Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has been back in front of the media recently as the Tigers have kicked off spring practice.
One of the most interesting topics Swinney was asked about was the professionalization of college athletics, which is something Swinney has been adamantly against. This was once again a topic of discussion, with the Tigers head coach discussing his worries with the direction college football is going. For Swinney, education is essential.
“The best thing for coaches, in the kind of world we are in right now, is for them to be employees. The worst thing? Is for them to be employees,” Swinney said. “That is not a world we want for eighteen-year-olds. I think we lost our way.”
Swinney isn’t against NIL, and he’s made it clear. It’s the things surrounding it that concern the future Hall of Famer.
“I think the NIL is awesome. I really am (for it),” he said. “I am all for enhancing the scholarship however you want, but I also understand the reality that ninety-eight percent of these kids are not going to play in the NFL. We need to educate our young people in this society. Nobody talks about the value of an education anymore.”
It’s always interesting to hear Swinney discuss these things because, in many ways, it does feel like a lost point of view that should be more relevant when you consider how crazy and seemingly unregulated everything appears to be surrounding NIL. Swinney wants his players to succeed during and after their football careers.
“I just want to see us incentivize education. There are so many things we can do,” he said. “We can create 401ks, like the real world, right? If you take your money out early, there is a penalty.
“These are 18-year-old kids leaving home for the first time in their life. We are sometimes setting them up for failure.”
When Swinney says things like these, many people seem to take it the wrong way for various different reasons. Regardless of how you feel about his words, it’s coming from a place of sincerity.
“There will be a lot that will come down the pipe down the road,” he said. “I love what I do. I love the challenge of it. I love the challenge of putting the team together and focusing on my guys. Focusing on helping fulfill the purpose of this program and really the purpose of my life, which is to glorify God, to be a great husband and father, and to use this platform of education and football to build great men.
“That is my purpose. That is what I do. That is what I wake up and do. That is what drives me. None of the rest of it drives me. That is what has always driven me. None of that has changed.”