(ThyBlackMan.com) During the 2020 NFL Draft, football fans can be prepared to see plenty of talent from several big name college football programs. Schools like Alabama, LSU, and Clemson will have multiple players selected throughout the NFL Draft, which speaks to the strength of their college football programs. Clemson is undoubtedly one of the top two college football programs in the country and have performed as such in recent seasons. They have been led into this stretch of excellent seasons by their head coach Dabo Swinney. Swinney’s ability to find the right talent and his energy are some of the things that have made him one of the best coaches in college football today. Unfortunately, he also has said a number of absurd statements over the years that display his ignorance in a number of subjects that don’t involve winning football games. Here is a list of notable Dabo Swinney quotes in chronological order that are head shaking in a bad way:
–September 2016-“I think the answer to our problems is exactly what they were for Martin Luther King when he changed the world. Love, peace, education, tolerance of others, Jesus. A lot of these things in this world were only a dream for Martin Luther King. Not a one-term, but a two-term African-American president. And this is a terrible country? There are interracial marriages. I go to a church that’s an interracial church. Those were only dreams for Martin Luther King. Black head coaches. Black quarterbacks. Quarterbacks at places like Georgia and Alabama and Clemson. For Martin Luther King, that was just a dream. Black CEOs, NBA owners, you name it. Unbelievable.”
These comments by Swinney were part of a response related to questions about the protest during the National Anthem by then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Swinney wasn’t really supportive of his Clemson players demonstrating in a similar fashion. His comments led to invoking the name of Martin Luther King, Jr., who Swinney also said that he didn’t if “there’s ever been a better man or better leader”. He should have led it there regarding King as Swinney later brings up flawed notions of Black “progress” including Barack Obama being a two-term president, black head coaches in sports, black quarterbacks, and black CEOs as “dreams for Martin Luther King”. It is just a guess but I think King cared more about poverty, militarism, and social justice than the first Black president continuing the corporatism and imperialism of the Democrat and Republican parties. Martin Luther King would note the progress that has been made in some areas of social justice and would not be as content as Swinney sounded.
–May 2019-“I just try to be great where my feet are. That’s my focus every day. Who knows? They may do away with college football in three years. There may be no college football. They may want to professionalize college athletics. Well, then, maybe I’ll go to the pros. If I’m going to coach pro football, I might as well do that. I may get a terrible president or a terrible AD one day. I don’t know. I have no idea what’s down the road. But I know what we have at Clemson is special, and I wanted to make a commitment to the university. That’s what the message of the contract was.”
This quote is during an ESPN.com article in which Swinney was asked about potentially going to coach at Alabama, his alma mater. The part to focus on is when Swinney says “professionalize college athletics”. In 2019, college athletes getting potentially more room to profit off of their name, likeness, and image was a major story. It is safe to assume by the growing notion that college athletes, in particular college football and college basketball athletes, should finally receive money beyond the long held notion of a “free scholarship” as adequate compensation. Swinney made this statement as the highest paid head coach in college football and a multimillionaire, implying he would have a problem with his college football players getting even anything resembling a salary for the work they put in. Dabo Swinney’s comments here look extra hypocritical given he had agreed to a mammoth $93 million contract in April of 2019.
–April 2020-“I’ll leave it to the smart people to figure out the doomsday scenarios. We’ve got one scenario, and that’s to run down that hill and kick it off in the valley.”
These remarks by Dabo Swinney were related to his optimism about Clemson’s college football season starting on time in September amid questions about sports events due to COVID-19. It is good to be optimistic but a bit careless not mention the importance of the health and safety of his players as it relates to protecting them from the coronavirus. He would be better off taking a wait-and-see approach because the virus will make the schedule and he won’t. Dabo Swinney is a great football coach but has shown to be reckless and foolish in many comments.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines