Ex-NFL punter Chris Kluwe arrested over protest at Huntington Beach City Council meeting

Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was arrested over a protest at a city council meeting in Huntington Beach, California on Tuesday.

Kluwe was protesting Huntington Beach's decision to display a plaque at its public library that uses the words, “Magical,” “Alluring,” “Galvanizing,” and “Adventurous” next to each other to spell out MAGA. All seven members of Huntington Beach's City Council are Republicans.

Video from the city council meeting shows Kluwe criticizing the MAGA movement during the public discussion portion of the meeting, calling it "a Nazi movement" and then saying he would engage in civil disobedience. After Kluwe went to the front of the meeting where the city council sits, police handcuffed him and carried him out.

Kluwe was arrested on a charge of disrupting an assembly. He told the Orange County Register afterward that he was released after about four hours in custody.

The 43-year-old Kluwe was in the NFL from 2005 to 2013, playing mostly with the Vikings but having short stints with the Seahawks and Raiders as well. He said at the end of his career that his political beliefs, including his support of same-sex marriage and criticism of homophobia in football, had made it unlikely that any team would sign him.