events and said, “that’s sports right now”.

Cary-Grove’s principal said the district is trying to teach students to be respectful.

“It is our number one goal to instill in our students a sense of pride in their school and sports teams, and we work hard to teach them to demonstrate that pride in a positive, encouraging and supportive way," Lesinski said. "We hope to learn from this situation, and we have taken steps to ensure it does not happen again.”