Dabo Swinney wouldn't approve of a player using team as a platform for protest
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney won’t hand out any discipline if one (or more) of his players demonstrated during a pre-game national anthem in solidarity with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. But the lack of discipline doesn’t mean he’d be good with the protest.
“I don’t think it’s good to be a distraction to your team,” Swinney said Tuesday when he was asked about Kaepernick during his weekly press conference. “I don’t think it’s good to use the team as the platform. I totally disagree with that. Nobody’s really asked me about Kaepernick or whatever. I totally disagree with that. Not his protest, but I just think there’s a right way to do things and I don’t think two wrongs make a right. Never have, never will. And I think that it just creates more divisiveness, more division.”
Kaepernick once again didn’t stand for the national anthem before the 49ers game Monday night in his protest of systemic oppression of racial minorities.
Swinney said he’d prefer his players take a stand “on their own time.”
“The only thing I’m going to discipline my player for is things within this team and the team rules and those type of things, holding everyone accountable to the team standard,” Swinney said. “If guys want to go be a part of things I just think they should do it on their own time and outside of the team framework.”
The comments – including those regarding activism outside the team framework – from the outspoken and devoutly Christian coach are notable because he has been criticized for using his team as a platform for Christianity.
In 2014, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a complaint to Clemson after its own investigation into the role of Christianity in the football program at the publicly-funded university and said the Clemson football program shows favoritism to Christianity over all other religions.
It uncovered a host of issues, from Swinney directly hiring the team chaplain (even Clemson policy says the players should choose), to coaches participating in testimonials and bible studies, to buses being organized to transport the entire team to “Church Day” at a local Baptist Church.
The letter, in great detail, cites various university policies and case law that are violated by these actions. It’s a thorough letter. And it goes after Swinney, who it claims as a public employee is barred from participating in any official capacity in the religious activities of his players or underlings.
Swinney responded to the organization’s complaint by saying all faiths were welcome in his program.
Swinney, who said he hated to see how divided the country has become, cited Martin Luther King Jr. and the Bible as examples of how the nation could be less divided when expounding on his comments regarding the anthem protest.
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While the Bible certainly has life lessons applicable to anyone regardless of affiliation (including an extremely important one Swinney mentioned), the commandment to “love the Lord” doesn’t apply to a significant minority of the population.
“You look at — I think one of the greatest leaders this world has ever seen is Martin Luther King,” Swinney said. “I don’t know if there’s ever been a better man or better leader. And to me, he changed the world through love in the face of hate. He changed the world through peace in the face of violence. He changed the world through education in the face of ignorance. And he changed the world through Jesus. And boy, that’s politically incorrect. That’s what he did. And it’s amazing that when you don’t learn from the past you can repeat your mistakes.
“And the Bible says the two greatest commandments, if we all lived by those a lot of problems would go away. It says love the Lord with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul. And the second one is love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
And isn’t Kaepernick following in King’s Christian example by engaging in a peaceful and victimless demonstration to bring attention to the cause of racial injustice? Yes, many people are outraged that the quarterback has somehow disrespected the symbolism that is the national anthem and its accompanying patriotic imagery. But the only thing he’s hurt are the feelings of those who hold symbols in such high regard.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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