Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney seems to make matters worse for himself by the day following the death of George Floyd and amid the ongoing national protests against racial injustice.
Swinney remained silent while many college coaches around the country spoke out against racism. When Swinney did issue a statement, the words seemed to fall short. His former players began to call him out by suggesting one of his staff members used a racial slur, and that Swinney did nothing about it at the time.
A “Football Matters” t-shirt has made things more complicated for Swinney.
According to a tweet from @OUSooner2010 that has since been deleted, Swinney was wearing a shirt with the slogan “Football Matters” on Saturday. The Twitter user shared a photo of Swinney at a pool where he was wearing the poorly phrased shirt, which — if he did wear it on Saturday — feels especially tone deaf with Black Lives Matter leading a large number of protests against racism. Here’s a look at the shirt.
It appears the tweet was deleted. Here you go. pic.twitter.com/wwcuEWZ8dh
— Elika Sadeghi (@elikasadeghi) June 6, 2020
Swinney has a previous connection with “Football Matters.” The coach used the phrase in a statehouse speech, which was an effort to celebrate the 2016 Tigers football team after their national championship. Swinney’s quarterback Trevor Lawrence said on Twitter that Swinney has worn the shirt for quite some time, and that it’s not meant to mock BLM.
Coach Swinney’s shirt, in any way, is not mocking the Black Lives Matter movement. He has been wearing the shirt for months in meetings.
— Trevor Lawrence (@Trevorlawrencee) June 7, 2020
Regardless of what the shirt is about and what the past context is, the possibility that he has continued to wear it is befuddling. It may not be related to Black Lives Matter, but considering the importance of the movement and the phrase at this moment, Swinney should take the shirt out of his rotation.
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