Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney drew a ton of criticism on Saturday after a photo of him surfaced online showing him on vacation and wearing a peculiar t-shirt.
Swinney, a two-time national champion, was spotted on vacation wearing a “Football Matters” shirt and many saw it as being incredibly tone deaf and insensitive during a time when Black Lives Matter is at the forefront of discussion.
Swinney hasn’t spoken out about it, but one of his players are coming to his defense.
Clemson star quarterback Trevor Lawrence took to Twitter early Sunday morning to defend his head coach.
“Coach Swinney’s shirt, in any way, is not mocking the Black Lives Matter movement. He has been wearing the shirt for months in meetings,” Lawrence wrote on Twitter.
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Swinney spoke about ‘football matters’ mantra during a 2017 speech at the South Carolina State House, via WIS-TV:
“Football matters,” Swinney said. “It matters. I tell people all the time when I go speak. Football matters. It’s one of the last great positive influences in young people’s lives. They don’t get it in their music, their social media. They don’t get it in a lot of other areas, but in the game of football, it’s still hard work.”
Football Matters is also a campaign started by the National Football Foundation.
