Among the buzz surrounding the NCAA canceling its ban on student-athletes profiting from their name, image or likeness, comments Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney made seven years ago have resurfaced.
In a post-practice interview from 2014, Swinney was asked about athletes unionizing. His response ended up having quite the shelf life.
"As far as paying players, professionalizing college athletics, that's where you lose me," he said. "I'll go do something else, because there's enough entitlement in this world as it is. To say these guys get nothing totally devalues an education. It just blows my mind people don't even want to quantify an education."
The remarks have since resurfaced most times in recent years when there's a major development related to compensating college athletes. They came back into circulation Thursday, and some interpreted them to mean that Swinney was against the NCAA's new NIL policy, causing the Tigers' head coach to become a trending sports topic on Twitter and in the sports world.
Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey was one of those to bring up the old quote.
"Didn't Dabo say he was going to quit if athletes could get paid?" Humphrey posted to Twitter.
On Thursday morning, Clemson running back Darien Rencher appeared on the "Packer and Durham" show on the ACC Network to talk about the new NIL policy. The sixth-year senior indicated that Swinney was in support of the ruling.
"I know he kind of catches some things that get out of context, but he's excited for us to make the most of this opportunity," said Rencher, who was one of a few Tigers student-athletes present for South Carolina's ceremonial NIL bill signing in June. "He's equipping us with everything, as much as they can on their end to make sure we have as much content, as much connections as we can."
Swinney has spoken previously in support of more scholarship benefits or greater stipend money for athletes. He and other Clemson coaches are not expected to address the media in any capacity until July 20 at the earliest, according to a school spokesman.
