“Love Doesn’t see Color… Hate Does” Dabo Swinney

BY: Makenna Beihl & Zachary Carter

Recently, a lot of attention has been brought to Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney. Negative comments were made towards Swinney after tweets came out from DJ Greenlee stating that assistant coach, Danny Pearman used a racial slur during a practice. As Swinney started to receive hate, current and former Clemson football players stood up for their coach by sharing their opinions on their coach. From sharing stories to just talking about Swinney’s character, players made sure to show the world what a great guy is leading the Clemson football program. Swinney later released a statement through the Clemson football Twitter saying, “We are all hurting for the Floyd family and our country. I can speak for our entire staff and our team in that regard. We have all witnessed disgusting acts of evil – that’s really the only word I can appropriately use – over the past week here and beyond. To address it for me, everything for me goes back to my faith. That’s where I draw my peace from, that’s where I draw my hope from … What I know, as I approach everything from a perspective of faith, is that where there are people, there’s gonna be hate, there’s gonna be racism and greed and jealousy and crime and so on because we live in a sinful, fallen world. We’ve had so much bad news … but really today, I just wanted to take a moment and offer some good news. For me, the good news is we have a Lord that loves us all … Love doesn’t see color – hate does.”

   This was just the beginning for Swinney supporting his players and coaching staff during the black lives matter movement. This past Saturday, the football program help run the march for change, where players and coaches got to speak to the Clemson community. Swinney came out at the event and said, “This is beautiful, and I just appreciate everyone supporting this community today. Clemson is a special place, and we see again what that is today,” Swinney said. “This is a historic time and a challenging time, but as I tell my team all the time, the challenge is what creates change.” He stands by his players and supports them completely as they fight for what is right.

   But, one person who has looked past all of Swinney’s good acts towards his players and the community is Shannon Sharpe. Sharpe came out saying, “I wish he’d have said nothing because he said nothing. I’m expecting him to speak from his heart and he gets up there and says, ‘I know we’re all hurting.’ Nobody asked you about ‘we.’ This is you.” Although Sharpe has come out with hateful comments towards Swinney, the Clemson community continues to support their coach and the choices he has made in recent days.