College football coach suspended after calling Hitler a ‘great leader’

A coach for a NCAA Division II football team has been suspended after praising Adolf Hitler’s leadership abilities during an interview.

Morris Berger, hired last week as the offensive coordinator at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., was asked by the school newspaper which three historical figures he’d like to join for dinner.

Berger predicted his answer was not going to go over well, and he was correct about that.

“This is probably not going to get a good review, but I’m going to say Adolf Hitler,” Berger told the Grand Valley Lanthorn in an interview published Jan. 23. “It was obviously very sad and he had bad motives, but the way he was able to lead was second-to-none. How he rallied a group and a following, I want to know how he did that. Bad intentions of course, but you can’t deny he wasn’t a great leader.”

The school released a statement on the matter Monday morning:

“The comments made by Offensive Coordinator Morris Berger, as reported in The Lanthorn student newspaper, do not reflect the values of Grand Valley State University. Berger has been suspended and the university is conducting a thorough investigation.”

Berger served as tight ends coach at Texas State last year and was on Oklahoma State’s coaching staff the prior two years. The other two historical figures he chose as his hypothetical dining companions were John F. Kennedy and Christopher Columbus.