COLUMBIA, S.C. _ It wasn't a great week for Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football program.
It wasn't a great week for many college or pro sports coaches across the country whose comments in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minnesota drew more criticism than praise.
Yes, college coaches are hired to win games and win championships. But they're also given the task of molding teenagers into young men _ many of whom are African American _ and standing with them during difficult times.
Perhaps that's why so many media personalities and critics spoke out against Swinney's Monday remarks.
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas told The State that if coaches can take a stand against NCAA issues or to raise money for charities, they should have no problem taking a strong stand with their players now. College coaches are often among the most powerful men in their states, he said, citing Swinney as an example.
"They have an elevated platform," Bilas said. "There's no reason why coaches shouldn't speak out or feel reluctant to speak out on issues of social justice and specifically issues of systemic racism and police brutality against the African American community. I feel that that's a responsibility. It doesn't mean they have to. I don't see it as a requirement. But I cannot imagine a legitimate reason why they should feel they couldn't."
Most ACC and SEC coaches had issued public comments against racism by the time Swinney spoke with reporters Monday about what happened to Floyd, who died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.
"I know that we are all hurting for the Floyd family and our country. I can speak for our entire staff and our entire team in that regard, for sure," Swinney said. "We have all witnessed just disgusting acts of evil. That's really the only word I can appropriately use over the past recent week here and beyond."
Swinney then spoke largely about forgiveness and faith.
"I didn't agree with it," Bilas said of Swinney's comments. "I think it could've been more artfully stated and more forcefully stated that we, as a society, need to put an end to police brutality against African Americans and an end to systemic racism. That's a pretty simple statement that needs to be made."
During his opening remarks to reporters, Swinney said the word "racism" once _ "When 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," he said.
For comparison, Swinney said "forgive" or "forgiveness" seven times as he spoke about his faith and the Bible.
Swinney also answered questions for about 20 minutes and did not mention "police" or "police brutality" once. He didn't mention racism again after his opening statement.
"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," Fox Sports 1's Shannon Sharpe said Tuesday on the "Undisputed" TV show.
"When Colin Kaepernick did what he did, (Dabo) didn't say 'we.' He said, 'I feel this is a distraction.' He spoke in personal tense. Now when it comes to this, 'We've got challenges.'"
Sharpe said he has a relationship with Swinney and sends him text messages regularly, but he "vehemently disagrees" with what Swinney said Monday.
"He wants to put everything in a biblical sense. ... What did they do in biblical times? When you committed murder what happened? Since you want things in biblical terms, what happened?" Sharpe asked rhetorically. "I'm so disappointed that he gave this weak sauce. A man was brutally murdered on national television and this is all you give us. I'm so disappointed in coach. I really am."
Those comments from Sharpe were made before former Clemson tight end D.J. Greenlee revealed to The State on Tuesday that tight ends coach Danny Pearman used the N-word with Greenlee during a practice in 2017. Pearman acknowledged the incident occurred and apologized publicly, but Swinney, Athletics Director Dan Radakovich and Clemson University made no further comment.
That revelation led to more heat on Swinney from national pundits.
"Swinney demands accountability from his players, but where is it when a coach does something to those players?" ESPN's Bomani Jones said on "Outside The Lines." "This is unsettling on many levels."
Former Clemson player Kanyon Tuttle brought the incident involving Pearman and Greenlee to light with a Twitter post Tuesday. He explained Friday why he spoke up.
Tuttle, whose father Perry starred at Clemson, said he couldn't remain silent after Swinney's Monday comments.
"It's disheartening to see the person who instilled 'Best is (the) Standard' into the community, and preached to his players to always do right even if everyone else is doing wrong, fail to do the right thing when it comes to speaking up for your players' rights," Kanyon Tuttle posted on Twitter. "Many of your players have been loyal to the paw for the betterment of your brand. Your players deserve for you to return the favor and use your platform to protect our brand, the color of our skin."
There are efforts being made around Clemson's campus to stand up against racism and bring about change.
A petition was started last week to change the name of Tillman Hall on the university's campus. The building is named after Ben Tillman, a noted white supremacist. Clemson University's website says that Tillman "bolstered the idea that white violence was justified and to be expected whenever white supremacy was challenged."
The petition has more than 1,500 signatures as of early Saturday afternoon.
On Thursday, members of the Tigers men's basketball team took a knee for a moment of silence in remembrance of George Floyd. And there are plans being made for the Clemson football team to take part in an on-campus peaceful protest next weekend, a source told The State.
Still, some feel that Swinney should be more involved and more vocal.
When asked by a reporter Monday how Swinney wanted to make a difference, not just with his team but in the Clemson community and in the Upstate, Swinney responded: "The best thing that we can do is for people to be able to point to our team and see hopefully what the world wants, and to see people who love and respect each other and sometimes disagree but aren't disagreeable. ... That's the best thing that we can do for our community is, be good examples of all of those things."
As college coaches around the country take action by participating in protests with their teams and being outspoken on the issues, being a good example isn't good enough in the eyes of some.
It remains to be seen what effect, if any, the comments from Swinney _ or the Pearman incident _ have on Clemson's current team. Some Clemson players have been vocal though social media about the Tillman Hall name change needing to take place, and many have shown support for protests happening around the country.
No players have been made available for media interviews since March. The Tigers are slated to begin voluntary workouts Monday.
"Our team is hurting. I communicated with them last week. And our staff is amazing," Swinney said Monday. "We absolutely, absolutely, absolutely must come together."
