The night of December 31, 2015 was probably the first time that others with an informal interest in school football had noticed much about Dabo Swinney, and for the most part, America enjoyed what it saw.
His show, the Clemson Tigers, was the new kid on the block and he would soon play Alabama in a classic national championship game that foreshadowed a decade-long rivalry. Winney himself was a new welcome face for the sport. buttoned and corporate, Swinney was attractive, folkloric and relaxed. Unlike many of his colleagues who treat media obligations as an imposition on his ability to watch the same game movie for 2000th time this week, Swinney can turn any factor into a soliloquie and a story.
The more Clemson won, the more Swinney won, and the older he grew, the more we heard him talk and talk. And talk. And he speaks, to the point where we’ve learned more about his worldview for over the more than five years than all his fellow Division I coaches put together.
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But the more Swinney spoke, the less he projected the symbol of the fun-loving new-age program author explaining his rise from training out of nowhere, and the more he gave the impression of being stubborn, ill-informed and out of the ordinary. Touch.
As Clemson prepares for his sixth consecutive playoff appearance in Friday’s Sugar Bowl semi-final against Ohio State, with the aim of winning his third national name of that era, Swinney will finish 2020 as arguably the sport’s top polarizing figure. He explained this year in school football, from the pandemic to racial inequality and something as insignificant as the way he voted in the Amway Coach survey, Swinney has analyzed the controversy and doubled, and that doesn’t seem to worry him in the slightest.
“He will stand firm in his beliefs and, in fact, may not be politically correct,” said Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables.
Give Swinney this: no matter what he says at any given time, you know it comes from an original place. That’s as true now that he has two championships and a $9 million-a-year contract as he did a decade ago, when he seemed to be a short-term head coach.
The difference now is that Swinney is the face of the game right next to Nick Saban, so other people pay attention more often. But unlike Saban, who has made controversy avoiding an art form, Swinney clarifies nothing, even on sensitive issues where he knows it will make him the target of complaints and taunts.
And, frankly, in 2020, he earned it. Check out some of his hits of the year:
– When the pandemic first struck and everything in school sports was canceled for the foreseeable future, Swinney in April “had no doubt that we were going to play and that the stands would be full” and that “we will get up and kick this thing in our teeth and move back into our lives. “Why are you so sure? Because we are America, for God’s sake, and “we have stormed the beaches of Normandy. We sent a rover to Mars and walked to the moon. “
– In June, when school athletes across the country protested racial injustice and discussed prejudice in the police after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Swinney was extraordinarily brief when he had the opportunity to give his own answer. “What I know for the subject. The point of view of religion is that where there are people, there will be hatred, there will be racism, greed, jealousy and crime and so on because we live in a fallen and sinful world,” he says in a foolish deviation that has been recorded as a punch for some of his formerjugators.
– Swinney’s insufficient reaction led a former player to reveal that assistant coach Danny Pearman used a racial insult practice in 2017. While the insult was not directed at the player, it was transparent that the incident had not been addressed at the time through Swinney to the satisfaction of several players who had witnessed him. Finally, Pearman apologized.
– A few days later, a photograph appeared on Swinney’s Twitter page in a pool dressed in a “Football Matters” T-shirt, a slogan that was part of a National Football Foundation campaign. Given the context of racial justice protests taking a position across the country, it has not gone well on social media. Winney stated that “any insinuation that I was looking to make the ‘Black Lives Matter’ motion laugh is just an attack on my character,” which is really believable. for such a well-known person, not understanding how misunderstood “Football Matters” would be at the time made him seem distant. Later, Swinney joined the players in a social justice march and admitted to reporters: “I’m ashamed to say there are things on this campus that I didn’t understand. I knew the basics, but not the details. But I learned and listened. “
– On the morning of November 21, when Clemson was already in Tallahassee preparing to play in Florida State, the Seminoles canceled the game because a Tigers player traveling with the team tested positive for COVID-19. and then between schools, with Swinney finally accusing the Seminoles of dodging the game. “This was not canceled because of COVID, ” he said. ” COVID just an excuse to cancel the game. “In the midst of a pandemic season in which everyone has to take the punches, it’s petty and unnecessary to decide on this fight, but Dabo did it anyway because in the end he still couldn’t attend the fight.
In a world where coaches and systems will have to be consistently packaged and sold to recruits, who are more socially conscious and potentially more empowered for their own lucrative brands in the world of name, symbol and likeness, Swinney is an anomaly.
He has constantly denounced the professionalization of college athletics as he shrugs to earn $9 million and says it is not he who defines the market. A few years ago, he shot down Colin Kaepernick for the national anthem and advised him because America elected a black president twice, the challenge of racism in this country would possibly not be so serious. And this year, his comments on COVID-19 were strange, non-existent and totally false.
Even if other coaches believed those things, Maximum wouldn’t dare say them out loud. Winney does, making him a hero to a fairly vital segment of society and completely unbearable to all. In the meantime, recruit and win. Whatever controversy it generated through Dabo’s mouth, so far it has had no effect on his program.
“We all knew what kind of man Dabo was, ” said defensive punchline Myles Murphy. “What the foreigners said about our coach, we didn’t really do. “
Five years ago, dabo Swinney didn’t seem very likely to be the biggest lightning rod in school sports. They were all back and hosannas at the time; a burgeoning show and a coach who made it a lot of fun.
But it’s different when you get to the sport’s sensible thing, and if Swinney wins his third name in the coming weeks, it’ll be bigger than ever. In a year in which he makes an embarrassing mistake off the field. , would possibly finish his greatest achievement.